The Future of Security
Kvorgette writes "Scott Berinato in The Future of Security presents a very dark future of security in the years around 2010. Several computer security experts expect that a major security-related problem (a 'digital Pearl Harbour') will change software development procedures and remove the freedom in computer use we are striving for. The worst part is, most experts apparently think removal of software tools and access to information from the majority of computer and Internet users would be a good thing."
This is the same (faulty) logic that says that restricting guns stops crime.
Any criminal will, of course, simply ignore a law that prevents them from doing what they want to. That is after all the definition of a criminal -- someone that commits a crime (breaks the law).
The only thing that restricting access to any tool does, is stop those people you don't care about -- those that obey the law. Everyone really knows this, but this is really about control, not security or safety.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Just as the "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC) *needed* a "Pearl Harbor" to implement its police state plans, the forces that wish to shut down and control the information age need a "Digital Pearl Harbor" to implement their digital police state plans.
The phrasing "Digital Pearl Harbor" is used in a fashion very similar to how "Pearl Harbor" is used in the PNAC documents.
For further reading (also: google "PNAC pearl harbor")
Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true. : John Pilger :12 Dec 2002
The cabal of war fanatics advising the White House secretly planned a "transformation" of defense policy years ago, calling for war against Iraq and huge increases in military spending. A "catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor" -- was seen as necessary to bring this about.
March 10 -- Years before George W. Bush entered the White House, and years before the Sept. 11 attacks set the direction of his presidency, a group of influential neo-conservatives hatched a plan to get Saddam Hussein out of power. (...) And in a report just before the 2000 election that would bring Bush to power, the group predicted that the shift would come about slowly, unless there were "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor."
So when events start leading up to "Digital Pearl Harbor" ... make sure you've got all the apps and source code you care about on local storage. Because everything that in any way possible could be utilized by a "digital terrorist" is going to be banned and taken off the net.