Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tl00256)

In a message dated 11/21/99 3:55:40 AM Central Standard Time,
kymsmith@micron.net writes:

> What?! I fail to see the link between neo-Nazis, breeder plants, Idaho
>  Falls and plutonium.  I was unaware that the plutonium manufactured in
>  Idaho was at the behest of neo-Nazis - it seems to be more a
>  government/military/corporate venture.
>
I made no such link.  As ususal. you missed the point of the post.  There are
extremist groups hacking such facilities.  GET IT?  The computer is the
terrorist and
intelligence-gathering weapon of choice for the 21st century.  For example,
the neo-NAZI group, Pioneer Fund (funders of the Bell Curve - ask you Black
friend about THAT book), founded in 1937, whose leaders were indicted in the
40s for
sedition and spying for the NAZIs, and whose current worth is 23 billion
dollars, has one of the largest private data bases on selected US citizens.
In 1994, during the Prop 187 (SOS - Save Our State) elections, a former
Naturaliztion and Immigration commissioner, Alan Nelson (co-author of the
Prop 187), allowed Pioneer Fund to patch in the California DMV/Franchise
Tax Board database.  People were tracked, harassed, credit histories
tampered with, end order to affect the outcome of the election.  Most
recently, they are suspected of hacking into both government
(nuclear, chemical, biologic level 5) and private facilities (chemical,
nuclear, etc.) to test their ability to cause a toxic disaster.  Renegade
Communist factions are doing same.  Some group in Serbian recently
hacked into the Idaho Falls reactor for same purpose as did a Libyan
group before.  Some one recently hacked the Union Carbide facility
in West Virginia.  They are all only testing now.  But think of it
as feasibility studies for future forms of warfare or terrorism.  You
don't have to be, any longer, a nuclear power or risk getting caught
getting bomb components and smuggling them into a country.
All you need, big time operator or small terroist group, is ability
to hack such sites that would cause similar death and destruction.

Your government, NATO, and Russian are currently building
defense nets that include ability to tie into commercial nets
for intelligence gathering.  It is a twofold process.  The first
phase is called "data matching."  Usually, using a SS #
all information that is asociated with that number is gathered.
Due to the technology, it is an astronomical increase in
the amount.  When KGB files were raided, people were
shocked to learn that it had a mile-long facility full of
manila folder files on citizens.  But that is nothing compared
to info out there on you.  Shorter than the time it would
take to flip a page of one of those files, ten sectors (storing
thousands of such files) could be collected and acessed in
10 milliseconds.  Data matching provides such info as
all purchases, how purcahsed (is there a pattern to when
you use check or credit card - maybe running low at end
of mouth?), websites visited, credit history, typical days
when shopping is done, car (color, description, and
mechanical condition) of car you drive, typical schedule
you have day to day, even dozens of pictures of you
from the digital security cameras at gas station pumps
Walmart, or local supermarket.  Then, using new powerful
marketing software originally designed to predict accurately
market and consumer trends, a powerful psychological and
behavioral portrait is made of you indicating your character,
routines, typical haunts, various preferences, and what you
are likely to do in certain situations.  Lately, police forces
have bought this originally marketing software.  They can
have an electronic stakeout.  There is currently a woman
being tried in thesouthern California courts.  She worked
for the Anaheim police dept.  Using this new technology,
she gathered info of predictable schedule and routine
of an abortion doctor who worked at Planned Parenthood.
She gave the info to a friend in her church.  The friend turned
out to be a pro-life extremist who used it to track down
and kill the doctor.  Last year, using same marketing
software, Nashville police and TBI were able to arrest
700 felons at large by tieing into commercial nets
(with info of who comes into stores when or gets gas
-people are predictable) plus matching their criminal
files to welfare rolls (and when and where such things
as food staps issued to them were used) to apprehend
them.  Recently, after a former policeman used same
technology to map out his ex-wife's routines as provided
by databases, tracked her down, and killed her, an
internal audit led to the disciplining of 45 officers
of the LA dept. for use of this technology for personal
reasons.

While you have some limited means of protection
from the federal government, you have none from
state, local government, political groups (extremist
or otherwise), foreign governments (oh yes, they
collect data on us citizens), or busniess.  The
1974 Privacy Act only gives you after-the-fact
means of seeking redress against only the
federal government (mainly IRS and FBI).

The security and safety concerns are such that your
DoD proposed having computer technology under
military control besides having their own use of
it against others.

And since I travel almost all the time, I see neo-Nazi
types of groups everywhere.  The Russian FSB and
MVD predict, as does the US counterparts CIA and
FBI, that a major nuclear, chemical, or biological
disaster will occur in a NATO country within five
years and it will be caused by a terrorist group
hacking facilities.  In anticipation, the Pentagon
recently upgraded computer security.  It then hired
hackers to hack it.  The hackers succeeded 86%
of the time with the attacked computer not
even detecting the penetration 53% of the time,
according to the report issued by the NCSC
and SRI Labs under Peter G. Neumann.

You should learn to read better if you hope
for a career in Philosophy or the Justice System.
Both involve skills in close-reading.

Grigor