WSIS Physical Security Cracked

An anonymous reader writes "A group of activists has apparently bypassed physical security checks at the WSIS Meetings. Not only did they bypass the physical security with a fake card, they found the system uses RFID tags to monitor participants -- possibly even who they interact with and their movements through the conference."

Comments

WTF

[scottblascocomposer]

I've really got to stop reading /. because every time I read something like this, I get all frustrated with the ridiculous means the powerful will use to stay powerful. If the RFID tracking assertion is true, am I right in imagining that it probably has no innocuous intention behind it? Or am I just crazy and paranoid because of what's happening to my country right now (USA)?

I just want to go move to some Mediteranean island and grow a garden, buy from the local small businesspeople, and live life free and simple. Is it too much to ask that the folks "in charge" let a true people's democracy develop without being waylaid and corrupted by corporate and special interests?

Whoa. That just got a lot broader than it started! Sorry about that... life in conservative parts of the country gets a bit depressing sometimes :)

Re:U.N. and the Internet

[j-b0y]

I think that the U.N. as an entire organization gets a bad rap due to the going-nowhere and doing-nothing nature of the General Assembly (a talking shop, par excellence) and the Security Council (almost always veto-deadlocked, and impotent even when it does agree on something). However, the ITU, along with other organisations under the U.N. umbrella (like the UNHCR), doesn't actually do a bad job as such.

If it wasn't for some obtuse decisions and the opaque decision-making process which ICANN has specialised in, and the commercialisation of the Internet at a core level (Hi VeriSign!); I doubt very much if anyone would care who ran the Internet. Unfortunately, the running of the Internet does have the look of an elite club about it (for good historical reasons), and those on the outside feel disenfranchised by the process through which decisions are made for them.

In the end, this isn't about who's better at running the Internet, but rather a case of who has the power.