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Most Consumers Support Government Cyber-Spying
scurtis writes "Nearly two thirds of computer users globally believe that it is acceptable for their country to spy on other nations by hacking or installing malware, according to Sophos's mid-year 2010 Security Threat Report. And 23 percent claimed to support this action even during peacetime. Perhaps more surprisingly, 32 percent of respondents said that countries should also be allowed to plant malware and hack into private foreign companies in order to spy for economic advantage."
So why not take the best hackers of the United States and train them to hack China, Iran, Iraq or whereever the foreign networks are? It's not like the foreign networks aren't hacking the US networks.
Also it creates jobs. Since most people on Slashdot work in these industries imagine the amount of jobs the billions of dollars of funding will create for all of us? High paying jobs for American citizens.
I think that it has less to do with governments and more to do with the paranoid, tribalist mentality that the so-called "civillized" world is regressing into.
H.O.A.'s, for example. Vigilante partols. "Concerned Citizens". Gang-stalking. Surges in the popularity of MMA.
The role of the government in this case is to turn half the population against the other half to distract them from the fact that they are robbing the population blind.
They don't agree with "whatever the government does." They agree with their government spying on other governments. This is not new. This has always been the case. It's on computers now. So what? Same old thing.
Your government can either believe another government's public statements or they can attempt to verify those statements with espionage. You will have far better data by doing both, which is why we've been doing it for so long.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Nobody's national anthem begins with "We're Number Two!" So naturally, they believe that they're most entitled to rule over everybody else. However, every country has this attitude. Therefore, nobody will have any privacy until they reject that patriotic sense of entitlement.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
as long as people identify themselves as french, or muslim, or black, or brazilian, or christian, or asian, or whatever
before they identify themselves as human
when you identify your nationality, or your religion, or your race, as your primary source of pride and your primary source of identity, you are what is wrong with this world, you have just committed the original sin, which allows all the wars and transgressions and crimes you see in this world to take place
pride in some arbitrary signifier, above your basic humanity, is the opening move in the game of dehumanizing all other nationalities, or religions, or races, and thereby accepting or rationalizing or acknowledging, even if simply by staying silent, atrocities against other, fellow, human beings
you can still be proud of your nationality, or your religion, or your race, of course
as long as you identify as a human being, first and foremost, above and beyond anything else, and you know that your pride in your nationality, religion, or race, is but a triviality, not a serious factor in your life
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I think that it has less to do with governments and more to do with the paranoid, tribalist mentality that the so-called "civillized" world is regressing into.
H.O.A.'s, for example. Vigilante partols. "Concerned Citizens". Gang-stalking. Surges in the popularity of MMA.
The role of the government in this case is to turn half the population against the other half to distract them from the fact that they are robbing the population blind.
How the heck do you connect gangstalking with the surging popularity of MMA, and vigilantism? Do you have a theory? Maybe you should explain in more detail in your post because you didn't make any effing sense.
It's pretty funny how everyone was outraged when that russian spy was caught, and calling for his imprisonment or execution or whatever, but the same people give you a blank puzzled look when you point out that they strongly support espionage when it's the US doing the spying...
Most consumers are raging idiots.
Thats cool with me. That also means the government shouldn't turn around and get their knickers in a knot if some guy hacks into NASA; while they want to install Trojans in china.
Rocket Surgeon.
What's that?
Gangstalking and vigilantism are one and the same (or opposite sides of the same coin). MMA is how they satisfy their anticipation and prepare for inter-tribal violence. H.O.A.'s are the tribes. Example:
[ Brutish, steroid-addled fuckface walks up to me as I read a book and walk down the sidewalk ]
Hey, how are you doing?
- Um, good, you?
What are you doing here?
- I'm walking to the bus-stop down the street.
Where are you from?
- University dormitories.
Where are you going?
- A humanist meeting at the local coffee shop.
Is that one of those terrorist religions? I don't like your haircut, you lowerin' my property values, you ain't welcome any more. You're a kook. Look at you, with your glasses and your lit-er-a-ture. We'll be watchin' you!
And 72% of news articles misrepresent the news. Seriously, the vast majority of the poll respondents (or shall I call them consumers?) were opposed to governments spying during peacetime. The majority were ok with it during war, but presumably dropping bombs on a country is significantly more serious than cyber-espionoge, and frankly I wonder why anyone would be opposed to spying if we are at war already. It might end the war earlier and save lives on both sides.
Qxe4
Maybe it is beyond their fathoming that American spies might be less than uncatchable superhuman archons of divine justice.
Execution makes sense for those Russian mortals that dared dabble in arts only perfectable in the name of White Baby Jesus of America.
On the other hand, the blank stare could be a sign that you just got through to the person. Thinking new thoughts, especially ones that invalidate previously held beliefs can take time.
It is also perfectly reasonable that the person may not have wanted to give you the satisfaction of knowing you were right after whatever conversation you had just shared.
Anyhow, keep on trucking.
False dichotomy. I'm both a consumer and a citizen, aren't you?
What a crock of shit. You do realize that at one point in human history people were slaughtered for religion, thrown into an arena to fight to the death, and tortured for being gay/the wrong religion/funny looking? And that this was government-backed activity in the same civilized world that is now somehow 'regressing?' When was humanity ever any less violent than it is now? I'll give you a hint: never.
Just because shit kinda sucks now doesn't mean there was any point in history that sticks out as some beacon of truth, justice, and love. Because it never happened.
The stories and info posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only fools would take it as fact.
For example, I wouldn't be surprised that this 2/3rd advocating government spying, constituted mostly of Chinese computer users, that have been brainwashed by the Chinese government propaganda. China is the most populated country in the world after all.
And considering that even in USA, the other country with highest number of computer users, over half of the population voted in Bush for a second term and what with the war on terror propaganda. It implies that at least half the Americans will willingly and happily live in 1984, if they are told that it is necessary to "keep them terrorists away".
I scanned the actual Sophos report and nowhere did I see a presentation of how the sample was drawn, how it's distributed across countries, of the level of sophistication of the respondents. At a minimum, I'd like to see the sample divided out by countries or regions. Talking about "computer users globally" requires some substantial documentation before I'll believe they've even come close to drawing a world-wide sample, much less one that is statistically representative of computer users worldwide. How many people did they interview in China, India, or Kenya? How was a "computer user" defined? Any study as bold as to claim that it represents the attitudes of "computer users globally" needs a lot more documentation than the article or the Sophos report provide.
The most telling statistic on the kinds of people who might be in the sample comes from responses to the question "Do you think you will quit Facebook over privacy concerns?" If you believe the data from Sophos, Facebook should be seeing a mass exodus. About 18% of the respondents say they've already left Facebook for this reason, and another 30% claim to be "highly likely" to quit. It's hard to take these figures seriously when Facebook just recently reporting having over half a billion accounts.
By the way, the section of the report entitled "No OS is Risk Free" talks only of Windows and OS/X. While I don't think Linux is "risk-free" either, I'm guessing Sophos writes reports for organizations on the platforms that generate its income. Sophos is hardly a distinterested party when it comes to evaluating operating systems and platforms.
I don't see why this is so surprising. Most people recognize that their own governments spy on other countries as part of legitimate defense of their country.
Of course, the question asked by the media is far too broad to be meaningful. They don't ask whether they support their government spying on other countries when it's not legitimate defense of their country. And they don't ask whether they support their government spying on their own country, whether it's "legitimate" defense of their country or not.
Or whether it's ever legitimate to spy on their own country, violating their fellow citizens' rights instead of protecting them, when there's no probable cause, warrant or other due process. No data on where people accept that line being drawn inside their own country.
So the results are really just another straw on the camel's back of innuendo that pushes headlines about "people support being spied on". Because the corporate mass media and its ecosystem of spook-infested think tanks are so corrupt, lazy and complicit in the globe's many and interlocking police states that all they can do is sell us lies to con us into allowing our own governments to spy on us.
--
make install -not war
It may create jobs, but they do not create value. These jobs are an economic drain. As usual, people who act like douchebags ruin it for the rest of us.
All too true.
The cable news media is also a tool of some political misleaders to put the nation at odds with itself.
Anymore, I see slanted ignorant political garbage polluting public debate, which is really stupid, pathetic and counter productive.
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
heya,
Maybe it's just me, and the fact that I live in Australia and not the US, but your post sounds like some ignorant, crazy little rant.
HOA - Home Owner's Association? I'm guessing that's like, what, our Neighbourhood Watch here in Australia? Last time I checked, that was a bunch of cute little old ladies, and retired schoolteachers, who provide help to lost schoolkids, and keep an eye out for people vandalising cars or trying to break into your house....hardly menancing, and the worst they can do to you is call the police on you...
Vigilante patrols? We don't really have that here, sorry. Maybe it's an American thing?
MMA? Ok, now you've just gone off the deep end. I happen to do MMA, and it's just a martial arts sport, like any other. I'm actually sort of insulted that you would lump it in to your weird, paranoid fantasy.
In fact, the people at my gym happen to be quite friendly, there's several mums/dads who bring their kids there to compete in comps. I can't think of anybody there who would fit into your weird crazy fantasy of people roving the streets a la Clockwork Orange.
And in case you were wondering, I go to here:
http://www.spma.net.au/
The instructors is Elvis Sinosic and Anthony Perosh, both ex-UFC fighters. So they're definitely serious. They just happen to actually be quite nice people. I mean, I don't know Anthony, but last time I checked, Elvis is a family guy, I think, and he rescues animals on his weekends (volunteers at some wildlife rescue thing).
You sound like maybe you've watched Hot Fuzz one too many times, and thought it was a documentary instead of a comedy...lol.
Look, there's no weird government conspiracy. Last time I checked, government departments were more interested in infighting, and navigating bureacratic jungles, then trying to brainwash the popluation, like you said. They can't even cooperate with each other, let alone pull off the sort of strange fantasy you've made up in your head.
A lot of these screwups are probably due to bureaucrats with too much time on their hands, a bit of a power-trip copmlex, and not thinking things through. Sure, sounds good on paper, we'll spy on other countries to protect our citizens, but when you try to implement it in real life, it never works out that well. And like somebody else said, there's always the danger of escalation.
Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
Cheers,
Victor
The remarkable thing is not that humans are into violence. As you've stated that has always been there. The troubling trend about MMA is the acceptance of it. I train more traditional martial arts (Chinese) and the MMA mentality is scary. Those guys have very little respect for themselves, or for others. They put themselves in compromised situations that for most participants will result in permanent, long term injuries. Contrast that with a tradtional art, where the martial exercises are there to strengthen the body and condition the spirit. The ability to break limbs and dislocate bones are a biproduct of the training, not the focus of it.
The level of violence in society has been steadily increasing. There is a certain tolerance for it. From a philosophical point of view, the collective conscious has been conditioned for it. Most people will shrug it off as being a part of life. It takes a conscious effort to perceive just how much conflict and competition underly nearly everything in the media. The alternatives are pushed further and further out to the fringes. It has gotten to the point where anti-war protesters are met with violence and intimidation. We live in a society that has been so conditioned by violence, that the very act of speaking out against violence will often times be perceived as a threat to the system.
In short, all those people agreeing to that crap would probably not be so keen on the steps it would require to insure our security in a world where that behavior is commonplace and acceptable for all governments. Nevermind that we should have been taking those steps for the past several decades because like it or not, that's the world we're heading to.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
[Citation needed]
[Daily Mail doesn't count]
No, I'm a customer and a citizen. 'Customer' is a relationship with a company, and implies that you deserve some kind of 'customer service', while 'consumers' just stand there with their wallets open ready to snatch at whatever the next commercial tells them to.
2/3 of people with money to burn!
AKA poor people don't count!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine