5 ms·

Weaponising Information: Enter an Age of Unbridled Hyperconnectivity

Ice_cream_suit 9y ago
"At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk and Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World argues....that the most transformative characteristic of the contemporary environment is the sudden onslaught of threats emerging from the dark underside of hyperconnectivity.2 It is difficult to exaggerate the degree to which hyperconnectivity enables—according to the study’s authors, researchers, and the defense-focused communities of interest and practice it consulted with—the following: Hostile or disruptive virtual mobilization worldwide; The collapse of privacy, secrecy, and operational security; Penetration, disruption, exploitation, and destruction of data storage and transmission, as well as the use of data and data-enabled systems; and finally, The unfettered manipulation of perceptions, material outcomes, and consequential strategic decisions through the strategic employment of various forms of information."
- FLUX-YOU 9y ago
  >The collapse of privacy, secrecy, and operational security; Says the same government still asking for crypto/device backdoors! Auuuuuuuugh!
  - jtbayly 9y ago
    Not sure why this is being downvotes. It was my thought, too.
letdatboicook 9y ago
I've been coining a term in my local circles called "Data Terrorism" Before I dropped out of Georgia Tech, I was going to publish a research paper explaining my reasoning for "Data Terrorism". This article didn't touch on my points, I'm focused on weaponizing personal information. Atlanta is split between two counties, and one of them (DeKalb) used to have a website which published booking information. This allowed private websites to crawl the data and setup "ransom"-esque business models (pay us to delete your entry form our site). I guess if you're ignorant, you would say "oh, well that's only for criminals"...but no. They're doing the same thing for all public records. I recently found out that my 1st grade teacher filed for bankruptcy and foreclosed on her home around 2010....and her mortgage was around 250k. This came off a simple Google search of her name. There is no reason that I should have ever known that.
- seren 9y ago
  > There is no reason that I should have ever known that. Take into account this is largely a cultural opinion. It is well know that in Norway, your salary and taxes are public. So you mosty know how much everyone is making. It is possible that something unthinkable today is tomorrow cultural norm.
  - letdatboicook 9y ago
    Yeah you're right but this is America buddy we're not worried about what's going on in Europe
  - cafard 9y ago
    In the US for most persons paid by the public sector or by assorted non-profits, the salary is public information. That's accepted as a given. So I wouldn't be surprised to be able learn the 1st-grade teacher's salary, if she is still working. But the details of her mortgage troubles?
    - jandrese 9y ago
      Even if that wasn't up on the site, it would appear at the top of any basic credit report.
- azinman2 9y ago
  Home values and bankruptcy have been public record for a long time. There is a public interest in being able to see all transactions and history on property, and it’s important for debitors to be able to know when people have declared bankruptcy. Part of filing things in court is that it becomes public record.
  - Chaebixi 9y ago
    > Home values and bankruptcy have been public record for a long time. There is a public interest in being able to see all transactions and history on property, and it’s important for debitors to be able to know when people have declared bankruptcy. Part of filing things in court is that it becomes public record. But it's important to note that information was never this easy to access. It's one thing to be able to find out such information on someone in the context of in important financial transaction, it's quite another to be able to easily and casually find out such information for no reason besides curiosity. I think the traditional difficultly in accessing "public records" was an important feature of having them "public." Now that they're so easy to access, we should perhaps re-think how public they really should be.
hectorr1 9y ago
The main implication of hyperconnectivity is the breakdown of physical borders as the most meaningful cultural boundaries. It has actually been happening for a while when you consider the rise of air power, ICBMs, broadcast communications, the internet, etc. The Army is fundamentally a real estate focused organization - their role is to take and hold territory. The Navy is about slow influence - control of the seas allows you can deploy and retract the threat of physical violence depending on the political situation. The Air Force is about the ability to deliver devastating violence on space-age timelines. But they still require targets. My cautiously optimistic view is that these forms of violence become far less relevant when geography is no longer the key dividing line in tribal affiliation. You will see a rise in low level violence, and that will be associated with a decline in the primacy of the nation state. But it will reduce the risk of globally devastating conflict.
- Chaebixi 9y ago
  > ...when geography is no longer the key dividing line in tribal affiliation. You will see a rise in low level violence, and that will be associated with a decline in the primacy of the nation state. But it will reduce the risk of globally devastating conflict. Not necessarily. A civil war between new global tribes* would still be a globally devastating conflict. * not necessarily the same ones everywhere
- jk2323 9y ago
  "The Navy is about slow influence -" ROTFL. The Navy is only of use to intimidate some 3rd tear nations and for "mine is longer than yours"-comparisons. http://www.johntreed.net/sittingducks.html http://www.johntreed.net/sittingducks.html BTW, have you heard about the Russian Zircon missiles?
  - CodeMage 9y ago
    That was a fascinating read. I have no military knowledge or experience, so I cannot confidently judge the truthfulness of it, but it sounds logical and was written in a way that kept me engaged.
  - 9y ago
JulianMorrison 9y ago
Some of this is good. Governments (and their agents) should not have impunity for misbehaviour in private. Governments should not have the level of strategic advantage over their populations that they've been used to. They should feel imperiled by popular wrath if they earn it.
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  > Governments should not have the level of strategic advantage over their populations that they've been used to. But, see, governments always have that. They always have a bigger gun than you do. You want to shine light on government activities. That's good, and you are right to want it. But the cost is that the government will also be able to shine even more light on your activities.
  - ataturk 9y ago
    Governments and people like the Clintons who, if you believe the rumors, have people killed all the time. I personally do believe that powerful people can and do have opponents killed, same as if it were organized crime (because basically it is). The disparity of force is huge and lethal. It is why the US has a 2nd Amendment. And while people call that antiquated, and they're correct, it is not for the right reason. Rather, we need to close the gap somehow, not offer ourselves up as easy marks.
hosh 9y ago
Sounds like the ideas and insights of John Boyd and his disciples (whose ideas on 3rd generation warfare became the core doctrine of the USMC, and the disciples wrote a paper on 4th Generation Warfare were largely ignored) is finally being taken seriously in the US.
- jriot 9y ago
  An article from the Atlantic in 2001 explaining the idea behind 4th Generation Warfare. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/fourth-generation-warfare/302368/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/fourth-...
shahryc 9y ago
Richard Stallman was prescient

"At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk and Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World argues....that the most transformative characteristic of the contemporary environment is the sudden onslaught of threats emerging from the dark underside of hyperconnectivity.2 It is difficult to exaggerate the degree to which hyperconnectivity enables—according to the study’s authors, researchers, and the defense-focused communities of interest and practice it consulted with—the following: Hostile or disruptive virtual mobilization worldwide; The collapse of privacy, secrecy, and operational security; Penetration, disruption, exploitation, and destruction of data storage and transmission, as well as the use of data and data-enabled systems; and finally, The unfettered manipulation of perceptions, material outcomes, and consequential strategic decisions through the strategic employment of various forms of information."

FLUX-YOU 9y ago
>The collapse of privacy, secrecy, and operational security; Says the same government still asking for crypto/device backdoors! Auuuuuuuugh!
- jtbayly 9y ago
  Not sure why this is being downvotes. It was my thought, too.

letdatboicook 9y ago

I've been coining a term in my local circles called "Data Terrorism" Before I dropped out of Georgia Tech, I was going to publish a research paper explaining my reasoning for "Data Terrorism". This article didn't touch on my points, I'm focused on weaponizing personal information. Atlanta is split between two counties, and one of them (DeKalb) used to have a website which published booking information. This allowed private websites to crawl the data and setup "ransom"-esque business models (pay us to delete your entry form our site). I guess if you're ignorant, you would say "oh, well that's only for criminals"...but no. They're doing the same thing for all public records. I recently found out that my 1st grade teacher filed for bankruptcy and foreclosed on her home around 2010....and her mortgage was around 250k. This came off a simple Google search of her name. There is no reason that I should have ever known that.

seren 9y ago
> There is no reason that I should have ever known that. Take into account this is largely a cultural opinion. It is well know that in Norway, your salary and taxes are public. So you mosty know how much everyone is making. It is possible that something unthinkable today is tomorrow cultural norm.
- letdatboicook 9y ago
  Yeah you're right but this is America buddy we're not worried about what's going on in Europe
- cafard 9y ago
  In the US for most persons paid by the public sector or by assorted non-profits, the salary is public information. That's accepted as a given. So I wouldn't be surprised to be able learn the 1st-grade teacher's salary, if she is still working. But the details of her mortgage troubles?
  - jandrese 9y ago
    Even if that wasn't up on the site, it would appear at the top of any basic credit report.
azinman2 9y ago
Home values and bankruptcy have been public record for a long time. There is a public interest in being able to see all transactions and history on property, and it’s important for debitors to be able to know when people have declared bankruptcy. Part of filing things in court is that it becomes public record.
- Chaebixi 9y ago
  > Home values and bankruptcy have been public record for a long time. There is a public interest in being able to see all transactions and history on property, and it’s important for debitors to be able to know when people have declared bankruptcy. Part of filing things in court is that it becomes public record. But it's important to note that information was never this easy to access. It's one thing to be able to find out such information on someone in the context of in important financial transaction, it's quite another to be able to easily and casually find out such information for no reason besides curiosity. I think the traditional difficultly in accessing "public records" was an important feature of having them "public." Now that they're so easy to access, we should perhaps re-think how public they really should be.

hectorr1 9y ago

The main implication of hyperconnectivity is the breakdown of physical borders as the most meaningful cultural boundaries. It has actually been happening for a while when you consider the rise of air power, ICBMs, broadcast communications, the internet, etc. The Army is fundamentally a real estate focused organization - their role is to take and hold territory. The Navy is about slow influence - control of the seas allows you can deploy and retract the threat of physical violence depending on the political situation. The Air Force is about the ability to deliver devastating violence on space-age timelines. But they still require targets. My cautiously optimistic view is that these forms of violence become far less relevant when geography is no longer the key dividing line in tribal affiliation. You will see a rise in low level violence, and that will be associated with a decline in the primacy of the nation state. But it will reduce the risk of globally devastating conflict.

Chaebixi 9y ago
> ...when geography is no longer the key dividing line in tribal affiliation. You will see a rise in low level violence, and that will be associated with a decline in the primacy of the nation state. But it will reduce the risk of globally devastating conflict. Not necessarily. A civil war between new global tribes* would still be a globally devastating conflict. * not necessarily the same ones everywhere
jk2323 9y ago
"The Navy is about slow influence -" ROTFL. The Navy is only of use to intimidate some 3rd tear nations and for "mine is longer than yours"-comparisons. http://www.johntreed.net/sittingducks.html http://www.johntreed.net/sittingducks.html BTW, have you heard about the Russian Zircon missiles?
- CodeMage 9y ago
  That was a fascinating read. I have no military knowledge or experience, so I cannot confidently judge the truthfulness of it, but it sounds logical and was written in a way that kept me engaged.
- 9y ago

JulianMorrison 9y ago

Some of this is good. Governments (and their agents) should not have impunity for misbehaviour in private. Governments should not have the level of strategic advantage over their populations that they've been used to. They should feel imperiled by popular wrath if they earn it.

AnimalMuppet 9y ago
> Governments should not have the level of strategic advantage over their populations that they've been used to. But, see, governments always have that. They always have a bigger gun than you do. You want to shine light on government activities. That's good, and you are right to want it. But the cost is that the government will also be able to shine even more light on your activities.
- ataturk 9y ago
  Governments and people like the Clintons who, if you believe the rumors, have people killed all the time. I personally do believe that powerful people can and do have opponents killed, same as if it were organized crime (because basically it is). The disparity of force is huge and lethal. It is why the US has a 2nd Amendment. And while people call that antiquated, and they're correct, it is not for the right reason. Rather, we need to close the gap somehow, not offer ourselves up as easy marks.

hosh 9y ago

Sounds like the ideas and insights of John Boyd and his disciples (whose ideas on 3rd generation warfare became the core doctrine of the USMC, and the disciples wrote a paper on 4th Generation Warfare were largely ignored) is finally being taken seriously in the US.

jriot 9y ago
An article from the Atlantic in 2001 explaining the idea behind 4th Generation Warfare. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/fourth-generation-warfare/302368/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/fourth-...

shahryc 9y ago

Richard Stallman was prescient