The Sentinel News, Post Office and the Internet 200915

In the last month one doctor bill and one check for electric service has gone horribly wrong. The doctor bill never got here and my check to the electric company never got there, so we were late on two bills. This is the first time in our married life of 56 years we have ever been late on paying bills.

Now I am going to be using the internet to pay all of our bills and in most cases using auto pay to do it. This is a disturbing thing to me. I keep thinking what happens if the internet crashes? Due to the pandemic and the post office I am forced to do this. My grendfather worked 40 years at the post office, when it worked well. Mail was delivered two times a day back then. He must be rolling over in his grave if he knows what has happened with his beloved post office.

Should hackers get into the internet and shut it down, we are all screwed! Paper statements for bills are now worthless. They are always behind the moment by the time they arrive (if they do) and beside that it doesn't matter what the statement says, it's what the computer says that banks and services (all on the internet) has to say that counts to them. The internet is a new thing to many of us and should the internet crash and lose data, heaven help us! It is possible that could happen and I know how it could happen. I will not disclose how, because it could give a bad actor or actors an idea and then it could come true. Let's face it, we are all dependant on a system that did not exist when many of us were born.