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Ok. The internet is getting interesting. We have Julian Assange leaking secrets from nearly every country and major organisation. National governments are topp

Ok. The internet is getting interesting. We have Julian Assange leaking secrets from nearly every country and major organisation. National governments are toppling left and right, with the internet as the tool to gather and convene. We have Anonymous who generally wreaks havoc on whomever pokes that hornets nest. We have Chinese hackers (or hackers using Chinese servers) that are whittling away on European and US servers. And we now have LulzSec hacking and publicly insulting the FBI. What a weird world we live in.

noibl 15y ago
We should civilize this internet thing before life gets any weirder. Nah: 1. Not so much 'leaking' as 'hoarding'... the dripfeed of leaks is mainly from the single cables dump (a non-renewable resource). Nearly every major organisation? I don't think so. 2. I'm guessing you mean Egypt, where the military has indeed appointed a new cabinet. Not sure that counts as 'toppling' but we'll see, come September. That accounts for the 'right', who's left? 3. Yes we have an organised collective of vigilante hckers exposing the hypocrisy and corruption of other hckers, much as has always been done. Two differences now: (a) national governments have started outsourcing to the second group more and also hyping the word 'cyber', leading to (b) the public has started to become mildly amused by these skirmishes. 4. Interesting configuration of actors there. For those in Europe or America, the interesting part of alleged Chinese hacking is the unwanted free transfer of lucrative IP, which is to say trade secrets. But the US government already has behind-the-scenes access to a vast amount of global internet traffic so any large scale spying effort on its part wouldn't need to be so overt as would that of, say, China. And China is certainly not alone in facing these allegations.[1] 5. Aaand back to 3. [1] http://www.dbune.com/news/business/3370-france-accused-of-being-europes-worst-industrial-spy.html http://www.dbune.com/news/business/3370-france-accused-of-be...
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  2. Don't forget Tunisia, whose revolution was sparked at least in part by the revelations about Ben Ali in the State Dept cables, or the swing in election results in Kenya back in the stone ages from one of WikiLeaks' first releases, or the "Twitter Revolutions" (overblown though that title may be) throughout the rest of the middle east... 4. The NSA has taps on the major telecom hubs, and is actively sorting through reams of data to gather intelligence. I can't find the links right now, but the story was on HN about the project's creator and his misgivings about how it was eventually used. Yeah, China's bad, but just wait until the US finds itself toppled from economic primacy and see what information they start pulling out then.
  - noibl 15y ago
    Shame on me; I did forget Tunisia. I don't see anything to do with the internet in the events in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. The mobile network has played some part in Libya though. In any case, none of these governments have been 'toppled' and especially have not been replaced by democratic ones. The fiber tap story, for reference: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348156
  - kmfrk 15y ago
    I really dread what is going to happen, by the time Anonymous or someone else start setting their sights in Israel/Palestine. It can only be a matter of time before it happens.
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      Dread it how? What outcome do you fear?
      - pbjorklund 15y ago
        Well, thats a hornest nests with some bad queen bees armed with more dangerous stuff than stingers.
kmfrk 15y ago
Now is the best time ever to be a security consultant. Also, if there were a time that consumers learned to be wary of the information they hand out in public or private and how they protected it, now is the time. If LastPass has an affiliate service, it's quite possible that some quick bucks could be made from this.

noibl 15y ago

We should civilize this internet thing before life gets any weirder. Nah: 1. Not so much 'leaking' as 'hoarding'... the dripfeed of leaks is mainly from the single cables dump (a non-renewable resource). Nearly every major organisation? I don't think so. 2. I'm guessing you mean Egypt, where the military has indeed appointed a new cabinet. Not sure that counts as 'toppling' but we'll see, come September. That accounts for the 'right', who's left? 3. Yes we have an organised collective of vigilante hckers exposing the hypocrisy and corruption of other hckers, much as has always been done. Two differences now: (a) national governments have started outsourcing to the second group more and also hyping the word 'cyber', leading to (b) the public has started to become mildly amused by these skirmishes. 4. Interesting configuration of actors there. For those in Europe or America, the interesting part of alleged Chinese hacking is the unwanted free transfer of lucrative IP, which is to say trade secrets. But the US government already has behind-the-scenes access to a vast amount of global internet traffic so any large scale spying effort on its part wouldn't need to be so overt as would that of, say, China. And China is certainly not alone in facing these allegations.[1] 5. Aaand back to 3. [1] http://www.dbune.com/news/business/3370-france-accused-of-being-europes-worst-industrial-spy.html http://www.dbune.com/news/business/3370-france-accused-of-be...

redthrowaway 15y ago
2. Don't forget Tunisia, whose revolution was sparked at least in part by the revelations about Ben Ali in the State Dept cables, or the swing in election results in Kenya back in the stone ages from one of WikiLeaks' first releases, or the "Twitter Revolutions" (overblown though that title may be) throughout the rest of the middle east... 4. The NSA has taps on the major telecom hubs, and is actively sorting through reams of data to gather intelligence. I can't find the links right now, but the story was on HN about the project's creator and his misgivings about how it was eventually used. Yeah, China's bad, but just wait until the US finds itself toppled from economic primacy and see what information they start pulling out then.
- noibl 15y ago
  Shame on me; I did forget Tunisia. I don't see anything to do with the internet in the events in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. The mobile network has played some part in Libya though. In any case, none of these governments have been 'toppled' and especially have not been replaced by democratic ones. The fiber tap story, for reference: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348156
- kmfrk 15y ago
  I really dread what is going to happen, by the time Anonymous or someone else start setting their sights in Israel/Palestine. It can only be a matter of time before it happens.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    Dread it how? What outcome do you fear?
    - pbjorklund 15y ago
      Well, thats a hornest nests with some bad queen bees armed with more dangerous stuff than stingers.

kmfrk 15y ago

Now is the best time ever to be a security consultant. Also, if there were a time that consumers learned to be wary of the information they hand out in public or private and how they protected it, now is the time. If LastPass has an affiliate service, it's quite possible that some quick bucks could be made from this.