More Discussion about Cybersecurity.

It is possible and probable that snooping, phishing, spoofing, and other forms of hacking will just become more de rigueur since this major hacking, again, of the giant SONY's computing / data facilities and some other observations that have made their way into the public eye, even more so now than before :  That people do these things as there is no virtue in them really, save for instance for oversight and rule - making and enforcing purposes, when they have the ability and time available (for everyone in fact) to proceed in these activities, sometimes for the purposes of one's own amusement.  How could this be -- breaking and entering a house might now be the same as simply "hacking" another's computer.  Why?  The house in question, and it might be your house, is so full of computing appliances, controls and other devices that change your living environment and then that report to a data center, for example, that almost everybody's home is a danger point if one worries about controlling access to data on any level. 

Certainly security, and internet and computer security are important for everyone including especially property owners; and even including those who rent their homes, workplaces, vehicles and so on.  What is the to - do really if data and information products, and the information in them is properly designed and used in this information commons that we all have as part of the totality of the internet?  There should not be, save for the internet has become a haven for things that are not just simple and innocent M2M electronics and communication :  This internet of things is a place of the drudgery of proper computer operations, applications and systems; and data gathering and storage - typical technological scope here, though also, and in greater part, the "Internet of Things" is a place of electronic hazard, chaos and even mayhem that causes in many ways corporations and society to be shaken badly when things are not and do not go right.  The SONY hacking situation is one such

annoying and disconcerting example of this sort of thing and the thing that has people angered is the actual hackers will never be caught and they use rogue situations and computing power to allow for such things, very negative and destructive in the least.  The disconcerting and unsettling, angry thing about this is it's more and more frequent, and occasionally a large - scale business is affected by this sort of thing and the silent alarms connected to the internet of things call out and officials and the like just scratch their heads, waiting for IDS reports and the like, probably.  The process of countermanding such things is prohibitive as we are all still learning about this type of technology and its use and only "experts" really understand the accents and inflections of the science of computer intrusion and hacking and they pay themselves pretty well by the various events same create and cause havoc and annoyance with under the circumstances. 

There is currently some discussion among the leaders in the IS community about changing the structure and infrastructure of telecommunications and wired and wireless technology that makes it so easy for some individual or individuals to wreak havoc on everyone, essentially first as a scare tactic and then to really hold us all hostage, perhaps through some integration of hacking efforts to utilities and other activities, in the end in scandals and crimes that will corrupt even best efforts to use the web properly and in the way free people want it to work.  Something must be done with how computers and machines and the like communicate and talk to each other -- and without suggesting an overall change that might make everyone angry due primarily to the work involved and the expenses as well :  Hacking defenses can be built in to devices and so forth that are telltale of where the attacks are from and that these details are not made available to more people is additionally disconcerting and in some respects a public safety issue as much as when some party in the old days would use the neighbors' telephone to gab about you and your long vacation and so on.  Remember as well the ERM and smaller risk frameworks we are all in that have us calculating chances of adverse events upon leaving for work each day, or even stepping out of doors when it's misty or foggy, or in warmer weather even.  The effects of the recent hack on SONY are over - burdensome psychologically and without a doubt due to this have destroyed at least a few private executives, the individuals on their coattails, their overseers, and other stakeholders such as those charged with a watchful eye to such things and their oversight and the way they activate their defenses to protect first a business and then all of us from the annoyance of lost, corrupted, stolen, deleted and destroyed data and so on.  We now need among corporate America and its regulators and other stakeholders concerning these sorts of things, a kind of computing "Elvis", or "Spiderman", or similar iconic ideal and deterrent that will just tell the offenders to cram it systemically then next time anyone tries such a thing.  In you all our hopes rest, what with all the education and other activities that will lead to this, again, ideal out there and the feasibility of it.  By this column and its writing to - day, I do solemnly and solely at first, and without dismissing the kind of objectivism that might be necessary here, propose these fighting words against hackers and their ilk.  "Okay"? 

Blaine Harden - "Escape from Camp 14".

Media Photo

This hard – hitting text, actually written like a novel, despite its being a non – fiction piece, tells the story of unimaginable repression and gratuitous violence inside the North Korean corrections system, more or less as a throwback to the old days of the completely dehumanized communist prison system in the former U.S.S.R.  That the North Koreans have chosen since some time ago, even at the collapse of communist forces everywhere, to emulate if not duplicate the soviet work camp system in all its horrific aspects and detail does seem unhinged.  The present North Korean leadership somehow still refuses to acknowledge such camps exist, or even there might be a chance of them and by this relies on the theory of the big lie, itself as dependent upon greater fools.  It is possible that the Kim Jong Eun regime continues to deny the existence of these debased, undignified and repressive (again) camps because U.S. and other allies’ imaging of the camp areas might be sketchy and though while indicating the presence of work zones and industrial and agricultural concerns in places like the Camp 14, there is no incontrovertible and completely certain official state opinion anywhere as to the establishment and maintenance of these institutions in the North.  Also, as had been the case with Chin Dong – hyuk as an escapee from the DPRK repressive corrections system, escapes and then defections are rare and while there are defections and the like to South Korea, Japan, etc., every day, South Korean towns themselves do not allow for the continued presence of many of the few escapees and the reasons for this are evident and include dirty work as performed by the state services from DPRK to the North.  

          

That Chin Dong – hyuk was born in one of the infamous DPRK prison camps in an area around the Taedong river, and that he grew up in that system, having been considered a criminal from birth by DPRK state policy, and that his only avenue for survival at different points in his living within that repressive camp system included wrongdoings that were frequent, immoral and criminal; tells the reader that there is more to the communist / socialist model of prison corrections today than detention and incarceration.  It does and did include personally injuring and destroying one’s fellow inmates to the extent possible, even oneself under the circumstances:  a.  Wrongs and various types of individual destruction and bad behavior are encouraged within that system despite the official rules of the system and its sentencing guidelines not allowing for these things including various types of trafficking and contraband trade; b.  With the image of corrections in most Western nation states as one of rewarding exemplary and notably well – socialized behavior as is0 in the evidence, the DPRK prison system in its nefarious glory encourages problem behaviors that circumvent the proper and normal standards of civil and ordinary conduct and social interaction; c.  From this story and its contents that start with the narrator’s childhood and continue to the present day, one can tell that things like education, hard work and industriousness and other positive traits, are completely discouraged; d.  Crimes by prisoners against each other, from the most petty to the most egregious capital crimes, are not exclusive of wrongs against the prisoners by camp authorities given who they are and their work ethic, cancelling much of the humane and humanitarian approach to detention in DPRK as preached by its leadership; e.  It is entirely possible the flogging and torturing of prisoners at the same time, and by camp ‘trustees’ and other state personnel, and the crimes against prisoners, that no NGO, nor association nor collection of people will ever be able to address these endemic issues addressing what should be done with people, and the DPRK system even with its habit of frequent sabre  - rattling and its relations with P.R.C.; f.  It is surprising, in fact a complete surprise, that DPRK detention and incarceration methods and facilities, degenerate as they are, have not found a home and are not constantly subject to public scrutiny and resultant misinformation due to pressure from various “watchers” and the reaction to them by DPRK; g.  There are too many examples at present of the obduracy and degeneracy of DPRK prison camps, as documented, for world public opinion not to allow for and adverse judgment of these institutions, and subjecting them to examination and their conditions and people, including inmates, an evaluation of methods and practices in North Asia, if adjudicated, will probably be ignored by DPRK and its friends; h.  There are any number of inhuman conditions that can be cited concerning the conduct and just observation of North Korean society and its camp system, and the material in this text that calls for a resolution of these things is predicated upon international conflict on many fronts; … .

 

The details as described above provide an extremely stark and sinister backdrop to most of the Chin story before his arrival in South Korea and then America.  The tortures and abuses suffered by Chin and his co – heroes at present, some of whom have passed before their time as the result of abuses within DPRK camps, are deeply scarred and deeply personal at the same time.  In a way, while stories by other dissenters include much functional material that is persuasive but cannot really portray personal feelings and the overall humanity of politically – motivated sentencing in places like North Asia, the Chin story is one of very balanced informational details and a depiction at the same time of a very young person who has been compelled to survive to travel West and tell about an entire history, but who, through the unbearable shocks and vicissitudes of prison camp life has been led to believe by his camp handlers in an very penetrable way that shame and guilt, degeneracy, thoughts of self – destruction and other negative influences are constructive in daily life.  Russian Marxists (actually former Marxists) perfected this and other things long ago in the workings of the day in their GULAG system and this cause in “producing” people has been taken up in the camp system in DPRK as well.  The justification for such things, including the Marxian idea about utopia that displaced such ideas in Russia from Western Europe in 1917 / 18 – 21, does smack of flim – flammery and calls for the kind of state oppression within the state as one finds in DPRK at present.  These are political statements that only border on what appears to be the purpose of the Chin story, which is in one small way to “check” the grim and ghoulish forces that rule there at this time.  

 

New York Times - Book Review

 

Penguin Edition