Two weeks ago, I noted that it was a boring start to the New Year and just the same ‘ol grind here. Then, something interesting happened…little gremlins hacked the TRULINCS platform. TRULINCS is the point of communication for us inmates. The system manages our snail mail, email, and telephone communications (this is where Corrlinks exists)…tracks and accounts for any commissary money and wages…connects television and radio tuners. For nearly two weeks of hackery, our communication system was offline. While the telephones sporadically worked, I was nearly untethered from the outside world. Technically, I could not send any snail mail since the labels required to be printed were offline. After being in prison for 14 months, I’m used to being at the beckoning of a defunct system and having low expectations for quick resolve. As I often read, processing time in any DMV is like the Daytona 500 compared to the wait time in the Board of Prisons…with all the erroneous errors and inconsistencies.
The only “official status” posted indicated that the system was down for the unforeseeable future. There was no mention of a hack, which came from confirmation from telephone calls with family. During this system hack, I was completing my reentry as a draft email. ***A prison hack for typing something formal is to draft it on the email system, which allows the document to be saved. After it is saved, it can be printed. Then, it has to be re-formatted so that the margins of the paper are not .25 inches with a type font of 9 point…which is pretty small. Once the printed document is re-formatted, it is then copied at 115% which will make the font 12 point or standard sized. This process takes time and careful planning to perfect it. Thankfully, my 7 page reentry plan drafted on 4 different emails was preserved after the whole ordeal…
Cybercrime is an extremely challenging issue. It requires advanced sophistication and mastery of programming systems and coding languages, which is why anti-virus programs and “firewalls” safeguard these systems. However, those technical protections must be current and well ahead of the hacker’s skillset. Recently, I read that a few casinos in Las Vegas were hacked, where the operating system remained offline and within the helm of the hackers. One casino chain paid tens of millions of dollars to have their system back online. During the event, this particular casino chain did not notify the public of the breach. They were able to quietly recover their system and make necessary updates to prevent future hacks. However, another casino chain was hacked and immediately reported it to the FBI, whose strong stance is to never pay a ransom. The casino chain was offline for almost a week and lost 10x the amount of revenue than what the payment would have been.
Cybercrimes are crimes that affect us all, and most hacks do not originate in the United States, which makes prosecution of these crimes near impossible. The solution to this issue seems distant, but recent regulation will now require publicly-traded companies to have a data breach communication plan within a shorter timeframe than the current notices that are sent by email: “Two months ago, we had a breach in our system and your data may have been compromised. Sign-up for a year of free credit report monitoring with this code…” These announcements make me chuckle since two months is a long time for your data to be floating around the cyberrealm and usually you have already heard from some prince in Africa.
My final thought for this week is that if you have an iPhone, be sure to activate the Privacy Protection/Anti-Identity Theft option that just came out with the newest iPhone update. This optional service protects all your data, including financial data with any banking platforms. Google how to do it if you haven’t activated it yet. It’s really simple from what I’ve read. I wish you a healthy, wonderful, and hack-free week. Keep an eye out for those little miracles! 🙂