Hackjack

A cold dry sunny day with passing clouds and patches light drizzle in the afternoon. Kath came down to Cardiff yesterday to help her friend Emma unpack after her move from London. She popped in to leave her bag and borrow a drill bit and some Rawlplugs to hang the TV on a wall. She stopped for supper with Emma and didn't return until after midnight. It was a delight to see Kath at breakfast before going to the Eucharist at St Catherine's, leaving her to chat with Clare. She told us about Rhiannon's new used car, and how expensive it was to buy, tax and insure. A low mileage eight year old vehicle is now three times the price it would have been before covid, the impact of slow down in new vehicle sales leading to fewer used cars on the market, scarcity driving up prices. We've had our VW Polo six years and it's lost little value as a low mileage vehicle.

There were fifty adults and ten children in church, more than there has been over the summer, now that the holidays are over and school term has started.  I went straight home for lunch after the service. Kath gave us a CD of Sonrisa's latest album, just released, a dozen new songs co-written by Kath and Anto, recorded in Anto's home recording studio up in the attic - lovely sunny music, beautifully crafted.

Mid afternoon, Emma came over to collect Kath and take her back to Penylan to pick up her car, left there overnight, after she sensibly returned from wining and dining by taxi. Clare went with her, curious to see Emma's new abode for herself. I went for a walk, intending to meet up with them in the park when they got back, but by the time they made contact, it was starting to drizzle, so I headed home for tea instead. After having a snack with us, Kath took her leave and returned to Kenilworth

In the evening a new crime thriller series was premiered on BBC 1 about a cyber attack on the UK railway network and a night-sleeper train from Glasgow to London. Fortunately all six episodes are already out on iPlayer so I was able to watch tonight's and tomorrow's in fits and starts while working on a batch of bread dough for baking, walking between lounge and kitchen, Chromebook in hand. It's interesting how certain crime drama series over the past couple of years have portrayed cyber crime incidents, and the impact on politics, society and the media of AI, national security, the economy etc. 

Last night, a Swedish crimmie involving hostage taking and an aircraft's digital control infrastructure taken over by a terrorist hacker. Last year, a Belgian crimmie about bank robbery masterminded by an organised crime group exploiting a hacker. Then a couple of British deep fake dramas, one about the Russian threat, another about state corruption, and now this one about a threat to national infrastructure. 

All of these dramas offer an insight into what happens behind the scenes in a world which is totally alien to most people. If a computer has ever had problems with viruses, leading to account loss, identity theft and money stolen, the idea of it being hijacked will be familiar. This evening's drama gave us a new word 'hackjack', to describe a major component of digital infrastructure being taken over by malicious actors. I don't know if this is jargon actually used by experts on combating cybercrime. I tried googling the word and the only results displayed were related to this series. Will the word go viral now? We'll see.