Remote control risks

I slept well, waking up to a cold day of persistent light rain. Stiffness persists in my shoulders and neck muscles. It's hardly painful, but leaves me with mild tension and drowsiness. I need physio treatment.  Clare went to her study group in Penarth after breakfast, and I spent the morning reading the news and reflecting on current events, then cooking lunch in time for her return. 

Iranian hackers are credited with recent cyber attacks on networked digital refrigeration unit temperature controls destroying costly commercial frozen food and medical stocks in the EU and US recently. Britain's national cyber security centre has issued high alert warnings to network interface managers to update control software, and change default factory user names and passwords on 800 retail refrigeration units. 

So many everyday digital utilities are attached to the internet for convenience and efficiency which are vulnerable to being hacked - our dishwasher, for instance, can be controlled by mobile phone, a feature we didn't ask for and don't need. Remote management of domestic devices sounds an attractive space-age option, giving an added value to the illusion of control until it goes wrong or gets hacked. Beware of what you wish for. 

Two American bases in Britain have relocated fighters and bombers to air bases in the EU, in response to intelligence warnings about likely Iranian drone attacks. The Iranian military has used drones to attack targets across the Middle East where defensive drone swarms were used to bring down American military aircraft. No risks are being taken with American aircraft on UK soil. If drone attacks were to be repelled in British skies, the unwelcome risk of collateral damage on the ground would soon become a political issue.

I walked in the rain for over an hour as the sun was setting, wearing rain trousers for the first time since last autumn. My rain gear got soaked and the sleeves of my jacket. It was unpleasantly cold. Ashley and I chatted for an hour, in a vain attempt to trouble shoot emails arriving on his phone. Eventually I realised it's not something I can tackle unless I have the device in my hands so it'll have to wait until we next meet. The Owain rang for a chat, enthusing about his hike on Dartmoor with friends on the weekend.

The evening slipped past unobtrusively. Too late to watch anything on telly. Early bed instead.