Every day, more and more of our activities and communications take place online. We’ve become addicted to connectivity…. to constant access to an endless catalogue of information, entertainment and engagement, all available at the click of a button. The Internet has become deeply ingrained into all facets of our lives, to the point where it often seems like a neutral appendage to reality itself – a “digital commons” where billions of global citizens hold the keys to a vast, decentralized, library of human knowledge. But in reality, the Internet is far from neutral… and it’s certainly not a commons. The server farms and fiber optic cables that make up the Internet’s physical infrastructure are increasingly owned, operated and controlled by a small handful of incredibly powerful corporations. Social Media platforms have become sites of mass indoctrination and anchors of social control. Liberal democratic societies are under attack from Russian trolls. We are at the dawn of a new era in history, in which states wage covert and perpetual cyber warfare against one another, with real world consequences that are hidden and unknown.
Many of us choose to avoid these harsh truths, pleading ignorance of how technology works, and gladly immersing ourselves in the spectacle that it creates. But there are also those who are inexorably drawn to seeking out a better understanding of how the complex mechanics of power operate in our digital age… and how that power might be harnessed for our own ends. In this month’s episode of Trouble, sub.Media talks to a number of hackers and digital security experts, as they share their experiences and offer tips on how to best to navigate the battleground of the Internet.
Discussion Questions: 1) What are some practical ways that hacking could be used to improve the effectiveness of other forms of real-world organizing? 2) Are there hack labs or hacker collectives active in your area that might be interested in collaborating on organizing projects? If not, what would be involved in getting something like this off the ground? 3) What skill-shares would be useful in order to help develop a functional division of labour between those with programming and/or hacking skills, and those who do not have these skills but would like to learn? 4) What are some of the dangers associated with the largely anonymous nature of the online hacker community, particularly when it comes to building networks comprised of people you've never met in real life? What are some steps that people can take to mitigate these risks? 5) What are people's experiences using TOR and encryption software like PGP and Signal? For those who aren't familiar, what exactly do these tools do and why are they important to use?
Whoops, looks like I doubled posted your thread from /leftpol/. I deleted mine.
Hunter Howard
It's okay comr8
James Ramirez
It would mean being one step ahead of the repression in revolutionary praxis. By the use of encryption, but also sandboxing and free software, we can achieve total electronic transparency and mathematically proved computer security, which will be crucial for the next step.
I'd like to have some sort of geolocalisation based system that lets me find likeminded hackers/comrades and some sort of more global thing to allow discussion with people from far away.
Set up lessons for basics and urge people to actually learn by themselves once they get the basics.
Obviously we can get infiltrated by gov forces. So the system needs to imply trust from nobody in particular. Basic education about cryptography, sandboxing and other topics is crucial to develop stronger tools and ensure the success of the endeavour.
I just use PGP to encrypt my e-mails. Basically, these make your data moreless unusable if captured by a third-party who doesn't have a specific key to un-mess up the data.
Thomas Thomas
Is a public forum like this really the right place to discuss this though?
No, it's supposed to be screened at your local anarchist place or watched with your friends or family at home.
Good shit
Carson Sullivan
Retard here, how and where do you store the keys to avoid them becoming a single point of failure?
Zachary Parker
On an encrypted hard drive not connected to the internet
Isaac Morris
bump
Austin Bennett
...
Jose Sanders
kek, what is this, fucking 80s? fucking squirrels have done more damage to stock markets and capitalism in general
hackers are on a tight corporate leash they all dream of landing a safe corporate security job
Colton Wilson
It's not the revolutionary subject, but it's a part of the struggle against our class enemies. Do you think the internet is not used against us in the class war? We have to be aware how it is used and how can we counter that and sabotage it.
Lucas Wood
meanwhile they will provide you with a low interest business loan or fund your project on kickstarter..
