The guys at the Tripwire State of Security blogger recently asked a bunch of infosec luminaries (and me) what our infosecurity superpower would be if Grace Hopper waved her magic wand and granted us a wish.
Here’s what I said:
“Everyone who works in computer security is already a superhero, of course. It’s just that they normally don’t feel brave enough to wear their underpants on the outside.
“My super power would be extrasignum complexitus. Through remote mind mesmerism, I would be able to look at any person about to sign up for a website and inject extended characters and symbols into their fingertips.
“That or hypnotize them into naming their pet cat ‘Rif2caiLd2Or3uG4’.”
Thanks again to the Tripwire guys for asking me to join in the fun.
You can check out what everyone else had to say over on the Tripwire blog.
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Grace Hopper a sorceress now? That would be something indeed. Of course, one might argue in the non-magical sense she was a sorceress, what with all she accomplished. I think, however, all she did was something we should all be thankful for (even those who don't really know who she is – okay, was – and what she accomplished) – anything else would only be a bonus. And… to those who enjoy history of technology (let's say computers) … and do not know: she is the one credited for having popularised the term debugging, when they (i.e. staff she was part of) removed a bug (moth? I can't remember that specific) from a mainframe so many decades ago… and yes, it was actually causing the problem.