Being very much a part of the Establishment, even though my role in it is to be the contrary voice to a society that adores order above all else, it scares me. I’m no faux anarchist, imploring other poor schmucks to violence and mayhem while I sit in the comfort of an office, my biggest risk a paper cut.
At the same time, I’m well aware that the pen isn’t always mightier than the sword. Sometimes, I wonder whether the truly powerful would have invented the blawgosphere as a catharsis, a way for everyone from curmudgeons to the disaffected to get out all those nasty counterculture ideas without doing any actual harm. And the powerful continue with their daily routine, untouched by disagreeable thoughts.
That there exists a group, if it is indeed a group, who possess the technological skills to disrupt the best laid plans of the government and its quietly effective friends is both scary and, in a peculiar way, encouraging. No entity, not even the ones that allow establishment types to enjoy the normalcy of their lives, should be above fear. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one should possess absolute power.
Anonymous, hackers possessed of the ability to make the steel walls of the internet seem like Swiss cheese (or at least that’s how it seems to tech-challenged me), hasn’t taken kindly to SOPA, the monumentally ill-conceived the Stop Online Piracy Act. Neither has anyone else with even a rudimentary grasp of the the internet, except for those who will have a direct financial benefit from wreaking needless havoc as a weapon of financial control.
While guys like me may rail against governmental actions, Anonymous plans to strike at the heart of the problem.
In a statement released earlier this week, Anonymous announced OpBlackOut, a plan to “replace the face of the internet with a clear message about how we feel about censorship.” Calling SOPA “an oppressive new law that will allow the Federal Government of the United States to shut down, arrest, fine and prosecute any website and its operator(s) at the behest of corporations who can and do stand to profit from weaponized citizenship,” Anonymous is planning OpBlackOut as a response in which front pages of sympathetic websites will be replaced by to stand united against the potential passing of SOPA.
In the interim, Anonymous has targeted Strategic Forecasting, better known as Stratfor, and hacked its way in this past weekend. It’s in the process of revealing Stratfor’s customers and their secrets.
Proprietary information about the companies and government agencies that subscribe to Stratfor’s newsletters did not appear to be at any significant risk, however, with the main threat posed to individual employees who had subscribed. “Not so private and secret anymore?” Anonymous taunted in a message on Twitter, promising that the attack on Stratfor was just the beginning of a Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets.
Whether this will seem justified by my establishment sensibilities isn’t clear. I’m not sure whether evil things were happening with Stratfor that need to be aired, or this is done just to show they can. The inherent problem with a force like Anonymous is that it isn’t subject to anyone’s control or approval. They (whoever they are) think their purpose is sound.
Anonymous said that the emails the hackers intended to publish would be more sensitive.
“Stratfor is not the ‘harmless company’ it tries to paint itself as. You’ll see in those emails,” Anonymous said via Twitter.
There’s little doubt in my mind that the government and corporations are engaged in conduct that they would prefer no one know about. How bad it is, how fundamentally wrong, isn’t clear. To some, it is fully justified, necessary to keep society functioning the way powerful people believe it should. To others, it’s a nefarious scheme, where power and money perpetuate itself, while us little people muddle along in ignorance, taking whatever crumbs the big guys drop for us and thinking we’re doing well enough to not make waves.
How decisions are made by Anonymous is as unknown as who Anonymous is. Maybe it’s the challenge of hacking the best security the government has to offer. Maybe it’s for some vision of the greater good. Maybe it’s for the lulz. Who knows? The idea that there is a group out there with mad internet skills, answerable to no one, making decisions to cause mayhem without any scrutiny, scares the crap out of me. Why would I trust Anonymous to do the right thing, to meet but not exceed my expectations of propriety or righteousness, any more than I trust the government?
Of course, it doesn’t matter much what I think. No one in a Guy Fawkes mask asks me what I think.
As much as I would like to think that our efforts, whether in the blawgosphere, the courtroom, the trenches, make a meaningful difference to those in power in America, it would be absurdly arrogant of me to believe that anything we do causes anyone in power to lose sleep at night. Knowing, however, that there is a group out there with the capability of disrupting and exposing their most secret, most carefully guarded, plans, should well be the cause of many a sleepless night.
I can’t quite say that I support a group with unchecked power. It suffers from the same infirmities as the government, and power corrupts even when it’s held in hands with good intentions. Yet, there is a certain comfort in knowing that there is someone out there who can accomplish something I will never be able to accomplish, to cause powerful people to know fear. No one entrusted with great power should ever be without the check of fear. No one is that trustworthy.
I hope Anonymous does not abuse its power. I wish the government did not abuse its power. I’m glad that there is something out there to create some rough sense of balance, even if it doesn’t quite comport with my establishment sensibilities. We need the threat of Anonymous.
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Anonymous has already abused its power and – in the process – likely severely alienated many who may have been somewhat sympathetic to its apparent cause of exposing nefarious conduct by business and government.
I’m sure that there are others much more familiar with Anonymous, what it does, how it works, than I am. And I’m sure that Anonymous, for its good intentions, is not likely to satisfy everyone’s sensibilities. Whether it’s a force for good or evil, I can’t say. Any countervailing force to absolute government control, even if it’s less than perfect, however, serves a purpose.
The problem with Anonymous is that, well… they’re anonymous. To the best of my knowledge, anyone can say they’re a member. I don’t think doing that without being able to “hack the hack” would be a good idea, but if there was a central top-down down organization and a list of members, Anonymous would’ve been quietly been black-bagged in The Hacker Crackdown, PT 2.
For what it’s worth, some of Anonymous seem to be disavowing the Stratfor hacking and blaming LulzSec.
I liked them better when they were working for WikiLeaks… “Pissing off the United States government” shouldn’t count as a crime. Especially if the offender is a foreign national.