16/09/2020
I’m engrossed in the second series of the fabulous BBC podcast series "13 Minutes to the Moon", about the near disaster of Apollo 13 in April, 1970.
Apollo 13 should have been the 3rd manned Moon landing, but an oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from earth, on its way there, which scuppered the mission and left the crew’s lives hanging by a thread, until they thankfully did splash down safely. It was a team effort involving both the skill of the crew and the knowledge, commitment and organisation of the engineers on the ground who figured out a whole sequence of solutions and processes to enable the successful crew return.
The Apollo program cost $25.4 billion (at 1970's values) and should have included 7 moon landings, so $3.6 billion each mission. The part that wrecked Apollo 13 was a wrongly specified thermostatic switch probably costing under $50, and some mishandling in assembly which had happened over a year before the flight.
Apollo 13 is an extreme example, but in the same way something small that’s wrong in your cyber defences can allow a malware attack which could cost you a load of time, money, reputation, or even your business.
Even if we aren’t flying to the Moon, we should all be reaching for it. Proper cyber security can enable business opportunities as well as protecting the ones you already have.
If you’d like stellar Cyber Security, let’s talk. Better than having to call Mission Control with the message “We have a problem...” after the explosion’s happened!
(Image credit: NASA)
