Posted by
Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Urgent-skype-vulnerability-tp7583763p7583853.html
Marcus -
> No, I'm speculating that someone like Lamo plays along until things
get rough, and then runs for cover once they start to mull over
consequences (like being an accomplice/accessory to espionage).
...
> Hacker groupies and sunshine friends.
...
> For similar reasons, sooner or later the only people running Tor
services will be the NSA. :-)
Ok... I think I understand and generally agree that group(ies) like Anon
are on average pretty lightweight and fair-weather.
My hopeful side wants to believe that there is a huge distribution and
out there in the long tail are a few people with significant skills,
perspective and maybe even courage (at least in context). I'm not even
saying these people self-identify with Anonymous (or any other group)
but rather that they are watching the world's evolution and may feel
compelled to do one particular thing or another that could be pivotal.
> Anonymity, to the extent it is achievable at all, is not trivial. I
> think it is a mistake to think that participating in questionably
> legal internet activism can be insulated from a `normal' life. If
> Anonymous wants to endure, they'll have to help real organizations
> like the FSF, EFF and the ACLU build the technical and legal tools to
> protect their members.
I agree that these above board, organized, "official" groups can and do
provide a significant role in "fighting the good fight", but I think the
ground-up, grass-roots sentiment is important, maybe even critical. It
is vaguely like the difference between say... the Catholic (or any of
the other pervasive, established) Church in Europe during WWII, or the
Vichy Gov't in France vs the various underground resistance movements.
I may just be having flights of fancy from reading the first couple of
assignments in the Surveillance and Countermeasures reading list that
Owen sent around... The bulk of the background on "Form and Function
of Terrorist Cells" seems to have come from the Allied resistance and
infiltration in Nazi occupied Europe in WWII. The 1976 Rockefeller
Report to the President on "CIA Activities Within the United States"
outlines a pretty good example of something one would *hope* ("wish" in
retrospect) that any one of the many many people who had to be complicit
in this would (have) blown a whistle on. I'm sure anyone in that
era/circumstance trying to expose that particular activity would have
been treated at least as badly as (has been implied/threatened) Snowden...
I"m not really trusting that our oversight has been working... SSCI and
House Select Committee, etc...
- Steve
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com