WHERE IN THE
WORLD CAN I GET SOME PRIVACY?
Increasingly people are nervous
about surfing the Web for a variety of reasons.
Revelations about snooping by many governments on all of their
citizens on even the most innocent of internet activities has
probably already ruined the profits of many companies as people
become very wary about which internet provider, which security
software, which server provider they choose for their business.
Industrial and commercial espionage through electronic eavesdropping
and hacking have never had it so good. It's a golden age for
government snooping, for piracy and for internet terrorism.
As I write this blog, entities and terrorists are already plotting
how to 'blow up' nuclear reactors, how to bring down civilian planes,
how to crash stock markets worldwide, how to cut off life support
systems in critical environments simply by disabling safety
thresholds or corrupting programs - how to set 'time bombs' with long delay 'intelligent' fuses and all via the internet.
The concept of the destruction or corruption of software
authentication systems via the internet may not be as remote nor far
removed from the movies as once imagined.
Having said all of that there is one positive note. Despite the wide availability of, say, for example, knowledge of how to construct highly accurate projectile devices, few individuals with such knowledge have been one can short of a six pack to the extent of offering their services to serious fanatics, political and religious extremists or others clearly over the hedge.
It is a positive development that laws have been
introduced to make such access for the purposes of crashing, for example, defense or financial systems, serious criminal offences - but such will most
certainly not deter the committed fanatical political or religious individual
or groups.
Where Do the Politicians Fit In?
Almost without exception, Western politicians I have encountered have absolutely no concept of what it means to be prepared to die for a cause you believe in. Of what it means to be prepared to strap explosives to an eight-year old to demolish a village market shopping area murdering all it's vendors and shoppers, to enter a maternity ward strapped with explosives, or a pregnant woman strapped with explosives entering a government building or airport terminal or a cafe to demolish it, as a symbol of her spiritual commitment. Let
us never forget, ISIS or ISIL is the product of the failure of politics,
of failed
diplomacy, of weak central administrations where tribalism and religious
extremism have been able (or allowed or encouraged) to flourish and take root, and are also the
product of the triumph of tyranny, of perceived injustices, of failed
hopes and dreams and, above all, of despairs and hopelessness amongst
the next generation who, in a world at peace, would be at high or
secondary school preparing for university rather than preparing to die
as a suicide bomber or executing helpless civilians or Prisoners of War
whom they are taught by fanatics to perceive as 'agents of Satan'. They (politicians) will grieve for their own children if directly affected but such empathy never extends to the victims of, say, the School on Peshawar’s Warsak Road or the students and academic staff at Garissa University in Kenya, or the civilians and Police Officers such as Tukaram Omble, posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra for his bravery and all so mercilessly butchered in the 2008 Mumbai attacks where the objective was to kill anyone and everyone they (the terrorists) could find, independent of and incidental to their specific targets.
With this in mind, we have a generation of Western politicians who have
never seen the bloody aftermath and carnage of the above, up close and
personal. It is such politicians with no real experience of life
(beyond perhaps playing the school bully at Private or Public school)
who then go on to enact laws to protect us all from the international
terrorism that they have little to no knowledge about other than their
schooldays swashbuckling adventure stories - where 'might is right'.
In the Shadows
Most Black Hat contributors would share
my concerns about the future - but it only takes one lone wolf - and
there are many worldwide far beyond the reach of reason and law - and
it will take much more than just drone strikes to dislodge them all - and their portable devices.
All Sparks In the Backroom
The European Union and other bodies are
introducing mandatory laws requiring all motor cars have microchip and
GPS devices installed by a particular date. So the ability to,
for example, effect an assassination by, say, disabling braking or
other systems at a critical time or juncture will take the concept of
warfare and terrorism into a new dimension.
Full 'spectrum dominance' has been
the goal of superpowers for a long time. This dream - or
nightmare - is approaching faster than the average citizen is aware.
'So Was It An Accident Then?
CNN Said That It Was?'
So, in the future, when you hear
that some notable world political or spiritual leader 'died' in a plane crash,
car accident or boating tragedy - or indeed that the airplane itself
'disappeared' or the Coca Cola machine or his fridge or cooker
or television or mobile phone or other microchip encoded device
'inexplicably' caught fire and blew up you might want to think twice
about the initial report on your reputable news network - just in
case there is more to it than just meets the eye.
Where Do I Fit Into This Brave
New World?
So where does the average citizen - you and me -
fit into this equation? The answer is nowhere I'm sorry to
say.
Independence Day
Some countries are developing their
own 'autonomous' internets completely divorced from the United States
- although this is a rather futile effort - unless you are North
Korea - and even then you cannot prevent every single fibre of your
system being 'tapped' somewhere along the line (!)
Keep Yourself Regularly
Informed On Such Issues – That Is My Advice
As the subject of individual
privacy becomes an international issue-even for the average citizen
engaged in nothing more subversive than checking the school timetable
for their child's activities on a particular day, I thought it might
be useful to provide the most up to date analysis of world privacy.
For further information you should
contact the providers of this useful guide direct. Their
reference is given at the bottom of the insert.
Please click on the image below to
be redirected - Thank You!
©Patrick
Emek, 2015
footnote:
Researchers should note that this is a project in progress. Countries will change in terms of repressive laws, internet snooping, freedom of access so do not take this as the definitive guide for all time on internet freedom.
PE
Other references
8.An interesting blog was posted by Miguel Angel Ivars Mas entitled 'Google's War Against Blogs'. Unfortunately the terrible translation from Spanish to English has distorted the narrative but if you appreciate this before reading you will get the jist of what is being said.
For Spanish readers you should go direct to the Spanish version to get a clearer picture.