[ExI] Anons

[BillK]

On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 12:10 AM, Keith Henson wrote:
> There are many pointers into this complex of stories, all of which
> hinge off Wikileaks.
>
> http://thinkprogress.org/
>
> More than a decade ago I proposed that the training net activists got
> learning to cope with a certain cult would be a warm up exercise for a
> major confrontation with a government.
>
> Then for a while I figured the government had learned from watching
> the fate of said cult.
> They didn't.
>
> Keith
> (HBGary is effectively part of the US government.)
>


Two comments.

First.
The current saying is that companies (and government departments)
spend more on coffee than they do on computer security. The majority
of web sites have been hacked and they still don't care.  It's like
product liability. Until the cost of damages gets high enough they
just won't bother. At the moment companies just say 'sorry' and get a
techie to block the latest attack. They are playing 'Whack-a-mole'
with hackers because it is cheaper.


Second.
To say that HBGary is effectively part of the US government (while
true) is sort of looking at it back to front.
The real problem is corporate takeover of the US government.

See:
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110211/11342913057/wikileaks-wasnt-only-operation-hbgary-federal-palantir-berico-planned-to-defraud.shtml>

But the real issue highlighted by this episode is just how lawless and
unrestrained is the unified axis of government and corporate power.
I've written many times about this issue -- the full-scale merger
between public and private spheres -- because it's easily one of the
most critical yet under-discussed political topics. Especially (though
by no means only) in the worlds of the Surveillance and National
Security State, the powers of the state have become largely
privatized. There is very little separation between government power
and corporate power. Those who wield the latter intrinsically wield
the former. The revolving door between the highest levels of
government and corporate offices rotates so fast and continuously that
it has basically flown off its track and no longer provides even the
minimal barrier it once did. It's not merely that corporate power is
unrestrained; it's worse than that: corporations actively exploit the
power of the state to further entrench and enhance their power.
-----------------------------------------


BillK