Dr. Evil for a day

Most people who work in information security are accustomed to thinking defensively: How can I prevent "bad things" from happening that would damage computers or networks, or allow unauthorized people to view/alter confidential information?  We seldom are in a position to think offensively: How would I attack or damage an opponent's systems or gain access to information the opponent doesn't want me to see?

Edward Snowden's recent releases - mostly through Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian - make it clear that the NSA is very much playing offense - trying really hard to obtain copies of every bit of digital information that US citizens (and those of many other nations) have created.  Thus the NSA gets copies of all phone calls (metadata, and probably call content), emails, files in the cloud, communications on social networks like Facebook, copies of physical letter envelopes.  Several large US based companies have been corralled into this effort, named Prism: Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, Google, AOL, Facebook, Twitter, Paltalk, perhaps more that have not been revealed so far.

But what does the NSA not have access to unless the FBI physically plants some kind of device or software bug on their targets' computers and networks?  [Note that the NSA targets are all US citizens plus many in other nations.]  As far as we know, the NSA cannot do direct searches or copies of individuals' computer systems, home or business networks.  Why not?  Because in many cases, users may create this data without it ever being transmitted over the Internet.  Imagine plotters in different locations collaborating by creating local information, copying it to USB thumb drives and mailing them to each other.  Do we really imagine that the NSA has not considered this? 

So, if I were director of strategy at the NSA, I would want access to that "last mile", the final refuge of Americans' digital privacy: files stored on their personal computers, including smart phones.  The question is: How do I get it?  I can't have the FBI break into every house and business in the country, at least not yet ;)  But what if I could install spyware and/or botnet clients on every major operating system?  OK, how do I do that?  There are a couple approaches, each with advantages and disadvantages.  I could try to bully Microsoft, Google, Apple and some Linux vendors into installing the spyware/botnet software via patches.  These companies are already part of Prism, so in theory, I could just extend the "Prism walls".  But what if that's just too obvious?  What if the Prism companies successfully push back, or tie me down for years with legal challenges? 

So I move to plan B: I approach the major US anti-malware companies, like Symantec, McAfee, ESET, more.  Anti-malware software is installed on almost every home and work PC/Mac computer.  So I get National Security Letters and force them into the Prism program.  Then I require them to add a "high quality (think Stuxnet) spyware/botnet client" that is capable of reporting on and even sending copies of every file a user possesses or reads via web access.  If, or when, I'm found out, I can always insist that this is totally for national security, to help catch terrorists, and that citizens with nothing to hide have no reason to worry.  Isn't that what the East Germans and the Nazis said?   [Note that savvy tech users who monitor their outgoing connections should be able to spot something odd going on, and even block it.  That situation could require more collaboration with Symantec, McAfee - Require them to allow the NSA to access users' systems from Symantec, and McAfee IP addresses.]

Ok, let's turn off Dr. Evil.  As far as I know, the anti-malware companies are not in the Prism program.  But it could happen.... unless we show a lot more resistance than we have been.

Science and Mythology

Every civilization, since the very first civilizations at the beginnings

of history, needs creation stories/myths. Some of the best ones are from

the Bible, Greek and Norse mythology, and from the various native

American tribes. Without a credible creation story that helps us

undertand who and why we are here, we are, in effect, lost and

purposeless.

Most of us in the so-called modern world choose to place our faith in

the scientific method, at least in part because we are born into a world

largely shaped by scientific discoveries. So it's only natural that we

find the big bang, multiverse and cyclic universe theories compelling

and credible. And in their own way, they help us understand where we fit

in the grand scheme of time and space, why life exists, and how our own

personal self came into being. Creation theories, including the big

bang, say something (necessarily incomplete) about where our world is

heading (i.e., what is the ultimate end, and will things just get

started over again?) And they can help us feel like we are part of

something bigger, something that has existed before our personal self,

and will endure either "forever" or a very long time after we are

personally gone.

Whether human societies in the very distant future embrace science, the

scientific method, and scientific creation theories - we just can't know

that. In other words, if we're going to be open to a new idea right now,

we have to see science and the scientific myths we believe today, as

part of a long historical process. But this process, contrary to much

modern thinking, does not have an irreversible direction. Evolution,

including human evolution, does not evolve along a guaranteed pathway,

with the assurance of indefinite progress towards ever greater

scientific knowledge. We just don't know the future of evolution, or

whether the human race has a place in it, esp. given that 99% of species

that ever lived are extinct.

The progress we have seen over the last couple centuries simply could

not have happened without massive easy to exploit supplies of cheap

energy. That fossil fuel age is coming to an end, baring a totally

unexpected miracle discovery of carbon-free, near unlimited energy. So

21st century societies will be forced to live in a world with much less

energy than we've become used to. [I'm no happier about this than anyone

reading this post]. So, to simplify a bit, we can't have high energy

physics without lots of high energy. We can't run CERN on artisanal

windmills. And we won't be able to support the "unending" progress of

science and the scientific mythology that we tend to like, if global

civilization itself is struggling to get by on far less energy. So I

suspect that science will continue on, but with progress going much more

slowly by mid-century than what we have become used to. How the myths,

especially the creation myths, will change will be fascinating to watch

(but I don't expect to live that long)...

Plutocracy: What it is, how it works

I could try to describe how the USA became a plutocracy and how the plutocracy works.  But this article does a beter job.

http://www.alternet.org/america-ruled-billionaires-and-they-are-coming-after-last-shreds-our-democracy?paging=off

Exceptionalism

Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone publicly questions American Exceptionalism, they are immediately attacked by the right wing?  Let's explore what exceptionalism really is.

What is commonly though of as exceptionalism is this: The United States is the one essential nation, a force for good, a global power that makes the world a better place.

But what is exceptionalism, after one takes a deeper look?  What it really is is a set of related beliefs, never publicly stated:

• The citizens of the United States, especially the wealthier, whiter more conservative ones, are god's chosen people.  They have been selected by their Christian deity to lead, rule and police the world, intervening wherever American power and authority is challenged.  It's therefore necessary, from time to time, for the chosen people, the exceptional people, to use military force to repel what is perceived and portrayed as evil in the world.
• Exceptionalism is a special kind of entitlement.  Believers in exceptionalism imagine that Americans, privileged Americans, are entitled to consume one fourth of the world's oil and about one third of the world's other natural resources.  Why?  Because Americans are god's chosen people, and shouldn't the chosen people be entitled to a bigger helping of earth's bounty, even if we have to fight wars against evil to protect what's rightfully ours?
• Exceptionalism is an excuse to commit violence on the less powerful people of earth, killing, maiming and torturing as directed by the leader of the exceptional people, the US President.  
• Exceptionalism is a justification for failing to agree to UN treaties or the authority of the International Criminal Court.  Why?  Again, because we are the exceptional people, and we recognize no superior authority but our own deity, and only conservative Christian US leaders and very powerful American industrialists are empowered with the ability to understand what this deity wants us to do.
• In order to remain the exceptional nation, the wealthiest Americans must not allow the US government to in any way lighten the heavy burden placed upon the poor, the sick, many of the young, the unemployed.  All government assistance creates weakness and dependency which weaken the exceptional nation.  Yet there is one exception to this rule: It's perfectly OK, indeed mandatory, for the government to provide a big helping hand to those who are already quite wealthy because the wealthy citizens have proven they are the most chosen of the deity's chosen people.  [And besides, they are major campaign donors.]

So in a very real sense, the US public is exceptional: Exceptionally deluded in thinking we have been selected to rule the world and that American values and our system of politics and economics may rightfully be imposed on the rest of the world whenever we see fit to do so.  Exceptionally deluded in thinking that there is some deity who has committed to magically protect the United States from harm, as long as the country remains a conservative Christian stronghold that limits the rights of gays, women, people of color, immigrants, and any other group out of favor with god's chosen political Party, the Republican one.  Indeed, we are truly an exceptional people... and we will be exceptionally disappointed when it all starts to fall apart.