But we can still change our laws and our government if we are united enough.
But we certainly are not united. Instead we are growing more deeply divided
and splintered every day.
Russia, for one, is waging a very effective campaign to destroy our unity and
trust and exploit our resulting vulnerability. I just put the term 'Russia's
new warfare' in searx.me because I remembered reading of a Russian general
who had outlined much of this new type of warfare (Hybrid Warfare). I haven't
yet found that reference (possibly, Vladislav Surkov) but the amount of
information searx brought up is substantial and illustrative. Destroying the
people's trust in their govenment and institutions is one of the objectives
in this type of warfare. Assange seems to assist, President Trump too. It
remains to be seen if either Assange or Trump are consciously serving Russian
interests or just playing into their hands. But change is in the air like a
storm right now and the landscape can change in the blink of an eye. The
death of democracy could certainly be upon us here in America and the same
trends appear to be at work in Europe as well. Would that not be the end of
free software. Therefore, which is more important?
I read most of the Wikipedia article 'hack and hack' mentioned. It sure isn't
flatterring to the CIA's image. The CIA losing more credibility is a negative
turn of events to me. Take the CIA out and where is our first line of
defense?
I think today's tech industry must share blame for pourous security. Maybe
it's on Samsung if their TV's can be turned into listening devices; on Apple
if their phone is hackable; on Microsoft if ransomware attacks us; on Google
if Android devices are subject to insecure apps maybe even made by Cozy Bear,
some eastern European mafia or the Chinese military; and finally, maybe it's
on the society that doesn't care enough to take up guard and demand these
parties be held accountable. Last I knew, Apple, Google and Microsoft had
huge cash reserves. (see:
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/21282/business/cash-reserves/ "The largest
cash reserves are found amongst major US IT companies, such as Apple,
Microsoft and Google.") Didn't they in part amass all those riches while
putting the security of nations and their infrastucture as well as the
security of individuals at risk. Shouldn't they be made to spend more of
their cash to make their products and services secure? Perhaps some of their
fortunes should be nationalized since they seem to only view the world
through 'dollar sign' goggles.
I agree that right now, free software is more secure but it does have at
least one weakness, because it's free it is harder to develop. Lots of money
is needed to build major advancements in pretty much any endeavor. One of the
articles I cited above says that China has 100,000 people employed in their
'cyber command tower,' I don't know if that's true but China has a phenomenal
amount of manpower.
How many people in total do you think are working full time on free software?
I don't know but I doubt if it's enough to be the complete answer in the time
of all out cyber war.
Re 'shadow' or 'double' government, I'll definitely look at the links posted
(Glennon, etc). Here is one scary group to me:
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed but I'm sure there are others
with their own agendas. But the insistence on 'standing on principle' on the
extreme conservative side has had success breaking our representative form of
government by causing obstructionism to be the new norm in congress. I think
the ALEC group's agenda supports a lot of that.
