What A Maroon

I’m sure you’re all Bugs Bunny fans. When Bugs thought he had put a scam over on someone, inevitably he said “what a maroon”, his comic take on the word “moron.” Turns out many criminal share the same thinking as Bugs – we’re all maroons!
A couple of us were talking a lunch yesterday about the $1.6 Billion that allegedly has been taken in using the Nigerian Scam over email. You know the one – Mr. So and So needs help moving money and you get a reward by helping him. There’s also the Lottery Scam – you’ve won a foreign lottery – and others that seem to suck the cash out of unsuspecting folks. Maroons!
I’m told that all the best, tightest security systems in the world can’t stop all hackers from getting in and the main reason is that many of those hacks aren’t using sophisticated tools but social engineering. In essence, they’re convincing some sucker to give up his/her password.  “Hi, I’m from IT and did you change your password – we can’t seem to get into your system to fix a registry error.”  People have no clue what the heck that is so they give up their password.

It’s funny how often honest folks don’t start in the “people are stupid” place but criminals do.  In fact, that’s sort of become my go-to test on whether something or someone is trustworthy – if they come from the “you’re a maroon” place, probably not.  Is your business making this assumption?  There’s a difference between “let’s keep it simple and intuitive for users” and “people are stupid.”  For example, I’d argue that Facebook‘s thinking on privacy is the latter while Twitter’s thinking on interface is the former.

What’s up with YOU, Doc?  How is your company approaching employees and customers?