Feminism pops up in the darnedest of places. I read this while cruising the Foxnews website, and just about fell out of my chair. I still can't tell if I almost hurt myself based on laughter or confusion.
AIRO, Egypt — Muslim extremist women are challenging Al Qaeda's refusal to include — or at least acknowledge — women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.
Headline courtesy of Foxnews at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361166,00.html
apparently women in the middle east are mad because the menfolk want them to stay at home and raise the kids instead of going out to fight us Americans.
I almost feel sorry for the Terrorists, they got mad locals to their left, mad women to their right, and the US military shoving ordinance up their butts on a daily basis.
Silly fools.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Spice must flow
The book Dune by Frank Herbert features a key resource, in the form of the mind altering drug Spice. The importance of the narcotic is revealed via the mantra "The spice is life, the Spice must flow."
In the internet age, the "spice" is information. As I stated earlier, there has always been bad blood between the internet community and copyright holders, there was a time when I feared that a war would break out between the RIAA, the MPAA, and the internet community.
Of course, the great cyberwar never quite happened. Looking back, there are many reasons why it never did.
First; The internet community relies on the copyright community. Total piracy would result in the loss of media. No new full length movies, no new major music projects, no new video games, no new applications. Even now the internet strives to replace many of these features, but it cannot fully compete against the software firms, interests, and resources.
Secondly, many members on the net strive to become members of the media itself. There's money in them thar projects. The kids posting their homemade movies and songs hope to someday strike it rich. The people who write free code like to think that they can prove thier talents and someday earn a job at Microsoft, macintosh, or thier favorite video game developer. Some of those who write blogs dream of someday using their writing capability to gain a paying position as a professional writer. Those dreams could be easily dashed if the individual user attains a reputation for "Unethical or Illegal behaviour". There isn't a recording label out there that will sign on an artist who illegally downloads his source materials, or samples.
Finally, the MPAA, RIAA, and other copyright companies have managed to attack the hackers and pirates in mostly a passive manner. Propaganda made by the copyright community is remixed into online parodies. The passive software that the copyright holders use, becomes a hacking game to the very hackers that the media owners are targeting. Just another peice of software to hack, another code to crack. A fascinating challenge. Can you crack the software on your Ipod? Can you get this ripped video or song to play? What fun would it be if the information was easy to obtain? The media rights holders provide a perfect opportunity for the hackers to prove their skills. Its a game of oneupmanship. The hackers are entertained, the pirates feel the rush of bypassing the security systems in place, and the data flows at a reduced rate, with an alternative path for those who don't have the skill to bypass the security measures. "Can't hack? Tough, buy the media like all the other suckers. I got mad skillz, I get my stuff for free."
In the end, regardless of whether one buys the media, or hacks it, the information flows. That is the point of internet. The transference and flow of information.
The cyber war between anonymous and COS was originally started over this flow. COS had information, the internet wanted it. A video was leaked, the internet gobbled it up, COS attempted to reign in and destroy the free information. A war ensued. The internet community smelled blood, in the form of information that the Church did not want released, that the church wished to control. And the internet moved.
Of course, this is merely a simple observation of the importance of information on the internet. with information being the critical online resource, information itself plays a key part in the ongoing cyber conflict, in the very day to day operation of the internet itself. I will definitely revisit this topic in future.
In the internet age, the "spice" is information. As I stated earlier, there has always been bad blood between the internet community and copyright holders, there was a time when I feared that a war would break out between the RIAA, the MPAA, and the internet community.
Of course, the great cyberwar never quite happened. Looking back, there are many reasons why it never did.
First; The internet community relies on the copyright community. Total piracy would result in the loss of media. No new full length movies, no new major music projects, no new video games, no new applications. Even now the internet strives to replace many of these features, but it cannot fully compete against the software firms, interests, and resources.
Secondly, many members on the net strive to become members of the media itself. There's money in them thar projects. The kids posting their homemade movies and songs hope to someday strike it rich. The people who write free code like to think that they can prove thier talents and someday earn a job at Microsoft, macintosh, or thier favorite video game developer. Some of those who write blogs dream of someday using their writing capability to gain a paying position as a professional writer. Those dreams could be easily dashed if the individual user attains a reputation for "Unethical or Illegal behaviour". There isn't a recording label out there that will sign on an artist who illegally downloads his source materials, or samples.
Finally, the MPAA, RIAA, and other copyright companies have managed to attack the hackers and pirates in mostly a passive manner. Propaganda made by the copyright community is remixed into online parodies. The passive software that the copyright holders use, becomes a hacking game to the very hackers that the media owners are targeting. Just another peice of software to hack, another code to crack. A fascinating challenge. Can you crack the software on your Ipod? Can you get this ripped video or song to play? What fun would it be if the information was easy to obtain? The media rights holders provide a perfect opportunity for the hackers to prove their skills. Its a game of oneupmanship. The hackers are entertained, the pirates feel the rush of bypassing the security systems in place, and the data flows at a reduced rate, with an alternative path for those who don't have the skill to bypass the security measures. "Can't hack? Tough, buy the media like all the other suckers. I got mad skillz, I get my stuff for free."
In the end, regardless of whether one buys the media, or hacks it, the information flows. That is the point of internet. The transference and flow of information.
The cyber war between anonymous and COS was originally started over this flow. COS had information, the internet wanted it. A video was leaked, the internet gobbled it up, COS attempted to reign in and destroy the free information. A war ensued. The internet community smelled blood, in the form of information that the Church did not want released, that the church wished to control. And the internet moved.
Of course, this is merely a simple observation of the importance of information on the internet. with information being the critical online resource, information itself plays a key part in the ongoing cyber conflict, in the very day to day operation of the internet itself. I will definitely revisit this topic in future.
Making Rank, Anonymous Style.
Every organization has ranks, those who lead, and those who follow. Anonymous is an exception. Except its not.
In the military, Rank is derived from education, experience, time in service, and job performance. You make the prerequisites to enlist or attain a commission, and then you gain rank based on job performance over time. In the corporate world it is mostly the same. The greater the job potential, the higher the initial prerequisites. Rank is earned in the form of job titles, promotion, pay, and benefits.
So how does one gain "rank" in Anonymous? First you must show great aptitude with the technology. Much like street cred, if you do nothing, you earn nothing. Each day dozens of people make "Anonymous" videos and presentations. Suggestions, messages, orders, propaganda, etc. The better the video, or post, the more influence it attains. You must make a good presentations, you must present good ideas, relevant ideas. It takes creativity, ingenuity, and a good use of technical skill. Those with good information, good presentations, draw attention. Those with shoddy videos and posts full of irrelevant or erroneous data draw no or even negative attention.
Ie, one individual posted a video claiming that Anonymous needed to elect a central head or representative, his idea was quickly booed down by those who believed that his idea was flawed or even possibly dangerous. (IE, the poster was an enemy infiltrator trying to spread dangerous ideas) Another random individual may suggest a protest (Possibly local, possibly even international) on a specific date that is relevant to Scientology, a supposed travesty (The death of a COS critic) or the locale (The day a Scientology center opened). His idea gains credibility, the collective agrees with the message. People unify and coalesce, the protests are organized. The protests occur. An anonymous leader is born. His other ideas gain more attention, more posts potentially follow, as long as the individual keeps up the quality of his ideas, and the quality of his posts, his influence will spread.
Its a full out democratic organization, where the leaders are not leaders by appointment or election, but based on their ability to motivate and mobilize the collective, and their ability to grasp the key technologies inherent to the mission.
In the military, Rank is derived from education, experience, time in service, and job performance. You make the prerequisites to enlist or attain a commission, and then you gain rank based on job performance over time. In the corporate world it is mostly the same. The greater the job potential, the higher the initial prerequisites. Rank is earned in the form of job titles, promotion, pay, and benefits.
So how does one gain "rank" in Anonymous? First you must show great aptitude with the technology. Much like street cred, if you do nothing, you earn nothing. Each day dozens of people make "Anonymous" videos and presentations. Suggestions, messages, orders, propaganda, etc. The better the video, or post, the more influence it attains. You must make a good presentations, you must present good ideas, relevant ideas. It takes creativity, ingenuity, and a good use of technical skill. Those with good information, good presentations, draw attention. Those with shoddy videos and posts full of irrelevant or erroneous data draw no or even negative attention.
Ie, one individual posted a video claiming that Anonymous needed to elect a central head or representative, his idea was quickly booed down by those who believed that his idea was flawed or even possibly dangerous. (IE, the poster was an enemy infiltrator trying to spread dangerous ideas) Another random individual may suggest a protest (Possibly local, possibly even international) on a specific date that is relevant to Scientology, a supposed travesty (The death of a COS critic) or the locale (The day a Scientology center opened). His idea gains credibility, the collective agrees with the message. People unify and coalesce, the protests are organized. The protests occur. An anonymous leader is born. His other ideas gain more attention, more posts potentially follow, as long as the individual keeps up the quality of his ideas, and the quality of his posts, his influence will spread.
Its a full out democratic organization, where the leaders are not leaders by appointment or election, but based on their ability to motivate and mobilize the collective, and their ability to grasp the key technologies inherent to the mission.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Where did Anonymous come from?
The history of Scientology is pretty decently documented, provided you are willing to pull the research. But what of the history of Anonymous? Where did this online community come from? How was it formed? What the heck is Anonymous? These are all valid questions.
Anonymous was originally a Meme. A catchphrase. An inside online joke. On many an online form, people would make posts anonymously. A good number of these posts shared certain trends. They had a tendency to be annoying. A tendency to be inflammatory. A tendency to say certain things that were rediculous, hilarious, and somewhat true. An so a meme was born. Somewhere out there was a single individual, hunched over his computer screen, buzzing around the internet leaving random posts at random websites, saying outrageous things purely for the entertainment value.
Interestingly enough, the law enforcement and medical community have a similiar meme. Its the story of a man called "Sumdood". Sumdood hides drugs in peoples houses. Sumdood plants pot on your property in the middle of the night. Sumdood sells stolen goods to unsuspecting victims, spikes peoples drinks, and gets into random fistfights.
And so eventually, a group of hackers and computer users were born, taking the title of thier favorite meme. They started on relatively unkown message forums, that quickly splintered into multiple forums as members got mad at Forum admins and left to start thier own websites, or recruited new freinds on other sites. Anonymous quickly gained a reputation for online pranks, tricks, and jokes, separated into two basic classifications.
Lols, and Lulz. Lols (Laugh out loud) are considered harmless pranks and jokes. Purely for entertainment value. Lulz have a darker side. The purpose of a LULz is to specifically target a group or individual for pranking. To laugh at the suffering of others.
One of the most famous Lulz occured prior to the release of the last JK Rowling book from the Harry Potter series. Various hacking and online groups united to release plot spoilers prior to the books official release date all across the internet. When the lines started gathering to purchase the books at stores various individuals would run in and shout plot spoilers to the waiting crowds, telling them what characters would die on what pages, which two characters would wind up together by the end of the book. Many fans were irritated and infuriated at this, Anonymous gained a reputation as being particularly cruel due to the fact that the prank targeted mostly children and young fans.
For the most part, Anonymous was simply a very loose group of online pranksters and hackers.
But then something happened. An internal video from the Church of Scientology starring Tom Cruise was leaked online to the popular website Youtube. Various computer users ripped the video in order to make parodies and various mashup videos. Various other websites grabbed the video in order to post on thier websites largely for the same purpose. The Church of Scientology contacted Youtube and demanded that the video be pulled. Youtube complied, as is its standard policy regarding copyrighted material. The Church then began a widespread effort to contact the other websites that had grabbed the file and have it pulled from thier servers as well.
According to unofficial rumor, things got pretty nasty. COS was threatening copyright lawsuits. Users were angry when thier parody videos and the independent creations they had made utilizing the video were being pulled. COS pretty much hunted down each and every website holding the video, and threatened them with legal action if the video, and all videos using said video were not removed from circulation.
And so you wound up with a large population of rather irate site admins and users. The internet community at large has always had a flair for stretching if not ignoring standard copyright laws.The media industry, in particular the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have a particularly bad reputation online. But the COS was considered even worse. COS is a religion where all of its sources and relics are copyrighted. Its symbols are copyrighted, its scriptures are copyrighted, all of its associated media is copyrighted. The MPAA and RIAA is mostly known for using passive means to try to prevent pirating, (DMRA software, advertising campaigns, etc). The RIAA has on occasion managed to sue and shut down a few large file sharing websites, it has largely left alone the individual users. There was one campaign to sue individual users, but it resulted in a public relations nightmare as elderly women with file sharing kids and people with pirated wireless routers were swept up in a mass and poorly organized dragnet.
And so an online call to arms was put forth. A single video was aired on youtube, an open declaration of war. The first waves were the original hacking groups. the COS websites were shutdown if not defaced, thier printers and faxes were bombarded with "Black fax" attacks. Attacks where your printer or copier prints endless reams of sheets that are nothing but big black boxes, until the printer runs out of ink. The forum groups were joined by individual hackers and computer users, from the highly skilled computer experts down to the average computer users, so called "Script kiddies".
COS rebutted with a public relations campaign claiming religious persecution, while hiring a well known computer security company to secure thier websites. Individual users began searching out data on COS and building Anti COS videos to be posted online in order to recruit still more people and in order to sway public opinion. Eventually the online war spilled offline in the form of protests outside of Scientology buildings and churches, the first mass protests occurring in February 2008.
Anonymous did indeed start out as loose organizations, but it has taken a path that is inverse of the usual popular movement. While most popular movements start out disorganized, and slowly coalesce into more organized forms and organizations, the opposite has, and continues to occur with Anonymous. It started out as a few loose groups composed of hackers. But the call to arms was put out to all individuals, and many members strive to take their anonymity seriously. Individual computer users feel compelled to take direct action in whatever way they see fit, rather then contact a central organization or fall in line with any form of command infrastructure.
Its a simple system, you call for individuals to take action, and the individuals decide how, why, when and what action they will take. There is no organization, no true command infrastructure. This is the fluid structure that is anonymous.
So now you know where Anonymous came from, Relatively speeking. But where is it going? What are its weaknesses, if any? How do these mass numbers of individuals effect (Either negatively or positively) the efficiency and effectiveness of the group collective? More to come later.
Anonymous was originally a Meme. A catchphrase. An inside online joke. On many an online form, people would make posts anonymously. A good number of these posts shared certain trends. They had a tendency to be annoying. A tendency to be inflammatory. A tendency to say certain things that were rediculous, hilarious, and somewhat true. An so a meme was born. Somewhere out there was a single individual, hunched over his computer screen, buzzing around the internet leaving random posts at random websites, saying outrageous things purely for the entertainment value.
Interestingly enough, the law enforcement and medical community have a similiar meme. Its the story of a man called "Sumdood". Sumdood hides drugs in peoples houses. Sumdood plants pot on your property in the middle of the night. Sumdood sells stolen goods to unsuspecting victims, spikes peoples drinks, and gets into random fistfights.
And so eventually, a group of hackers and computer users were born, taking the title of thier favorite meme. They started on relatively unkown message forums, that quickly splintered into multiple forums as members got mad at Forum admins and left to start thier own websites, or recruited new freinds on other sites. Anonymous quickly gained a reputation for online pranks, tricks, and jokes, separated into two basic classifications.
Lols, and Lulz. Lols (Laugh out loud) are considered harmless pranks and jokes. Purely for entertainment value. Lulz have a darker side. The purpose of a LULz is to specifically target a group or individual for pranking. To laugh at the suffering of others.
One of the most famous Lulz occured prior to the release of the last JK Rowling book from the Harry Potter series. Various hacking and online groups united to release plot spoilers prior to the books official release date all across the internet. When the lines started gathering to purchase the books at stores various individuals would run in and shout plot spoilers to the waiting crowds, telling them what characters would die on what pages, which two characters would wind up together by the end of the book. Many fans were irritated and infuriated at this, Anonymous gained a reputation as being particularly cruel due to the fact that the prank targeted mostly children and young fans.
For the most part, Anonymous was simply a very loose group of online pranksters and hackers.
But then something happened. An internal video from the Church of Scientology starring Tom Cruise was leaked online to the popular website Youtube. Various computer users ripped the video in order to make parodies and various mashup videos. Various other websites grabbed the video in order to post on thier websites largely for the same purpose. The Church of Scientology contacted Youtube and demanded that the video be pulled. Youtube complied, as is its standard policy regarding copyrighted material. The Church then began a widespread effort to contact the other websites that had grabbed the file and have it pulled from thier servers as well.
According to unofficial rumor, things got pretty nasty. COS was threatening copyright lawsuits. Users were angry when thier parody videos and the independent creations they had made utilizing the video were being pulled. COS pretty much hunted down each and every website holding the video, and threatened them with legal action if the video, and all videos using said video were not removed from circulation.
And so you wound up with a large population of rather irate site admins and users. The internet community at large has always had a flair for stretching if not ignoring standard copyright laws.The media industry, in particular the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have a particularly bad reputation online. But the COS was considered even worse. COS is a religion where all of its sources and relics are copyrighted. Its symbols are copyrighted, its scriptures are copyrighted, all of its associated media is copyrighted. The MPAA and RIAA is mostly known for using passive means to try to prevent pirating, (DMRA software, advertising campaigns, etc). The RIAA has on occasion managed to sue and shut down a few large file sharing websites, it has largely left alone the individual users. There was one campaign to sue individual users, but it resulted in a public relations nightmare as elderly women with file sharing kids and people with pirated wireless routers were swept up in a mass and poorly organized dragnet.
And so an online call to arms was put forth. A single video was aired on youtube, an open declaration of war. The first waves were the original hacking groups. the COS websites were shutdown if not defaced, thier printers and faxes were bombarded with "Black fax" attacks. Attacks where your printer or copier prints endless reams of sheets that are nothing but big black boxes, until the printer runs out of ink. The forum groups were joined by individual hackers and computer users, from the highly skilled computer experts down to the average computer users, so called "Script kiddies".
COS rebutted with a public relations campaign claiming religious persecution, while hiring a well known computer security company to secure thier websites. Individual users began searching out data on COS and building Anti COS videos to be posted online in order to recruit still more people and in order to sway public opinion. Eventually the online war spilled offline in the form of protests outside of Scientology buildings and churches, the first mass protests occurring in February 2008.
Anonymous did indeed start out as loose organizations, but it has taken a path that is inverse of the usual popular movement. While most popular movements start out disorganized, and slowly coalesce into more organized forms and organizations, the opposite has, and continues to occur with Anonymous. It started out as a few loose groups composed of hackers. But the call to arms was put out to all individuals, and many members strive to take their anonymity seriously. Individual computer users feel compelled to take direct action in whatever way they see fit, rather then contact a central organization or fall in line with any form of command infrastructure.
Its a simple system, you call for individuals to take action, and the individuals decide how, why, when and what action they will take. There is no organization, no true command infrastructure. This is the fluid structure that is anonymous.
So now you know where Anonymous came from, Relatively speeking. But where is it going? What are its weaknesses, if any? How do these mass numbers of individuals effect (Either negatively or positively) the efficiency and effectiveness of the group collective? More to come later.
Friday, May 9, 2008
A brief history of Cyber warfare theory.
In the beginning, there were the theorists. The US government looked at its thinktanks, and said "Tell us what you think might happen. Tell us the future of Cyber warfare," and so the thinktanks went to thier underground bunkers, postured and postulated, and came up with a scary picture of what Cyberwar would look like.
The government painted picture of cyber war was one of cloaks and daggers. hostile states infiltrating eachothers networks. Secrets being stolen, data being collected. Communications would be jammed, mainframes and intranets would come crashing down under Denial of Service assaults. Satelites would go dark, nuclear weapons would be detonated purely for thier Electromagnetic pulse properties, the ability to fry all electronices for miles around.
Of course the government was wrong, for the most part. You can't blame the government think tanks for trying, but you must wonder if we could have possibly saved money by just asking Madame Cleo to read the cards for a good idea of the future of cyberwarfare.
Granted, there are cyber spies out there. The Chinese government for one is infamous for attempting to hack into DOD computers. But does cyber spying really count as cyber warfare? In my opinion, no. Spying has always been prevelant. Machiavelli and Sun Tzu both wrote reams about the topic. Spying is business as usual. Spying is the war that is present in the absence of war. Enemies spy on eachother, allies spy on each other. Diplomats spy, and are granted political immunity to ensure their safety while doing it. The internet just provides the spy world with yet another dimension to operate in. Some spies skulk in the night, some dive through dumpsters in search of documents, and some hack the internet.
And what of all the DDOS and EMP pulse weapons? What about GPS and comm satellite jamming? Sorry, close but not quite also. Signals intelligence and electronic warfare has been part of the military equation for quite some time too. In the tactical environment it takes the form of chaff and flares, Radar jamming, radio jamming. And spyplanes that study enemy radio and radar systems. Yet again, the internet merely gives the enemy another dimension to practice a new form of the same old game.
No, we're talking about Cyber War. A new and complete form of warfare. A form of warfare where the internet isn't a side show, but the show.
Anonymous now practices this form of warfare. Its entire Command, control, and communications infrastructure is based online. Its propaganda machine is based online. Its leaders value and impact is fundamentally linked with their knowledge and ability to utilize the internet and the technology to their advantage. The only real world offline activities are the peaceful protests that they coordinate. Those are coordinated online, afterwards the videos are posted online as part of the propaganda machine. It lives on the internet, it fights on the internet, it would be nothing without the internet.
So what is anonymous? No one knows. Its not an organization, its not a club. Its not a society. It can't even really be defined as "A group of people..." Anonymous is an unknown number of individuals who has declared a cyber war on the church of Scientology due to a reason that is personal to each member of anonymous. There are no leaders. There are no foot soldiers. Coordination and participation is entirely voluntary. Terrorist groups are arranged in small cells. Tiny groups of people isolated from the rest of the organization for the purpose of maintaining operational and information security. The survival and successfulness of the cell is entirely dependent on these security measures. They must appear normal, they must go unnoticed. If they are detected, the damage must be minimized, for that reason they operate in secrecy and with a minimal amount of personal data. Anonymous takes the principles and elevates them to the Forefront. Individual members are a cell of one. Most terrorists are tripped up by their inability to assimiliate into a hostile environment, and their own pride and ego. Anonymous members pride themselves on the key to their undetectability. Their anonymity.
When you take the one aspect of your operatoins that is linked to your survival and effectiveness, and make it a key tenet of your culture, you are rewarded with a combat unit that is surprisingly resilient. Anonymous has done just that.
That is the strengths of anonymous. Of course, there are weaknessses. Those I will probably expound upon in the next post.
The government painted picture of cyber war was one of cloaks and daggers. hostile states infiltrating eachothers networks. Secrets being stolen, data being collected. Communications would be jammed, mainframes and intranets would come crashing down under Denial of Service assaults. Satelites would go dark, nuclear weapons would be detonated purely for thier Electromagnetic pulse properties, the ability to fry all electronices for miles around.
Of course the government was wrong, for the most part. You can't blame the government think tanks for trying, but you must wonder if we could have possibly saved money by just asking Madame Cleo to read the cards for a good idea of the future of cyberwarfare.
Granted, there are cyber spies out there. The Chinese government for one is infamous for attempting to hack into DOD computers. But does cyber spying really count as cyber warfare? In my opinion, no. Spying has always been prevelant. Machiavelli and Sun Tzu both wrote reams about the topic. Spying is business as usual. Spying is the war that is present in the absence of war. Enemies spy on eachother, allies spy on each other. Diplomats spy, and are granted political immunity to ensure their safety while doing it. The internet just provides the spy world with yet another dimension to operate in. Some spies skulk in the night, some dive through dumpsters in search of documents, and some hack the internet.
And what of all the DDOS and EMP pulse weapons? What about GPS and comm satellite jamming? Sorry, close but not quite also. Signals intelligence and electronic warfare has been part of the military equation for quite some time too. In the tactical environment it takes the form of chaff and flares, Radar jamming, radio jamming. And spyplanes that study enemy radio and radar systems. Yet again, the internet merely gives the enemy another dimension to practice a new form of the same old game.
No, we're talking about Cyber War. A new and complete form of warfare. A form of warfare where the internet isn't a side show, but the show.
Anonymous now practices this form of warfare. Its entire Command, control, and communications infrastructure is based online. Its propaganda machine is based online. Its leaders value and impact is fundamentally linked with their knowledge and ability to utilize the internet and the technology to their advantage. The only real world offline activities are the peaceful protests that they coordinate. Those are coordinated online, afterwards the videos are posted online as part of the propaganda machine. It lives on the internet, it fights on the internet, it would be nothing without the internet.
So what is anonymous? No one knows. Its not an organization, its not a club. Its not a society. It can't even really be defined as "A group of people..." Anonymous is an unknown number of individuals who has declared a cyber war on the church of Scientology due to a reason that is personal to each member of anonymous. There are no leaders. There are no foot soldiers. Coordination and participation is entirely voluntary. Terrorist groups are arranged in small cells. Tiny groups of people isolated from the rest of the organization for the purpose of maintaining operational and information security. The survival and successfulness of the cell is entirely dependent on these security measures. They must appear normal, they must go unnoticed. If they are detected, the damage must be minimized, for that reason they operate in secrecy and with a minimal amount of personal data. Anonymous takes the principles and elevates them to the Forefront. Individual members are a cell of one. Most terrorists are tripped up by their inability to assimiliate into a hostile environment, and their own pride and ego. Anonymous members pride themselves on the key to their undetectability. Their anonymity.
When you take the one aspect of your operatoins that is linked to your survival and effectiveness, and make it a key tenet of your culture, you are rewarded with a combat unit that is surprisingly resilient. Anonymous has done just that.
That is the strengths of anonymous. Of course, there are weaknessses. Those I will probably expound upon in the next post.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Pending posts and postulations on the future of Cyber Warfare
While I'm pondering out my plans to upgrade my electronics, I'm also busy brainstorming what I want my next post to be about.
How about mixing religion, technology, politics, and military matters? What the heck do all these things have in common? How can all these topics possibly be condensed into one single post topic?
Funny you ask.
You see, right now there is a bit of a cyber war going on. Its being perpetuated as a battle between a loose alliance of online hackers known as Anonymous vs the Church of Scientology. The battle is cyber in nature, seeing as how it first started online, the "first shots were fired" when hackers dragged down the COS websites, and has recently spilled into real life via mass public demonstrations and peaceful protests.
So of course you have the Cyber side of the story, A mass group of computer users trying to shut down the COS online capabilitiies.
You have the religious angle, the COS claiming that they are being harassed due to thier religion. You have the tech aspect, how the hackers manage to run these attacks and coordinate the global protests and information campaign,
you have the political aspect from how both sides run info and propaganda campaigns. The COS requests that the government do more to punish "Cyber crime" while Anonymous requests the government investigate COS and pull their tax exempt status for religious education.
The military aspect is simple. How far will this 'cyber war' go? Will it lead to other cyber wars? Will the Church of Scientology manage to push the government into reinforcing its overwatch and policing of the internet? Will Anonymous attempt to declare war on other organizations that it does not agree with? How will this effect the face and nature of cyberwarfare? A relatively new and yet potent landscape where not just nations, but anyone with a laptop and a little bit of knowledge and can strike at thier foes?
I'm still pulling my research. But until then, I hunted this video down. Its the original declaration of war posted by Anonymous against the Church of Scientology.
How about mixing religion, technology, politics, and military matters? What the heck do all these things have in common? How can all these topics possibly be condensed into one single post topic?
Funny you ask.
You see, right now there is a bit of a cyber war going on. Its being perpetuated as a battle between a loose alliance of online hackers known as Anonymous vs the Church of Scientology. The battle is cyber in nature, seeing as how it first started online, the "first shots were fired" when hackers dragged down the COS websites, and has recently spilled into real life via mass public demonstrations and peaceful protests.
So of course you have the Cyber side of the story, A mass group of computer users trying to shut down the COS online capabilitiies.
You have the religious angle, the COS claiming that they are being harassed due to thier religion. You have the tech aspect, how the hackers manage to run these attacks and coordinate the global protests and information campaign,
you have the political aspect from how both sides run info and propaganda campaigns. The COS requests that the government do more to punish "Cyber crime" while Anonymous requests the government investigate COS and pull their tax exempt status for religious education.
The military aspect is simple. How far will this 'cyber war' go? Will it lead to other cyber wars? Will the Church of Scientology manage to push the government into reinforcing its overwatch and policing of the internet? Will Anonymous attempt to declare war on other organizations that it does not agree with? How will this effect the face and nature of cyberwarfare? A relatively new and yet potent landscape where not just nations, but anyone with a laptop and a little bit of knowledge and can strike at thier foes?
I'm still pulling my research. But until then, I hunted this video down. Its the original declaration of war posted by Anonymous against the Church of Scientology.
I hopped online yesterday and ordered a 4gig RAM kit for my Toshiba laptop, I'm planning on the eventual retirement and scavenging of my E-machine desktop. My plan is to upgrade the laptop, park the desktop offline, and then come July use my leftover clothing allowance to purchase a barebones kit and build my new computer. I'm going to scavenge the Harddrive, Power unit, graphics card, and possibly some of the fans and cabling from my old computer, but I'm in serious need of a new CPU chip, new case, new ram, and mobo. I hate to say it, but I'm also going to have to convert to Vista. (Oh Noes!)
Man, the old Emachine has chugged along nicely thusfar. About the only thing left over that is factory original is her CPU, mobo, optical drive, and case. New RAM, new PSU, Its' on its second video card, its original hard drive was gutted out, the replacement for the original is now slaved to a new 500 gig hard drive. Its on its second set of RAM, the first replacement set was scavenged from the computer before. The computer has gone through about two sets of everything. I'm surprised it turned out to be that ESD resistant. I figured I would have fried it by now. My apartment isn't exactly an ESD work lab.
In the meantime, my TV is probably going to go toast when the TV stations all go digital in 09, in any event I absolutely refuse to move it anytime, so its going to get replaced whenever I; A: have to move again, B: get bored enough to buy a new flatpanel C: it stops working due to the digital signal conversion, and I'm too lazy to get a converter D: It dies due to old age and dust inhalation.
So yeah, I'm upgrading my computers, I'm pondering upgrading my television, and I'm also considering getting a new mattress in the not too distant future because the current mattress I have is a little too soft for my back.
Theres also the fact that I've been making eyes at a cute little Ruger 22LR pistol I saw. I could really use a cheap practice pistol. Or maybe a rifle. Either way, I want a 22.
Man, the old Emachine has chugged along nicely thusfar. About the only thing left over that is factory original is her CPU, mobo, optical drive, and case. New RAM, new PSU, Its' on its second video card, its original hard drive was gutted out, the replacement for the original is now slaved to a new 500 gig hard drive. Its on its second set of RAM, the first replacement set was scavenged from the computer before. The computer has gone through about two sets of everything. I'm surprised it turned out to be that ESD resistant. I figured I would have fried it by now. My apartment isn't exactly an ESD work lab.
In the meantime, my TV is probably going to go toast when the TV stations all go digital in 09, in any event I absolutely refuse to move it anytime, so its going to get replaced whenever I; A: have to move again, B: get bored enough to buy a new flatpanel C: it stops working due to the digital signal conversion, and I'm too lazy to get a converter D: It dies due to old age and dust inhalation.
So yeah, I'm upgrading my computers, I'm pondering upgrading my television, and I'm also considering getting a new mattress in the not too distant future because the current mattress I have is a little too soft for my back.
Theres also the fact that I've been making eyes at a cute little Ruger 22LR pistol I saw. I could really use a cheap practice pistol. Or maybe a rifle. Either way, I want a 22.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Well, today was rainy and ugly, so I went to my indoor range with the Glock, I'm hoping tomorrow has sunny skies so I can go to my outdoor range and burn some .303 through the Enfield.
The Glock19 was pure fun at the range. The grips a little wide, but the recoil characteristics are very light. Unfortunately it has an insatiable appetite for lead, and I ran my magazines empty surprisingly quick.
My ammo storage is overflowing, I'm thinking I'm going to have to get another ammo can for my 9mm luger and 45 ACP. I've got two ammo cans stuffed full of everything, and two blister packs full of 303 stocked up on the shelves. I'm sure to have a lot more ammo just as soon as I get my 45 brass reloaded. If I ever get around to that, man I'm lazy as of late.
In the meantime, I'm considering some of the new movies coming out. Iron Man looks fun, I've always been a fan of the comic book movies. The cheap theater across the street is showing Ben Stiens Expelled, a movie about how the scientific community oppresses anyone in thier ranks who dare to question the theory of Evolution. I'm thinking about hitting up both tomorrow, I might just run out to the range in the morning, catch Ben Stiens movie in the afternoon, and save Iron man for a later time. I'm also waiting for the new Batman movie to come out, its supposed to hit in July. I've always been a big fan of the Dark Knight, The Joker is my favorite villain. I'm loving the direction of this movie series, gutting all the glitz and camp and focusing on the characters.
As far as sleep this weekend goes, I kicked myself out of bed at noon today, fell asleep again at eight PM, promptly woke up at 10PM, and have been awake ever since.
I'm officially in my retraining cycle, so I've got to catch enough time at work to hit the computer and work on that little project. I'm hoping and praying for a Flight Engineer slot still, I'll take aerial gunner if I can get it, but I haven't looked at the slot sheet in so long I honestly don't know what jobs are open. Unfortunately its a bad time to retrain, too late to get a good job from the FY08 list, a little too early to solidly rely on picking up an Fy09 slot. Most the good jobs are got already, and the jobs with under manning are still hoping for a random surge of people before filing their "Please send us people!" paperwork yet.
The Glock19 was pure fun at the range. The grips a little wide, but the recoil characteristics are very light. Unfortunately it has an insatiable appetite for lead, and I ran my magazines empty surprisingly quick.
My ammo storage is overflowing, I'm thinking I'm going to have to get another ammo can for my 9mm luger and 45 ACP. I've got two ammo cans stuffed full of everything, and two blister packs full of 303 stocked up on the shelves. I'm sure to have a lot more ammo just as soon as I get my 45 brass reloaded. If I ever get around to that, man I'm lazy as of late.
In the meantime, I'm considering some of the new movies coming out. Iron Man looks fun, I've always been a fan of the comic book movies. The cheap theater across the street is showing Ben Stiens Expelled, a movie about how the scientific community oppresses anyone in thier ranks who dare to question the theory of Evolution. I'm thinking about hitting up both tomorrow, I might just run out to the range in the morning, catch Ben Stiens movie in the afternoon, and save Iron man for a later time. I'm also waiting for the new Batman movie to come out, its supposed to hit in July. I've always been a big fan of the Dark Knight, The Joker is my favorite villain. I'm loving the direction of this movie series, gutting all the glitz and camp and focusing on the characters.
As far as sleep this weekend goes, I kicked myself out of bed at noon today, fell asleep again at eight PM, promptly woke up at 10PM, and have been awake ever since.
I'm officially in my retraining cycle, so I've got to catch enough time at work to hit the computer and work on that little project. I'm hoping and praying for a Flight Engineer slot still, I'll take aerial gunner if I can get it, but I haven't looked at the slot sheet in so long I honestly don't know what jobs are open. Unfortunately its a bad time to retrain, too late to get a good job from the FY08 list, a little too early to solidly rely on picking up an Fy09 slot. Most the good jobs are got already, and the jobs with under manning are still hoping for a random surge of people before filing their "Please send us people!" paperwork yet.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Well, my shop just completed a big inspection, and we're finally getting a weekend off. I think I'm going to hit up the shooting range, and see how my Lee Enfield and Glock perform.
In other news, I test for Staff Sergeant next week. I have a training appointment the week after that, and a dental the week after that. Throw in the annual airshow, and my volunteering for paint your heart out, and I'm stuck doing a lot this month. Too much to come home anytime soon, a fact that really really really really annoys the daylights out of me.
In the meanwhile, my sleep schedule is all jacked up, my social life has pretty much gone from nearly nonexistent to actually nonexistent, and I haven't been working out the way I should be. Oh, and I've been eating everything that isn't bolted down. And still not gaining any weight. I think I might be up to 135 now, but I really don't know for sure.
This is turning into a wierd time for me, for the first time ever I'm starting to care about the way I look. Maybe its the fact that I haven't gone single this long since I was fifteen. I'm pale as a ghost, I'm underweight, and I've lost alot of my general muscle tone ever since I stopped moving refridgerators for a living, and started turning bolts for the Airforce. Going from a maintenance job to a desk job hasn't helped at all.
That and my clothes are all leftovers from my highschool days.
Oh well, I'm still smart. I'm still witty, and I've still got some pimpin' six pack abs. Now if only I could over this whole introvert thing I've got going on....
In other news, I test for Staff Sergeant next week. I have a training appointment the week after that, and a dental the week after that. Throw in the annual airshow, and my volunteering for paint your heart out, and I'm stuck doing a lot this month. Too much to come home anytime soon, a fact that really really really really annoys the daylights out of me.
In the meanwhile, my sleep schedule is all jacked up, my social life has pretty much gone from nearly nonexistent to actually nonexistent, and I haven't been working out the way I should be. Oh, and I've been eating everything that isn't bolted down. And still not gaining any weight. I think I might be up to 135 now, but I really don't know for sure.
This is turning into a wierd time for me, for the first time ever I'm starting to care about the way I look. Maybe its the fact that I haven't gone single this long since I was fifteen. I'm pale as a ghost, I'm underweight, and I've lost alot of my general muscle tone ever since I stopped moving refridgerators for a living, and started turning bolts for the Airforce. Going from a maintenance job to a desk job hasn't helped at all.
That and my clothes are all leftovers from my highschool days.
Oh well, I'm still smart. I'm still witty, and I've still got some pimpin' six pack abs. Now if only I could over this whole introvert thing I've got going on....
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