On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
In local Police Museum, back during the communism era, there was an exhibition of the tools of "capitalist saboteurs". One of them was a device for delayed electrical ignition of haystacks. The timer was a pot with a lid. There were two contacts mounted on the lid, and a metal plate in the pot, laid on the layer of dried pea. You added water, the pea sterted to swell and rise the metal plate. When the plate touched the contacts, you were far away.
That's a pretty nead idea for a detonator. Especially in a haystack :-)
ANYTHING can be used as a "terrorist tool". The world is crammed full with such toys, all you need is to keep your eyes open.
Exactly. So can anyone be painted as a terrorist.
The time of fear and suspicion comes into the neighbourhood. A workshop in a garage can become a set of terrorism tools, a bookshelf with computer security books can find itself turned into a "proof of conspiring to commit an act of cyberterrorism", and gods forbid you ever studied chemistry and possess any "forbidden knowledge".
This is where hacking becomes an interesting terror weapon.
But maybe there is a grain of hope here. If the accesses to informations are monitored and the suspects are being apprehended according to the informations they look up, what about the "possible terrorists" posing as journalists[1]? Journalists have to look up data for their stories, so it is part of their profile - so let's match or mimic the other parts. Journalists have the key to the Public Opinion, or at least its part. If they will start matching profiles, and being monitored and considered dangerous, they will get pissed. If enough of them get pissed, their articles and/or news coverages could reflect it, with trickle-down effect on the Sheeple. This of course presumes we manage to guess the apprehension algorithms of TIA. Something like profile jamming. Could it work? Or is the idea taken out of the oven too soon and is still raw inside and inedible?
It's a good recipie. A hacker can make someone look like a terrorist. Good targets would be children of aparatchitks. They would have access to lots of "dangerous things" and they'd be near privledged info (even if they don't know that). After a few 100 15 year olds get busted who are all related to "powers that be", the conspiricy theorists might notice. But until it happens to a few 1000, nobody will take it very seriously. After all, the corruption is so deep right now that when governor's daughters get caught with coke, nobody cares. But being sent away with no hope of ever seeing daylight again might make the recipie a touch more tasty. Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike