Re: Pay attention to choke points before crisis hits

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: Russell Coker <russell () coker com au>

On Mon, 14 Oct 2002 09:10, InfoSec News wrote:
> http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4275256.htm
>
> By Dan Gillmor
> Mercury News Technology Columnist
> Oct. 13, 2002
>
> What do major seaports, gas pipelines, the Windows operating system
> and your local phone company have in common? They are just a few of
> the choke points of the modern world.

Excellent article, we could use more of the same!  I totally agree
that the Government needs to take action to avoid such choke points.

However one important choke-point was not mentioned, the news
distribution system which is one of the most insidious choke-points in
the current system.

Currently all major news services use the same sources, copy from each
other with no verification, and squeeze out competition as much as
possible.  A recent example of this was the recent news reports about
blondes becoming extinct (a claim that's laughable to anyone who knows
the basics of science).

But this problem goes further than news services, it also extends to
all forms of communication.  It seems that communication is being
divided into two types, person to person (telephone and email) and
corporation to consumers (TV, radio, major web sites, etc).

Consider for example the way DSL net access is provided, a small
up-channel with a large down channel, so that you are forced to become
a consumer of information not a full participant.  Running a mailing
list for 100 people or a web site that's even slightly popular is
beyond most people for this reason!  The ISPs can easily provide
higher speed up-links, my DSL line has been certified for 2Mb upstream
(I currently get 64Kb and could get 128Kb if I pay more).

Now you are probably asking "what is the risk in having big
corporations monopolise the news?".  There are several risks, news
that is inaccurate, misleading, or totally wrong is a serious risk as
it could incite riots or cause other problems (remember the LA riots
and consider that the same result could be caused by a fake news story
just as easily from a real story).  Having independant news sources
reduces the risk of false information getting full coverage to almost
zero.

The next issue is rigging elections or interfering with political
processes in other ways.  Anyone who controls all the media can
control a country (consider the end of the Caucescu regeime in Romania
and the attempt to seize military control of the USSR), these events
happened as they did partly due to accurate reporting, false news
could have given a different result (which would be worse for those
countries and worse for the world).


Russell Coker



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