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What I don't understand is what is the point blaming other forces/countries for exploiting something that is so easily exploitable. If you have a wide-open secu

What I don't understand is what is the point blaming other forces/countries for exploiting something that is so easily exploitable. If you have a wide-open security holes in your system they will be exploited by everyone who can potentially benefit from this. Other than Russia/China/<Villain of the week> there are many other actors who have incentives to meddle in the society, e.g. - The US government - Large Businesses Example from the article: "Reopenmississippi.com was registered on April 16 to In Pursuit of LLC, an Arlington, Va.-based conservative group with a number of former employees who currently work at the White House or in cabinet agencies (link: https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/in-pursuit-of-llc https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/organizations/in-...). A 2016 story from USA Today says In Pursuit Of LLC is a for-profit communications agency launched by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch." - T-shirt sellers? "A number of other sites — such as reopennc.com — seem to exist merely to sell t-shirts, decals and yard signs with such slogans as “Know Your Rights,” “Live Free or Die,” and “Facts not Fear.” WHOIS records show the same Florida resident who registered this North Carolina site also registered one for New York — reopenny.com — just a few minutes later." At this point it is so easy to anonymously set up these websites and protest groups that a bored high-school student can do it. Instead of putting blame on this or that country, efforts should be focused on creating some kind of a online reputation system so that any content posted would contain a signature that ties it to the author. If the signature is missing then you know the source is likely untrustworthy. Pros: no need for censorship. anyone can still post anything online. Cons: users need to be educated about this feature. It has to be supported by major browsers as a first-party component. Otherwise we see more ridiculous initiatives like this from GitLab where they ban hiring engineers from Russia on certain positions: "WIP: Support Engineer Job family country-of-residence block" (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/issues/5555 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/issues/5555). EDIT: fixed typos

toast0 6y ago
> WHOIS records show the same Florida resident who registered this North Carolina site also registered one for New York — reopenny.com — just a few minutes later." At this point it is so easy to anonymously set up these websites and protest groups that a bored high-school student can do it. Instead of putting blame on this or that country, efforts should be focused on creating some kind of a online reputation system so that any content posted would contain a signature that ties it to the author. The person selling shirts isn't doing it anonymously if whois records reflect that person's ownership of sites targeting different states. I don't see how a reputation system helps much, if Florida man hits a chord with people, his site is going to have high reputation, regardless of any facts or not. Unless you're suggesting a centralized arbiter of truthiness, but that has myriad problems too. Unfortunately, I don't think people are going to realize trusting random people until they experience the poor results for themselves. This is a slow process.
- sumedh 6y ago
  > efforts should be focused on creating some kind of a online reputation system Do you want private companies to check the reputation or the govt or should it be crowd sourced?

toast0 6y ago

> WHOIS records show the same Florida resident who registered this North Carolina site also registered one for New York — reopenny.com — just a few minutes later." At this point it is so easy to anonymously set up these websites and protest groups that a bored high-school student can do it. Instead of putting blame on this or that country, efforts should be focused on creating some kind of a online reputation system so that any content posted would contain a signature that ties it to the author. The person selling shirts isn't doing it anonymously if whois records reflect that person's ownership of sites targeting different states. I don't see how a reputation system helps much, if Florida man hits a chord with people, his site is going to have high reputation, regardless of any facts or not. Unless you're suggesting a centralized arbiter of truthiness, but that has myriad problems too. Unfortunately, I don't think people are going to realize trusting random people until they experience the poor results for themselves. This is a slow process.

sumedh 6y ago
> efforts should be focused on creating some kind of a online reputation system Do you want private companies to check the reputation or the govt or should it be crowd sourced?