Re:America Is Being Held for Ransom. It Needs to Fight Back
by taylodl on Tuesday September 21, 2021 @04:51PM
(#28609768)
It's easy for politicians and business leaders to build shiny new things. Politicians get voter approval, business leaders get board approval. Everyone is happy. The ongoing maintenance of these things? Nobody wants to get involved in that - up and down the ranks. Politicians and business leaders don't get the accolades they seek, the rank and file don't get the CV enhancements they seek. So everything slowly falls apart until things get so bad we get to destroy the old and build shiny new. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. This is the origin of the old adage "things have to get worse before they'll get better."
I agree with this, but not for your reasons. We've sacrificed competent engineering for the sake of cutting costs. Much of the problem with ransomware can be combatted by building resilient systems and maintaining them, but that means spending money on system administrators and similar roles.
The race to the bottom-line causes things like this. It's starting to show up in things like our electric grid and water/sewer systems now. Money that should be spent on maintaining and improving infrastructure, both physical and technological, has been reallocated to new and sexier projects.