White Hats vs Black Hats: It's a New World

Villains and heroes. They're timeless. In life and in fiction. Without them a story contains no conflict; life lacks success as well as tragedy and struggle. When reading a story or watching a movie or playing a video game everyone cheers on the good guys and hisses at the bad ones. Still, there are even moments when we root for the villain. That flawed individual who in some way has a vulnerable side, some quality we may relate to, making him worthy of our empathy.

And that timeless point I mentioned? Well, we can go back as far as we like in history to find our villains and heroes. And they don't have to be human. There are plenty of evil forces such as nature, and with the industrial age, one very common foe is technology and machines. Remember the old west? All those cowboy movies and shows? If you watch a western made in the fifties you'll notice the good guys wear the white hats while the villains are sporting black hats. And this brings me to my thought ...

You know white hats and black hats have a totally new meaning. Right? Stop picturing those cowboys, folks. Instead, let's talk twenty-first century and everything techie. Today we have white hats, i.e. the computer experts who are the ethical hackers hired by companies to run security tests on their information systems. And the black hats? You guessed it. They are the hackers who can ruin your life, or at least mess with it greatly. Identity theft is one way, and remember the Sony debacle that caused so many celebs' email accounts and personal info to be hacked? Yep. Black hats. It's a totally new world. So, get on board ... or go nostalgic and find yourself a John Wayne movie to watch. That's what I'd prefer. Popcorn, anyone?

Just my musing for the day. Cheers! Enjoy reading :-)

Kathryn Long
Author of Mysteries
A Deadly Deed Grows