"Big Brother is watching you" was the warning given to citizens of Oceania in George Orwell's novel 1984. The phrase has since become a watchword for intrusive surveillance, especially by government and law enforcement.
How ironic it would be if the purportedly anarchistic and pro-Internet-freedom hacktivist underground was using Big Brother techniques against private citizens. That's just what seems to be happening, according to reports that Th3 Consortium -- another head of the Anonymous-LulzSec hydra -- has been snooping on pornography consumption by government employees.
Anonymous, LulzSec, and their friends and supporters have been vociferous in their criticism of government "snoops (and) busybodies" and militant "fighters for Internet freedom." Some have seen a "disconnect" between Anonymous's "ardent pursuit of 'opening up' governments and private corporations by seemingly any means necessary, and the same supporters outrage at actions by the same governments and corporations that impinge on 'ordinary' citizens right to personal privacy." But this seems much less contradictory than hacktivist conduct, which threatens to expose ordinary citizens.
Th3 Consortium's specialty thus far seems to be hacking porn sites -- specifically three Websites owned by the Luxembourg IT company Manwin. The hackers' latest haul reportedly includes membership details of 70,000 users of Digital Playground, including credit card information. But Th3 Consortium isn't in it for the money -- this is not conventional cybercrime.
Rather more creepily, Th3 Consortium noted that "there was no shortage of .mil and .gov e-mails in their user list." In fact, it seems there were relatively few such addresses on the list -- but the number hardly matters. After all, what are the hackers trying to tell us? That government workers or members of the military watch pornography? Hardly surprising. That they register for these sites using their work emails? Depressingly stupid, but again, hardly a shock.
Or are the freedom-loving hacktivists implying, nastily, that government employees might be exposed as porn consumers as a result of these exploits? We've recently seen MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom proclaiming that DoJ, DoH, and even RIAA employees had been downloading illegal content over BitTorrent.
Taking Dotcom's comments at face value, he at least has a point. If people actively engaged in the campaign against piracy have been happily opening the popcorn in front of stolen episodes of Dexter, then they are at best hypocrites, at worst engaged in illegal conduct themselves.
Watching pornography online is a rather different matter. Whatever one's personal attitude to the subject, consumption by adults is generally legal. Using a .gov email address to register for a site is stupid, and may well be against departmental rules, but that's about it.
Of course, Th3 Consortium is probably just having mean fun, just for the "lulz." But the thought of pro-freedom hackers exposing private individuals' browsing habits has me thinking of another George Orwell novel, Animal Farm:
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Since I dont have access to Data Download records of the Govt(basically how they deal with problems like excessive Usage of Company Bandwith for personal purposes & how extensive it is).
But then,I have to wonder why they are even allowed.
Most Private Companies have Bandwidth Throttling as well as Video Blocking Services in place.
Why can't these similar Services be implemented at the Govt level too?
I really don't care what they do with their Personal Machines and on their Personal time;but using Taxpayer funded Resources for this purpose makes me Mad as Hell!!!
Govt employees need to be reminded that it is not a privilige to work for the Govt-You are Public Servants and are there to Serve the Public;not to sit on top of them like overlords of some sort.
I think, these people live in a wonderful society if they are sure, the only thing that is worth hacker's attention is "who is watching porn".
That's a real civil act!!!( that was irony). If that is the worst , I envy you. I would be so happy, if our govermental people only watched porn. I actually would be happy( I guess eveyone would), if the only thing they did- was watching porn.No work!
Well, now, I could only shake the hackers hand and say :"Well done, guys! Keep watching, keep saving the world"( that was irony again:)
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Edward Snowden was so convinced that the Prism program involved secretive surveillance through Internet backdoors that he walked out on his job and his girlfriend, spoke to the media, and resigned himself to jail, or worse. It turns out, he might just be wrong.
In one of the nastiest -- not to mention large scale and long-term -- hacking exploits yet to be reported, it appears that the Chinese army has been rummaging through the data of those who have served in the US Armed Forces.
ASA Risk Consultants added its voice this week to the slowly growing chorus of voices demanding a coordinated international response to cyberattacks. In a research note circulated by IDG, ASA asserts that "nations will need to come to an agreement on how cyber warfare should be handled."
Extending existing US wiretap laws to give federal agencies easier backdoor access to Internet communications -- especially real-time P2P services like VoIP -- will give, not only aid and comfort, but also technical assistance, to the country's enemies. Not to mention cyberthieves.
The Murdoch/News International scandal has all the elements of the digital age, from phone-hacking through embarrassing emails to agile digital reporting.
The plan for unmanned police drones to patrol traffic and other city conditions in Seattle has sparked a new set of legal concerns about privacy. Law traditionally lags technology, but we can expect now to see a new round of activity in the courts as legal definitions begin to emerge on what "next-gen privacy" will look like.
Ontario's information privacy commissioner explains the unintended consequences of facial recognition technology and how biometric encryption can make it safer.
David Vladeck, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, discusses the state of "Do Not Track" and the problem with consumer behavior tracking online.
The US government is funding controversial projects to collect daily Internet activity, including Web searches, Twitter messages, Facebook and blog posts, and the digital location trails generated by billions of cellphones. Its goal is to map these interactions to predict social behavior, such as protests.
President Obama may soon earn the badge as "Mayor" of the White House, thanks to his joining the mobile check-in service, FourSquare. Let's all sigh in unison, shall we?
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
