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Young-Ha Kim at The New York Times on the lasting impact of South Korea’s ferry disaster. “Just as Chun Doo-hwan (South Korea’s former military dictator) promised, the South Korean economy took off. In 1988, we were host to the Summer Olympics in Seoul. South Koreans’ sense of national pride soared. The Sewol tragedy has called into question all of these great achievements,” Kim writes. “Many South Koreans have begun to wonder if the unfettered growth — and the lax government regulation that accompanied it — has come at too high a price. To outsiders, the Sewol disaster may seem like another tragedy that we will inevitably overcome. But here in South Korea, it feels like the country may never be the same again. It has traumatized our national psyche and undercut our self-image. It’s unlikely South Koreans will ever again trust the voice on the intercom when a disaster is unfolding.”
Brian Krebs at the Guardian on the Target data breach. “Target wants you to know that you can trust it again. But Monday's mea culpa papers over problems still endemic throughout the American retail industry: an over-reliance on in-store technology rather than cybersecurity experts in the boardroom, and a tendency to underestimate the lengths to which bad guys will go to steal anything that isn't properly nailed down," Krebs writes. "It's now clear that Target and other major retailers have been spending money in the wrong places – and that they've left a gaping hole in the internet for hackers to keep stealing yours. The retail industry has long viewed physical security as a more present and costly problem than cyber crime. But the distinction between physical and cyber security is quickly eroding, if indeed there ever was one. “