"Cyber-terrorism"

Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations.

While this is nothing new to me, reading articles such as this one always worry me for a different reason than you might expect.

This type of information is increasingly being used to justify legislation criminalizing anonymity, encryption, privacy etc. An "If you've got nothing to hide, then what are you worried about?" type of argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

Another facet of this story that I feel the need to note is the pervasive presence of Islam throughout the post as a fundamental justification and cause of this movement. Remove the religious aspect from the equation, and how strong do you think the movement would be?

Which brings me to my next point. Trying to restrict privacy and freedom to battle the "terrorists" on the internet is like treating a corn on the toe of a foot of a leg that is about to be amputated due to gangrene. The governments desperately need to address the root of these problems and stop trying to fight the symptoms. They are starting to realize that they're fighting a losing battle. You can't prevent the transmission of ideas. You need to remove the cause for these people to want to learn those ideas... remove the justifications for their actions.

What they don't seem to realize is that in their myopic fight against terrorism, they are actually making the situation even worse... just pouring fuel on the fire. Until they stop and actually address the root causes and stop trying to avoid the REAL religious underpinnings and political and military history that have caused this, they will NOT make any headway, and as we have seen... things will just get worse.

This brings to mind one of my previous posts on the London mayor Ken Livingstone and his comments on the real reasons for the causes of the current explosion in terrorism. (no pun intended. ;-)

Technorati Tags / Cyber Terrorism / Islam / Religion / Privacy / Ken Livingstone / Al Qaeda / Anonymity