• blazeknave@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I was a pretty big punk rock anarchist conspiracy theorist from my preteens through my early 20s. Now I work in the field. IMHO the US’ version (not the GOP’s) of world order, is the least scary. And with these psychos threatening murder and shit, the SOTU rebuttal about knee deep in blood… I’ve come to accept whatever dumb shit I or anyone I know is doing online, the govt doesn’t give a shit. But as a FOSS nerd and EFF-donating privacy advocate, I feel you. My real fear is bad actors leveraging and extorting people.

    As far as other examples… Just imagine every single thing you know is connected, is under attack 100% of every day in every direction. Way before the current tension, the US has been in cyber warfare with Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, etc. Right now they’re all trying to steal each other’s classified data. Some off the books guys might be actively trying to meltdown a nuclear plant. The world is your oyster. Whatever you can imagine, it’s happening. That’s why those Industry meetups I attended exist. Lookup ISAC. Automotive, finance, healthcare, manufacturing… Every vertical has an org where the security leadership exchanges best practices in spite of corporate competition, “bc the bad guys are sharing tips, so why shouldn’t we?”

    I think you’re talking about PRISM? Iirc they had a pipe directly from the Bell/At&t Telco building at the Brooklyn bridge but that could have been hearsay. But I’d argue he was just a historian, not a futurist. It’s always been the same. Just different tools.