At the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, Motherboard TV uncovered an unlikely hero in the thicket of the protest’s confusion. Meet Issac Wilder, the founder of The Free Network Foundation, a mesh networking system that allowed demonstrators access to free internet—that is until Zuccotti Park was ransacked and the Freedom Tower was confiscated and destroyed. See how DIY tech is influencing the state of modern day protesting and protecting our privacy in this video. Protests around the world, or even neighborhood networks will continue to be utilized and evolved as long as governments try to restrict people’s access to the internet in times of great need. This video takes a look at DIY mesh networks during the Occupy movement several years ago. We should see mesh networks pop up around the world during times of protest as this technology evolves.
When something is very dangerous, like nuclear weapons, standard forms of protections and control methodologies aren't sufficient.
Something that potentially dangerous needs something more aggressive.
In the military, that's called positive control.
Positive control is an active form of control where the dangerous item is under 24x7x365 monitoring, checking, patrolling, testing, etc.
In this type of system, no information = danger. Alarm bells sound when the feeds and system checks monitoring the item go dark.
This is the opposite of the type of security and law enforcement we're used to in our daily lives. These systems are best described as negative control systems.
Negative control systems are focused on detecting exceptions. A crime. Good behavior is expected. As a result, this system only takes action when a failure occurs.
Positive security and People
Positive security can apply to people too, if they are dangerous enough.
Having nothing to hide is no guarantee of avoiding trouble due to NSA surveillance, which can create an environment of fear, a suppression of cultural creativity, and opportunities for politically targeted suppression, generally degrading democracy. The erosion of privacy can be addressed in a number of ways, including turning the tables on power centers and changing our online behavior. Enforcing openness in government and corporations and using search engines that are more immune to surveillance not only strengthen democracy but reduce social fragmentation. Guidelines for online privacy and alternative search engines are included here.
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A common response to complaints about the erosion of privacy – especially the NSA’s growing surveillance – is that people shouldn’t worry if they have nothing to hide. This might be more true if governments, corporations, and ordinary people always acted in the best interests of everyone else. But often they don’t – and they can cause real damage to innocent people, to whole communities, and even to the earth – like when governments and corporations claim activists who are trying to stop climate change are “terrorists”. Given the scope, complexity, and obscurity of the law, it can be used by unscrupulous people for surprise attacks that overwhelm individuals and silence societies, as delineated in this excellent WIRED article.
The rapid rise of technologies of communication, sharing, networking, and commerce has made privacy increasingly dubious. The increasing customization and convenience of those technologies has made them very seductive, speeding their adoption and their growing potential for abuse. More and more people are voluntarily submitting more and more personal information to hard drives in corporate enclaves and “the cloud”. It is almost like spending money using your credit card: It is much easier to do without thinking – and to spend too much – than when you pay with bills and coins. These are booby traps most people have stumbled into willingly – even eagerly – albeit obliviously.
Loss of privacy evolves from a minor risk and inconvenience into a legitimate public concern when power is involved – power that can wreck people’s lives, manipulate populations, suppress dissent, and control governments. Even when that capability is not being used – and we don’t yet know for sure how much it is being used – creating it leaves tremendous power in the hands of future abusers. History gives us abundant examples of collective insanity, corrupt power elites, shifting political winds, and other conditions that make abuse almost inevitable.
In mid-June, 2013, Western New York Peace Center board member Valerie Niederhoffer was stopped and interrogated for several hours at the U.S.-Canadian border when returning to the US from an afternoon doing Tai Chi in Canada with friendsi.
The U.S. immigration and customs officer entered Val's name into his computer system and discovered Val had an Order of Protection. He then asked her to pull over for an extended interview.
Orders of Protection (restraining orders) are generally given for spousal abuse, but this unique Order of Protection has been given to activists who have been arrested for challenging the U.S. assassin drone policies.
North Korea-China:Xinhua published remarks of Chinese State Councilor and former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, who held discussions today, 21 June.
“Yang said: Positive results have been achieved in the strategic dialogue between foreign affairs departments of the two countries. China is willing to work with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to promote the sound and stable development of relations between the two countries. China insists on actualizing non-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, insists on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, and insists on resolving issues through dialogue and consultation. Currently, an easing momentum has emerged in the situation on the peninsula, which is nevertheless still complex and sensitive. It is hoped that all parties will actively engage in dialogue and contact, push for the situation to continue to turn better, and seek an early resumption of the six-party talks.”
“Kim said: Friendship between the DPRK and China has a long history. It is hoped that the two sides will inherit it and carry it forward. Non-nuclearization of the peninsula is the instruction left behind by President Kim Il-song and General Secretary Kim Chong-il. The DPRK hopes the situation on the peninsula will ease, insists on resolving issues through dialogue, and is willing to take part in various forms of dialogue including the six-party talks.”
With a modest amount of expertise, computer hackers could gain remote access to someone’s car — just as they do to people’s personal computers — and take over the vehicle’s basic functions, including control of its engine, according to a report by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington.
Hijacking a car has been around forever, but with advanced technology your car is slightly safer or is it? Researchers at the University of California and Washington have been testing vehicles vulnerabilities to see just how safe a vehicles electronic controls really are. In one test they added some code to an MP3 and played it in the radio. When it was played the embedded code was capable of altering the vehicles firmware. This can give a hacker access to things such as: unlocking the doors, tracking your vehicles location, and they can even disable your breaks. Pretty crazy don't you think?
It's not time for full-on panic, but researchers have already successfully applied brakes remotely, listened into conversations and more.
A 2011 report (PDF) by researchers at the University of California, San Diego and others site numerous “attack vectors,” including mechanics' tools, CD players, Bluetooth and cellular radio as among the potential problems in today's computerized cars.
Photos and video from the aftermath show extreme wreckage, and as of yesterday, the coroner had not officially identified the body because it was too badly burned.
I’m here to state that I’ve seen dozens of cars hit walls and stuff at high speeds and the number of them that I have observed to eject their powertrains and immediately catch massive fire is, um, ah, zero. Modern cars are very good at not catching fire in accidents. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which is an evolutionary design from a company known for sweating the safety details over and above the Euro NCAP requirements, should be leading the pack in the not-catching-on-fire category. Nor is the C-Class known for sudden veering out of control into trees and whatnot.
