Waiting for the Moon

Researchers from Australia and Singapore are developing a wireless ad-hoc mesh networking technology that uses mobile handsets to share and carry information including high quality video. The mesh network will make use of Bluetooth or Wifi and could be used at a large sporting event, conference, or even a crowded city centre during an emergency, to swap information between handsets - even if the mobile phone network was offline.

From NY Times

Via: Threat Level
By David Kravets July 28, 2009

A jailbroken iPhone is a weapon of mass disruption, Apple claims.

The nation’s cellphone networks could suffer “potentially catastrophic” cyberattacks by iPhone-wielding hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their shiny wireless devices — that’s what Apple claims.

The Copyright Office is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking, in which iPhone owners hack their devices to accept software that hasn’t been approved for distribution through the iPhone App Store. Apple made the claim in comments filed last week (.pdf) with the agency.

by Douglas Rushkoff

Porn has become our enemies’ ultimate control mechanism, turning a nation of late-night Internet horndogs into an unconscious army of cyberterrorists. Talk about sleeper cells.

ScienceDaily (July 21, 2009)

— Computers have made it virtually impossible to leave the past behind. College Facebook posts or pictures can resurface during a job interview. A lost cell phone can expose personal photos or text messages. A legal investigation can subpoena the entire contents of a home or work computer, uncovering incriminating, inconvenient or just embarrassing details from the past.

The University of Washington has developed a way to make such information expire. After a set time period, electronic communications such as e-mail, Facebook posts and chat messages would automatically self-destruct, becoming irretrievable from all Web sites, inboxes, outboxes, backup sites and home computers. Not even the sender could retrieve them.

The story is a little old but the facts remains the same, Iranian communications networks can be monitored by cutting edge network gear sold to Iran by Nokia Siemens.

The American and British governments do it so why would anyone be surprised the Iranian Government does it as well.

The situation in Iran high lites how formidable a tool these technologies are in the hands of villainous or tyranical regimes.

Is this power compatible with the ideals of democracy? Isn’t a presumption of privacy an important building block in a democratic society?