Tonight while I was handing out candy on Halloween as the children came to the door trick-or-treating getting whatever candy I’ve not yet eaten. I started thinking about scary stories the security universe. Some of the things we do in Security could be compared to the old fable of the cursed monkey’s paw, which is one of my favorite stories.
For those who don’t know what this story is, the quick version of the story is essentially there is a monkey’s paw, an actual severed appendage of a monkey (it’s not some sort of figurative item). It has some fingers on it that may or may not signify the number of wishes used. The paw is indestructible, the previous owner doesn’t want it, but can’t get rid of it until some unsuspecting suckers shows up. The idea is you make a wish you get three wishes or five or whatever depending upon the version of the story that’s told (these old folk tales can differ greatly depending on what part of the world is telling them) and then the monkey paw gives you exactly what you asked for. The problem is what you asked for comes with horrifying consequences. For example there was an old man who had the paw and he asked for $200, the next day he got his $200 because his son was killed at work and they brought him $200 of his last paycheck. Of course there’s different variants of this but the basic idea is the paw seems clever, it grants wishes, but every wish comes with terrible consequences.
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