Call On Your Cell Phone ...

I heard it on the radio. Not the grape vine. It was part of some kind of advertisement or announcement. I don't remember which, but that's not important. What mattered was that for participation in the particular program all you had to do was call or register on your cell phone.

And only a few days before that I received an announcement from the Social Security Administration that they were implementing a new program that was designed to increase security by posting passwords to your cell phone. (See "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify," – August 1, 2016.)   The password would change with each use, so it would make hacking more difficult. All you had to do was request a password on your computer when you wanted to access your mySocialSecurity account, and they would send a one-use password to access the site. Brilliant.

Unfortunately there are problems. I don't have a cell phone. They've developed the program with the assumption that everyone has one, and it just ain't so. (They also require texting ability which limits the audience still further.) Even a computer is considerably less than universal. I suspect there are other ways than cell phones with texting to get the information provided, since there is a question in their FAQ section dealing with this particular issue. However when that question is “clicked” all that is provided is information about how to contact them. No answer to the question. I didn't pursue the issue because I didn't really care. I don't have a “mySocialSecurity” account. Actually I didn't even know those accounts existed – though the program probably provides lots of taxpayer-supported jobs for voters – and I've done very well without participation.

That's not the point, though. What is really involved is the assumption that everyone has a cell phone, and knows how to text. It's called “progress,” and it's clear that it's the way we're headed. There was a time when the assumption that we had a refrigerator, or a telephone, or even electricity, was unreasonable, but they are now, along with television and such things, the basic implements of our culture, and soon enough the texting telephone, and devices we haven't even thought of, will be ubiquitous as well.

But we're not there yet. Every other day we hear about a computer system that's been hacked or fails for some other reason. A few days ago I heard on a travel program that it was best to make a hard copy of your airline boarding pass before going to the airport and not relying on what's on your cell phone. That would allow you to check in even if there's a computer failure.

And, as if on cue, Delta's computers were down this morning – they blamed it on an electrical problem – and they were forced to delay or cancel numerous flights. I don't know if the paper boarding passes were of any value, but the situation demonstrated the risks of relying on computers and cell phones. And it's hardly the first time this has happened. It seems that every couple of weeks there is a problem with the computer system of one airline or another, or the hacking of some business's computer system, along with credit card and Social Security numbers. Plenty of room for identity theft, the crime most in vogue right now. As is the theft and ransoming of data on a wide variety of devices.

Even worse is the hacking of the computers of Government bureaus and public officials. Much of it is done as part of spying programs – both political and industrial – and the identification of agents has cost the lives of many on all sides, along with other necessary state secrets. (We pride ourselves on “transparency,” but there is probably no greater enemy of international diplomacy than that. Nowadays WikiLeaks is providing the transparency.) Of less human consequence is the loss of industrial secrets and intellectual property, though these are also significant casualties in the modern competition between good and bad.

I don't mean to suggest that modern technology is bad. While I may be a troglodyte, I recognize what is happening. And I guess it's a good thing. (I can't stop it anyway, so why waste my time? Que sera, sera.) Just as telephones became standard, so will computers and cell phones. But perhaps we're moving too fast. We're responding to marketing rather than common sense. Perhaps we're so determined to have the latest and the best that we're less concerned about the safest. And we're suffering for it. It's time to stop, take a deep breath, and count to seven (we rush even that).

It's one thing to perfect our spying in order to deal with other countries and to protect our own security and systems, but it's quite another to put our own data and civilization at risk. However important progress is, we're better off if we devote our best brains to protecting ourselves before we let the glamour of modern toys make us vulnerable to those who would take advantage of us.

Can I borrow your cell phone to report the problem?