Wikileaks, student protests and 'hacktivism' .... ( or The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Or not?)


Are we seeing some kind of a shift in society? 

I believe we are witnessing a new era of ‘activism’ – student /societal/ corporate.

Students in the UK have taken to the streets in (sometimes) violent protests against the impending imposition of university tuition fees. 

Governments are acting in unison against the ‘threat’ posed by Wikileaks.   But ‘hacktivists’ are rising up in protest against them and the corporations (Amazon/MasterCard/Visa ) that are doing their bidding.

Consumers span of attention continue to fall as 30 second advertisements are cut down even shorter.  Our children engage in electronic media multi-tasking gaming / watching TV / surfing the web / texting / talking on the mobile and so on.  Their brains are being hardwired into a new mode of operation with boredom thresholds at an absolute minimum.

So.  Are we all becoming hedonists – needing a short term fix ?   Have we lost the ability to plan ahead and see the consequences of our actions.  Do these students not understand why it is that tuition fees are necessary ?  Or is their knee jerk response because they will be deprived of some earthly pleasures during their student years?   Are Governments reacting to Wikileaks because they have been made to look bad ?   They and their corporate lackeys have to respond to be seen to be strong and in control.    This activism is a ‘threat’ to the ‘status quo.’   Or is it ?

Even if it is – is that a bad thing?   Is the status quo right? 

My observation is that the big brother society continues its inexorable march in the erosion of personal and civil liberties.    The trend towards instant gratification – the ‘Stimulation economy’  (http://www.steverubel.com/the-stimulation-economy) is combining /morphing with the societal shifts in the rise of the voiceless  - the youth – who now have a voice – amplified through social networks.   The student protests were undoubtedly organized/ coordinated through mobile phones and social media ( ‘crowdsourcing and  flashmobs).  

These events represent underlying tectonic shifts which are starting to make the youth ( and sometimes the not so young) realize that powerful constituencies can be mobilized effectively.   The DDoS attacks on the ‘treacherous’ corporations that have attempted to deny Wikileaks the right to exist  - these ' Hacktivists' who operate out in the nether regions of the Web and bring impressive ‘forces’ to bear -  have shown that they be ignored at these corporations and Governments - peril. 

Is this backlash the beginning of a wider shift where ‘ the people’ have finally said ‘enough’ !! ?

What is unfolding before us is a fascinating study in the human condition and no doubt great fodder for many a PhD thesis.   I look forward to the next episode.    Will we see Assange on trial ?    Who knows ?  That is what makes it so interesting. 

Thanks. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of Passwords

Finally it seems … the penny has dropped.   Passwords are a poor substitute for real online security.   There is more and more ‘chatter’ about it.    Robin Henry writing in the Sunday Times on New Years Day talks of the end of ‘password hell’ invoking solutions in the pipeline from the Web Gods – Apple and Google.  The talk is of new biometric solutions such as facial and hand movement recognition.  Even IBM is talking this way.  ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/thestreet/2011/12/20/ibms-tech-predictions-for-the-next-5-years/ )  I agree with the notion that passwords are a dying breed but not that biometrics will become vogue.   They are fraught with problems of their own such as reliability, accuracy and the need for referencing of data-bases ( fail !) .    Why are passwords defunct?   Basically they are difficult to remember and they are easy to steal.    The solutions needed are those that require no cognitive load for the user ( the most unreliable participant in this enterprise
Read more

WIKILEAKS - the fuss?

Why all the fuss ? Why the ‘outrage’ at this ‘threat to national security’ ?   Are we really worried that nuclear war is going to break out because of these ‘dirty’ secrets getting out.  As if the North Koreans are going to up the ante any more than their mock charge of last week because of the abuse and scorn heaped upon them by US Diplomats.  ? !    Come on. To me the irony of this bluster is that it is (largely) from the right wing establishment in the US - calling it treason!     Any party that parades a half wit like Palin as a presidential hopeful hardly holds any moral high ground when it comes to protecting the USA.   Her appointment as the ‘leader of the free World’ will be enough to send any level headed American ( let alone any one of their Allies ) into a panicky tailspin at the thought of what she may stumble into ( by accident or design) . So how did these documents get out there?   Poor security.  Plain and simple.   If the US is so worried about this incident su
Read more

SPOOKS - CYBER ATTACK

Well I’ll be damned – if the subject of my last blog wasn’t the central theme to last nights episode of Spooks – CYBERWAR.    (To those who live outside the UK – Spooks is a very popular TV series about the goings on of a key team inside MI5 who spend their time thwarting terrorist attacks on the UK – while engaging in risqué amorous trysts on the side ).   And so last night we had the Russians and the Chinese –(working together !!) – ganging up on MI5 by infiltrating ( hacking ) their ‘secure’ internal network.     Whether the events portrayed were within the bounds of possibility or credibility who knows?     But if teenagers can break into the Pentagon – then I am sure that Russian/Chinese expert hackers can probably do something along the lines of infiltrating a UK Govt ‘Spooks’ departments network.      Either way it constituted an attack on British soil by foreign ‘combatants’ – which ( if it were true ) would have been a first since the Normans in 1066.   So we saw how vulner
Read more