Ecommerce and A Civil Liberties Crackdown

I watched on C-Span the press conference held after the White House's "Internet Security" meeting today, wherein the likes of Podesta, the President's Chief of Staff, and Daley, the Commerce Secretary, as well as the President of eBay rambled on and on, trying desperately to make some sense.

These people are so ignorant about the Internet -- its technical and socio-cultural aspects -- that actually listening to them blather on makes my teeth hurt. Daley, the US Commerce Secretary, has decided that it would be a good thing if technical people on the Internet would share information about security vulnerabilities. Gee, why didn't anyone else think of that yet? Just in case you're new to the Internet, it's long been a custom of the technical people who developed, maintain and shephard the Internet to share information, cooperate and collaborate. Sharing and collaboration was -- and in some circles still is -- the hallmark of the Internet. This is apparently news to the Commerce Secretary, which really shouldn't surprise anyone, even if it is quite alarming in its implications.

What makes Daley's comments not only clueless but galling to boot is that there apparently was some advanced notice about last week's cracker actions, except that the word wasn't spread by those who were in the know. The mystery becomes clear when one learns that it was known in the banking industry, which is perfectly willing to reap the benefits of the socialized costs of Internet development, but not willing to participate in the open, collaborative Internet technical culture by giving anyone else any advance notice of the impending security assaults.

It's hard to see why I'm supposed to be upset about the recent spate of Denial-of-Service attacks, since only a very tiny handful of companies were affected, none of which employs me, and most of which contribute in some way to the shopping-mallification of the Internet. Of course, as the President of eBay pointed out today, the Internet's chief purpose these days is for consumers and corporations to do "business", so I guess I'm the one who just doesn't get it or, having gotten it, who refuses to accept it: the Internet is dead as a social, progressive medium; long live the electronic shopping mall.

But there is a real potential downside to these cracking episodes: they are likely to lead to renewed assaults on individual civil liberties, justified by the need to protect the all-important machinations of ecommerce. If it weren't for the threat of government crackdown on my rights to privacy and free speech, I would be cheering the crackers, particularly the non-American ones, who are throwing digital wrenches into the wheels of ecommerce.

I'm a pessimist by nature, so my predictions usually turn out badly, but I'm making some new ones:

• In the near future, say 18 months, early in the next President's first term, we'll see new legislation that is meant to 'safeguard' corporate ecommerce, but which in reality erodes individual liberties;

• knowledge of TCP/IP, Unix, security, etc. will be legally construed to be analogous to "burglar's tools"; i.e., simply knowing and using particular tools will be suspect or will be considered in some circumstances to indicate a likelihood of guilt;

• "the hacker" will become a new type of Official Bad Guy in the near-term, joining the "commie", the "narco-trafficker" and the "Islamic fundamentalist".