Hackers Are Everywhere. Panic!
July 7th, 2011Via: PC Magazine:
I think the number of recent hacks and the amount of news coverage on these attacks is suspicious. Could they be false flag events to help the government regulate the Internet?
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Out of the blue, Citigroup was hacked, then the CIA, and then the FBI and other groups were hacked. Now I’m finding this a little odd and wondering who is being set up here. Supposedly, some of the hacks of government agencies stem from the arrest of a few hackers in Europe. This is an attempt to make the hackers appear to be online versions of Hezbollah, as there are retaliatory attacks reported. You know, the way terrorists would do it.
It’s all possible, but I’m suspicious of the whole scene. These hackers, who are normally casual in their approach, are made to look like bomb throwing Trotskyites from the 1920s, each wielding a Molotov cocktail and out to overthrow the government.
This above mental image, of course, is for public benefit. By making any one of these hackers appear to be a horrendous threat to public safety, a number of initiatives can be rushed through Congress. All sorts of onerous laws will be passed, which probably will not affect the scene at all but will allow more government intrusion into the Internet. It will become illegal to sell any programming tools that can be used by a hacker, despite the usefulness of these tools to security experts. It will also become a felony to attempt to deconstruct a password or enter a system for whatever reason.
I have predicted for years that at some point people are going to have to be registered and licensed to use the Internet at all. You can see it coming as clear as day. These hackers, of course, have to be stopped, and this is how they’ll do it.
OK, here’s my take on it… Exec summary: No conspiracy, but govts are opportunistic and will exploit any perceived crisis in order to expand power.
Developers are careless and/or ignorant when it comes to security. Case in point: SQL injection holes persist despite being widely publicised and easy to fix (hello Sony). Proper security is rarely budgeted for when it comes to software projects. Pretty much everything now is done via the web. Common web frameworks have vulnerabilities. Use of such frameworks is often discoverable via google search, giving attackers a nice fat target list if they have an exploit.
99% of users still have no idea when it comes to security. If you check out any of the recently disclosed password lists, there are a disturbing number of short, dictionary-word based passwords. Many people share passwords between low-value and high-value sites. If your local pet rabbit owners club PHP forum site gets owned, the attackers shouldn’t be able to use your password to get into your facebook or online banking.
If any sort of licensing scheme comes in for internet use, expect it to be a dismal failure, for the simple reason that it’s devices, not people that use the internet.
begs the question how many of these “hackers” are really ex-crackers that are now paid CI’s and/or straight up intelligence officers.
not to mention most if not all the “networks” aka al-queda are owned and operated by state agencies.
who if anyone “investigates” where these “acts-of-war” originate? or is it just some more or the same incompetent yellow cake BS assuming that it just doesnt matter even if people do get caught red handed? justice is so far from where we are now it wont even matter if people know, there are untouchables in office.
more of the same bs consumption vs. participation dogma. as R.A.W. wrote the state now attempts to exercise controls the church never would have dared attempt.
I’m sure you covered these two events: Stuxnet and the Power Grid Experiment.
I think it/they are the next false flag.
Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ralph_langner_cracking_stuxnet_a_21st_century_cyberweapon.html
Power Grid Experiment
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43532031/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/power-grid-experiment-could-confuse-electric-clocks/
Cyber Combat: Act of War
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_INTL_LSMODULE
“In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. “If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” said a military official.”
Well, maybe I’m a one trick pony, but I thought LulzSec was Fed from day one, or at least useful idiots. Anonymous might not have started Fed (they’ve been around forever), but “their” rise to high profile hackerdom is highly suspicious.
This is really the easiest false flag in the world to pull off. The 5th generation warfare think tanks and gurus have been talking about “superempowered anonymous individuals” for years now. It’s easy to make unaffiliated hackers appear state-sponsored, and easy for state-sponsored hackers to appear unaffiliated.
It’s also terribly convenient timing vis-a-vis talk of internet regulation, an internet “kill switch,” and renewed calls by the FBI to demand loopholes in all encryption.