For a few weeks in 1982, I was convinced that space aliens were outside my house. I had irrefutable evidence: strange lights, odd noises, and the like. Of course, the lights were the neighbor's pool, and the noises were the wind. I was just a child, caught up in the hysteria of having just watched the movie Alien on cable a few nights before. I eventually grew up and accepted the reality that aliens were not going to eat me.Sometimes when I look at the security industry, I see a lot of children, quivering in their beds, sure that malicious hackers are going to eat them. The story is similar: Some "133t" hacker at Black Hat or Defcon demonstrates the latest vulnerability and the audience "oohs" and "ahhs." In the flash of a blog post, media fire up the hysteria engines and the hyperbole begins. "ATM machines are no longer secure!" "Is your money safe?" "Will terrorists take down the power grid?"

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