Escalating Cyber War Spells Trouble for Internet Freedom

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

The cyber war escalated to a whole new level yesterday. The U.S. government shut down the popular website MegaUpload at the behest of corporate interests. The Feds accused MegaUpload of stealing $500 million in potential lost revenue from copyright holders.

Almost immediately, the hacktivist group Anonymous retaliated by launching massive DDoS attacks on several websites including the US Copyright Office, Department of Justice, FBI.gov, Universal Music Group, Music Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The attack called “Operation MegaUpload” is also said to be targeting Whitehouse.gov.

Many Internet freedom and privacy activists are cheering Anonymous’ assault against the U.S. Government and the corporate interests that control it. But I’m getting the eerie feeling that Anonymous is playing right into the hands of those who wish to control and censor the Internet.

First, I must state unequivocally that the U.S. government and the copyright holders are clearly the aggressors in this war. Their actions violate current copyright laws where the content providers must prove damages in the court of law before they can sabotage and ransack a business they accuse of stealing. Even though a grand jury supposedly indicted MegaUpload, it’s nearly impossible for them to prove “potential lost revenue” since those engaged in file sharing cannot automatically be considered lost customers.  

Because of this conundrum, copyright holders instead lobbied the government to change the laws to legalize this form of censorship through blunt force and without due process. It seems that since the sought-after legislation, SOPA, has been recently shelved due to universal protest, the State was compelled to act above the law to destroy those sharing information on the Web.

Even more suspicious is that some of the chief copyright holders pushing for these new guilty-until-proven-innocent laws were the ones who developed, promoted, and profited from file sharing in the first place. Again, it’s all beginning to feel like a set-up designed to justify Internet censorship, which is clearly the end game for the powers that be.

Thus the cyber war seems to be heading in the same direction as all literal and figurative wars do. Let’s remember that the public never wins in war. War always justifies atrocities against freedom and proves devastating for infrastructure. Fighting fire with fire very rarely results in anything but destruction. And it’s far easier to destroy something than to create a solution.

Senator Lieberman Urges Google to Increase Censorship of Anti-West Blogs

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman sent a letter (PDF) to Google this week urging them to censor anti-West, violent jihadist content on their Blogger platform.

The letter, formally from the Committee on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs which Lieberman chairs, cited the blog of recent "lone wolf" terrorist patsy Jose Pimentel.

"Pimentel allegedly used the Internet to access instructions to make bombs and share his support for violent Islamic extremism," writes Lieberman. "Pimental's (sic) site is just one of the many examples of homegrown terrorists Google-hosted sites to propagate their violent ideology."

Lieberman, no stranger to promoting censorship of the Internet, sent a similar letter in 2008 to then CEO Eric Schmidt requesting that Google-owned YouTube remove videos that contained "offensive material" and "terrorist propaganda".

Lieberman also appeared on CNN in June 2010 praising China's draconian censorship of the Internet and claimed America should have the same ability to shut down Internet content that the U.S. deems dangerous.

In his recent attempt to outlaw information on the Internet, Lieberman applauded Google for complying with his previous request by adding a "flag" option to YouTube videos where anyone can vote the material as offensive or harmful.  Now, Lieberman is strongly urging Google to add the flagging option to all of their content platforms.

Alleged Cyber Attack on U.S. Water Plant is Propoganda To Curb Internet Freedom

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

The Washington Post is reporting that recent damage to an Illinois water treatment plant was a cyber attack by foreign hackers, "Foreign hackers caused a pump at an Illinois water plant to fail last week, according to a preliminary state report."

The narrative of the attack is that a Russian-based hacker created minor "glitches" in the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) which, according to Krebs on Security, is "designed to monitor and control complex industrial networks." Apparently, it caused the system to turn on and off, resulting in the burnout of a water pump.

Despite the alarmist title of the article, DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard cautioned "At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety.”

Although the "original source of the information was unknown and impossible to immediately verify," the claim is allegedly made in a “Public Water District Cyber Intrusion” report.  Industry expert and Department of Homeland Security adviser, Joe Weiss, as if on a publicity tour, called both the Washington Post and Wired with alarmist rhetoric.

Weiss conclusively told the Washington Post, "This is a big deal. It was tracked to Russia. It has been in the system for at least two to three months.  It has caused damage. We don’t know how many other utilities are currently compromised."

Yet, the DHS maintains that there is no credible data or threat, and Don Craven, a water district trustee, told the State Journal-Register that they don't know what caused it and that "the water district is up and running and things are fine.”

Globalist Using London Cyberspace Summit to Push for Global Internet Treaty

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

For the next two days, leaders from around the globe will collude with tech giants to discuss how to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the Internet. Translation: they'll be negotiating a global Internet treaty.

It's reported that officials from 60 countries will join Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Tudou.com (Chinese video sharing site), as well as cyber crime agencies, and computer security firms at the London Conference on Cyberspace.

The London summit is hosted by Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who said the purpose is to "discuss ideas and expected behavior in cyberspace".

To which he claims the goal is bring together major players to determine how "collectively, we should respond to the challenges and opportunities which the development of cyberspace presents."

A few days before the conference, Council on Foreign Relations members Adam Segal and Matthew Waxman wrote that the conference presents those calling for a global Internet treaty with "a step in that direction."

They also pointed out that NATO allies have already essentially agreed to a treaty; "June 2011, NATO defense ministers agreed to a collective vision of cyber defense, and the United States and Australia recently announced that their mutual defense treaty extends to cyberspace."