Several years ago I wrote a couple of posts about things that scare the crap out of me. I remember during that time there had been a large number of "wrong way" drivers on the expressways in the United States. If you're not sure what that means, just imagine traffic heading towards each other in the same lane at 75 MPH and you probably get the idea.
Growing up, there were any number of things that scared me. I used to be terrified of tornadoes. I was afraid that one was going to come and take away all my toys. We didn't have a basement, just a pretty nasty crawlspace, so the thought of having to go into that wasn't very appealing either.
Speaking of basements, I was also pretty terrified of radon gas back in the day. My hats off to whoever made the commercials for radon gas back in the day. Like I said, we didn't even have a basement and you had me fully convinced I was going to die from radon.
I remember pretty clearly I was a bit of a wimp about paranormal stuff too. Don't get me wrong, it still freaks me out, but I remember when those Mysteries of the unknown commercials for the Time/Life book set would come on. I would turn the channel right away. You have to remember, back then there were no remotes, so I had to physically get up and change the channel. For a kid/young teen, that was kind of a big deal.
These days, I find paranormal stuff more fascinating than anything. I have to admit, there are still some aspects that scrap the crap out of me though.
As an adult, the things that keep us up at night definitely shift. With the banks on the verge of collapse, civil wars all over the place, and the fact that my wife and I work in a public school district where a mass shooting could happen at any given time, it's clear there is a lot to be worried about.
Take the photo above for example. As the Technology Director for a public school district it is pretty easy to understand why flash drives might scare me. With viruses, malware, spyware, and mostly ransomware being so rampant these days, it is a wonder I allow these devices into my environment at all.
As scary as all of those things are, now there is another aspect that I have to be worried about. I was reading an article on ARS Technica the other day talking about how one of five journalists in Ecuador received a USB drive in the mail. They plugged the device into their computer and it promptly exploded.
Thankfully, the user only suffered mild hand and face injuries, but it is still a pretty scary event. I am sure they are going to think twice about plugging any USB device into their computer in the future. Let alone an unsolicited one from an unknown source.
Authorities are saying that only half of the RDX (T4) in the device detonated and that likely saved their life.
Another one used an adapter to plug the device in and because the voltage was too low it didn't detonate.
It's pretty clear these attacks are politically motivated and an attempt to silence a specific group of journalists. That being said, with explosives becoming more compact and more powerful, it isn't unbelievable that we might see other incidents like this happen.
Now, I really don't think one of these devices is going to end up in the hands of one of my students or teachers. At least not in my neck of the woods, but then again, you never know...
What scares the !@#$!@#$ out of you? Let's talk about it in the comments?