Wik-An-Ar-Ki in the
Cloud
By: Kent Clizbe
Originally appeared in BigPeace; Dec. 19, 2010
Anarchists in the 19th and early 20th
centuries plotted violence against governments around the globe. Their
anti-organization philosophy was attractive to a strange fringe of social
misfits. Some recognized the reality of might versus right. Some advocated
illegal acts to satisfy personal desires, instead of ideology. Others advocated
a vague belief in free love and multiple sexual partners. Their anti-establishment
beliefs seemed to parallel the objectives of socialists and communists. Anarchists
joined the Russian revolutionaries to fight the Czar.
Zo d’Axa, French
anarchist, a predecessor of Assange
By definition, anarchists are unorganized. But loosely
linked groups of anarchists helped the communist revolution. Less than five
years after the Bolsheviks seized power, anarchists were destroyed by the
communist dictator’s intelligence service. Arrested, convicted, exiled to the
gulag, or executed, the anarchists felt the sting of the dictator’s lash as did
the capitalists they despised.
Emma Goldman, Russian
Anarchist
Fast forward to the 1990s, anarchists were like a global
mobile party. Dressed in black, faces fashionably cloaked in Palestinian head
scarves, they partied at global economic meetings around the globe. Trashing
McDonalds was the anarchist statement of 2000.
Then the internet changed everything. Suddenly thin
techno-geeks who couldn’t get dates were empowered. They could express their
individuality by hacking. They hacked into government systems, commercial
systems, stole credit card numbers, and generally wreaked havoc.
Cloaking their hacking antics in some sort of ideology must
have seemed like a good idea. Some of them cloak themselves in
anti-establishment anarchist robes. Much like the anarchists of a hundred years
ago, these cyberpunks seem to be mostly unable to fit in to society.
Ironically, the tools the anti-establishment, anarchist
hackers use—the internet, personal computers, wireless communications, and
other technology—are the peak achievements of capitalism’s technological and
industrial efforts. Without the combination of advanced social and government
organizations providing the framework for capitalist endeavor, none of the
technology so ably used by the anarchist hackers would even exist.
From the point of view of government and industry security
specialists, the Julian Assange Wikileaks story is a nightmare. One of the
first rules for any security is control. You need control of the input into the
system. You need control of the network itself, the physical wiring or wireless
connections. And you need to control access to your system. But the internet
has thrived on anarchic freedom.
This relative freedom has worked pretty well up to now. Some
countries block the free flow of information. Chinese government wraps any
opinions it doesn’t like in a security blanket, behind the Chinese internet
firewall. Other authoritarian governments control the flow of electrons through
their networks, and control the bits delivered to consumers under their
control.
Now, the anarchist Assange has revealed the ultimate
vulnerability of the “Cloud.” The current Cloud dreams will dissolve with the inevitable
response to the anarchist exposure of massive amounts of classified information.
During the dot.com frenzy of the late 1990’s I was the premier
computational linguist recruiter. No one had the knowledge of the specialty,
combined with a network of professionals that I did. My business was pure
knowledge and relationships. Communicating only on the internet and telephone,
I established relationships with businesses that needed computational
linguists. They paid me to find professionals who were ready, willing and able
to work for them.
Without the internet, I could never have created the
business, nor been successful. But at the same time, I had to protect my
business from the internet. I kept
notes on each candidate and client, candid assessments of their personalities,
and personal and professional needs and requirements. If those private business
files were exposed on the internet, the result would have been disastrous, to
my business, to my clients, and to the candidates.
An early Cloud company offered to put all my recruiting
records and communication on their servers, removing the need for me to
maintain my own databases in house. It didn’t make sense to me—give up control
of the keys to my business, in return for what? I didn’t play, and still don’t.
Losing control of the keys to the business, putting confidential details in the
Cloud seemed insane.
In the same way, governments and companies’ internal
communications and deliberations must be kept secret. These communications are
the internal thought processes of organizations. These are confidential for
good reason. Public exposure would destroy their ability to operate. Protection
of this information is a fundamental right. The U.S. Constitution protects us in
the Bill of Rights—the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Assange and his anarchist buddies illegally obtain personal
and confidential information from free governments, like the U.S., and from businesses.
Like the Russian anarchists after 1917, they may very well soon find the truth
in the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it.”
Although the anti-American forces now sing his praises, it’s
unlikely Assange would prosper in a totalitarian society. Imagine how he or his
fellow anarchists would fare in a Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, or Burmese
prison cell. Assange may soon be begging to spend time in an American prison.
BigPeace.com article: Wik-Anarki
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