Moveon.org is a liberal site dedicated to motivating the liberal segments of the population to support legislation and political figures that align with their ideals. Unlike the groups mentioned in previous weeks, Moveon is presented in a much more legitimate fashion. The site overall is a meeting ground for liberals to collaborate and support eachother in their causes. Most recently, as can be seen on the website, the focus of Moveon.org and liberals in general has been the Occupy movement, an effort described as an attempt to bring change to a broken system that promotes economic and social inequality at the cost of a majority of the population. Other issues subject to the scrutiny of Moveon.org include the semi-recent Healthcare bill as well as gay marriage. As a political entity, Moveon's radical nature is not compounded with questionable actions such as Anonymous (which has been incredibly active recently, targetting Fox News and a Mexican Drug Cartel). The existence of a website such as this is a testament to the increasing relevance in technology in society and government.
Sources:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE3D91F30F931A15753C1A96F9C8B63&ref=moveon.org
Moveon.org
www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/us/politics/27liberal.html?ref=
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Cyberattacks and Infrastructure
A slight deviation this week. A story that recently caught my attention and one that I definitely didn't know about until this summer was the increasing amount of cyber attacks on the United States. With the increasing amount of computer technology also comes an increased amount of vulnerabilities. As summarized in the article, the internet's utility for connectivity comes with a price. Since 2010, reported cyberattacks have almost tripled from 116 to 342 with 2 months left in the year. However, it is important to note that these reports are not mandatory so it's possible that there may be many more attacks than the ones we know about.
This brings to light some very real issues, such as a virus infecting the Uranium enrichment facility in Iran last year. This article suggests that the United States and many nations will now have to focus heavily on developing teams such as the one in Idaho that are trained to deal with these kinds of attacks. It's scary to think that someone or some entity with malevolent intentions could infiltrate a power plant without physically stepping on the grounds. Like the previous weeks' posts about Anon and Lulzsec, this reveals yet another arena to make an aggressive political move, even one that may endanger others.
article used: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/30/scitech/main20113730.shtml
This brings to light some very real issues, such as a virus infecting the Uranium enrichment facility in Iran last year. This article suggests that the United States and many nations will now have to focus heavily on developing teams such as the one in Idaho that are trained to deal with these kinds of attacks. It's scary to think that someone or some entity with malevolent intentions could infiltrate a power plant without physically stepping on the grounds. Like the previous weeks' posts about Anon and Lulzsec, this reveals yet another arena to make an aggressive political move, even one that may endanger others.
article used: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/30/scitech/main20113730.shtml
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Anon's threat to Facebook
Anon, a hacking group similar to Lulzsec and at one point aligned with them has announced an attack on Facebook on November 5th. They claim to be opposing Facebook company policies including but not limited to the sale of private data and the preservation of data even after an account is supposedly deleted.
It appears that people are beginning to realize that the internet although intangible is as much of a real domain as a public park. I suppose how I perceive it as protesting in a public park versus blocking traffic and vandalizing it. These groups believe that by positing images or attacking websites and taking them down they are conveying a message to the users of the websites. Even though many people understand this, a significant number if not most perceive it as simple vandalism: a destructive force that is more criminal than political.
Fortunately for Facebook, the operation seems to have been called off. Anon has disowned the operation, claiming that it was a byproduct of people's speculation from outside of the organization. However this raises a greater question: will more people be inspired to use the internet as a mean of conveying political opinion even if it means attacking someone through the internet?
Sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/anonymous-says-it-will-take-down-facebook-on-nov-5/2011/08/09/gIQAfWMX6I_blog.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/08/11/why-the-anonymous-facebook-plot-was-a-dud/2/
It appears that people are beginning to realize that the internet although intangible is as much of a real domain as a public park. I suppose how I perceive it as protesting in a public park versus blocking traffic and vandalizing it. These groups believe that by positing images or attacking websites and taking them down they are conveying a message to the users of the websites. Even though many people understand this, a significant number if not most perceive it as simple vandalism: a destructive force that is more criminal than political.
Fortunately for Facebook, the operation seems to have been called off. Anon has disowned the operation, claiming that it was a byproduct of people's speculation from outside of the organization. However this raises a greater question: will more people be inspired to use the internet as a mean of conveying political opinion even if it means attacking someone through the internet?
Sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/anonymous-says-it-will-take-down-facebook-on-nov-5/2011/08/09/gIQAfWMX6I_blog.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/08/11/why-the-anonymous-facebook-plot-was-a-dud/2/
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Lulzsec
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/lulzsec-anonymous.html
Recently a group known as Lulzsec has wreaked havoc online. They claim to be exploiting common flaws in private data collections such as back account data, government databases, and World of Warcraft accounts. Using what they call a common method for hackers (a MySQL injection) they have so far been incredibly successful in retrieving data from companies and governments worldwide. When they aren't hacking they occasionally DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack groups on demand such as Riot Games popular title League of Legends. As a group they label themselves as activists and not criminals and maintain a very lighthearted atmosphere on their Twitter and webpage. It's hard to say whether they really are a malicious entity with the appearance of major websites like Wikileaks.
Recently a group known as Lulzsec has wreaked havoc online. They claim to be exploiting common flaws in private data collections such as back account data, government databases, and World of Warcraft accounts. Using what they call a common method for hackers (a MySQL injection) they have so far been incredibly successful in retrieving data from companies and governments worldwide. When they aren't hacking they occasionally DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack groups on demand such as Riot Games popular title League of Legends. As a group they label themselves as activists and not criminals and maintain a very lighthearted atmosphere on their Twitter and webpage. It's hard to say whether they really are a malicious entity with the appearance of major websites like Wikileaks.
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