Tag: Espionage

The most dangerous thing, still and always, is an idea.[Video]

What does spying do to the people who do it?
That’s the question writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck asks in “The Lives of Others.” And he asks it in the simplest possible way. Georg Dreyman is a successful playwright, and not just in the theater. He’s respected by his peers and tolerated by the government: “the only non-subversive writer we have.” He lives with an actress, a great beauty who has the misfortune to come to the attention of a government official. He knows he couldn’t seduce her on the strength of his own charm — but what if he got Georg Dreyman out of the way?
Problem: there’s no dirt on Dreyman.
But in the down-is-up world of dictatorships, that only proves he’s guilty of…. something. And so, in the way that officials use their power for personal gain, the Stasi assigns Capt. Gerd Wiesler to eavesdrop on Dreyman.

[via Headbutler]

Internet Nationalism, & a common-sense approach [Article]

Bruce Schneier, writing in the MIT Technology Review warns of the danger that is growing in the name of Internet Nationalism, & reminds us what it really covers up:
But remember: none of this is cyberwar. It’s all espionage, something that’s been going on between countries ever since countries were invented. What moves public opinion is less the facts and more the rhetoric, and the rhetoric of war is what we’re hearing.
He calls for a more sensible approach:
We need to damp down the rhetoric and—more importantly—stop believing the propaganda from those who profit from this Internet nationalism.  Those who are beating the drums of cyberwar don’t have the best interests of society, or the Internet, at heart.