A couple of days back The Register-UK publish the article called "GCHQ director blasts free market, says UK must be 'sovereign cryptographic nation'". What's interesting in this article is the fact that the head of the UK spy agency actually came out from the shadows and spilled a thick layer of marketing and propaganda to whoever wanted to listen. Things are really changing these days when one notices that such a secretive organization now spends time and money in public relations. Of course, this is exactly what it is, an exercise in public relations. Let's take a look at a few tidbits that were said:
The director said that they created series of measures to help companies to protect themselves because apparently, companies didn't know what to do or who to talk to. It would seem that about 1200 companies are now registered as being worthy of the program "Cyber Essentials"
According to the director the free market has failed because:
- Demand is "patchy and it is not yet generating supply"
- "the normal drivers for change, from regulation and incentivisation through to insurance cover and legal liability are still immature"
- "we cannot is a country to allow this situation to continue"
Now let's stop for a second and think about this. The idea that demand is not yet creating supply it's an incredibly stupid statement that only a person utterly unfamiliar with the workings of a free market may utter. The free market it's not a magic tool that works on a schedule set up by a bureaucratic apparatchik to meet their own foggy ideas of what is and what isn't. Free markets provide solutions only when there is sufficient profit to justify those solutions and not before. This is so because what makes the free market efficient is the very knowledge of whether or not a specific product has demand, and this knowledge can only be had through a healthy profit. Until this profit is viable the free market won't bother because there simply isn't enough interest. This small detail obviously escaped the director who, after all, is nothing more than a bureaucrat who does not have to contend with the realities of people's wishes and desires. All he has to contend with, is budget allocations which… as we all know… have absolutely nothing to do with reality and everything to do with politics.
The second paragraph that the director uttered clearly demonstrates a high degree ignorance by stating that regulation, and incentivisation to insurance pressures and legal liabilities are "normal". Allow us to point out that those three parameters are nothing more than artificial impositions that governments make on unsuspected people and companies. There is nothing in those parameters even remotely related with free markets. We must never forget that regulation is utterly arbitrary. Insurance happens to be mandated by those utterly arbitrary rules making it nothing more than even more arbitrary determinations and impositions on people. And the last one, the legal liability which should be strictly determined by voluntary contracts between free entities, it is in reality heavily legislated. This is to say that an artificial laws determining obligations are again trusted upon us by a collection of apparatchiks and so-called "elected representatives" who happen not to represent anybody at all.
From this point on the director's declarations become even more bizarre. Among the most ludicrous are the following ones:
- "we advocate encryption"
- With a tiny caveat that "information needed for national security and serious crime purposes should not be beyond that lawful, warranted reach of the state when the need arises"
- "Products should be secure. We work with companies to help make them secure"
- "The third myth is that we encourage vulnerabilities and leave them there."
- In addition the director stated that "we have developed a strong partnership with law enforcement here and in the US… Together we have disrupted the operations of some of the most dangerous global cyber criminal networks operating today."
- "We are working closely with the Ministry of Defense to secure the UK's long-term future as one of the worlds view truly sovereign cryptographic nation's…"
- "Increase our ability to identify and stop serious criminals, as well as those involved in child sexual exploitation and abuse online."
- "We're committed to ensuring no part of the Internet, including the dark web, can be used with impunity by criminals to conduct their illegal acts"
TRANSLATION
Having listened to what the director has to say we will now proceed to translate this gobbledygook. The first point is that somehow the GCHQ is on the side of UK people. This is patently ridiculous. This organization was created to spy indiscriminately on everything and everybody and feed this information to the government (their political masters) to be used as they see fit for the purpose they wish to use this information for.
The ridiculous idea that national security demands necessitate an all seeing, all pervasive, all-powerful, organization that can break down any communication and insert itself in any conversation it's ridiculous. Only paranoid governments and paranoid politicians can think in this manner.
Then we have the issue that the GCHQ actually supports encryption. This is true… But… This is not the whole truth… Because, the GCHQ has vast powers to snoop on whatever they feel like it and if those power are insufficient (a very unlikely situation) then they have the whole weight of the UK government to crush anybody who may want to keep their own secrets private. If GCHQ cannot decrypt the message, they will simply go to "the law" to pry your secrets open through the expedient application of brute force imposed by people with guns and badges. The idea that UK, the very country where cryptography was industrialized in the first place, would now suddenly work for the "betterment of society" it's ridiculous. This is purely an exercise in public relations. This is so, because people are becoming more fed up with apparatchiks and sooner or later they will cut off their funding. If this is not the case then why would the director kept rambling about serious crimes and child pornography, when we all know that cybercrime it's a minute percentage of crime simply because it is so technically demanding and we also know that child pornography is such a tiny percentage of illegal activity as to be meaningless. However, those two activities have the large benefit of catching people's attention.
All this propaganda must be conveniently wrapped up in the so-called "failure of the free market" because otherwise it becomes immediately and patently obvious that the actual cost at which GCHQ offers these so-called "services" is astronomically high. So high in the fact that no commercial company in their right mind would ever even consider buying such a "product" if it would exist in the free market.
Going on with this diatribe the director then emphasized GCHQ's "cooperation" and "partnership" with other spy organizations including the FBI… While at the same time conveniently leaving out the fact that it's public knowledge the extensive "exchange" between the GCHQ and the NSA. Spies of the world unite!
One of the scariest statements is that GCHQ has determined that one of his goals must be to destroy the dark web. Allow us to remind you that the so-called "dark" web is one of the few places on the Internet where true anonymity can still be had. Now ask yourself, why would a spy organization want to destroy a place where free people conduct their own voluntary business as they see fit? All in the name of national security, or personal security, or crime-fighting, or some other nonsensical so-called justification?
The answer is simple. The GCHQ just like any other spy organization is not in the business of protecting people, it is in the business of protecting politicians and by extension their jobs. As such, they will do whatever it takes in order to serve their masters (and themselves).
Once we take a closer look at what it really means what the director has said we quickly begin to realize that it is not in our best interest for GCHQ to continue its existence. But before you begin screaming "bloody murder" we must make this same statement for any other spy organization anywhere in the world, regardless of the tools they may use to spy on us.
It is scary to think that people so ignorant are actually in control of a gigantic machinery with unlimited powers to crush us. That their idea of freedom is not the pre-eminence of our will, but the transparency of all our actions to their eyes. Their idea of freedom is the complete, utter and definitive destruction of privacy at any level whatsoever. They are the people who believe that control of information is the key to population control. And they're not afraid to put this theory into practice using your money and whatever else it may take to accomplish it.
What is interesting in these statements is not that they reveal how they think but that they feel secure enough not only to say it aloud but to say it aloud and expect no repercussions!
Obviously, this won't last. Eventually, in the long-term, people will evolve politically and they will realize that they are nothing but slaves to the giant machinery which specializes in the control and manipulation of information. However, we have to survive until we see the end of it. And this is not going to be easy.
Now, we do understand if you don't believe us. We know how we sound. Here and there we may seem like rambling lunatics. That may be for we do not claim to be the Masters of the English language. Nor we claim that we are trained journalists or skilled authors. We always declared upfront what we are people like you. Just like you and nothing more. People that can actually make a difference not by imposing a point of view but by exposing how Democratic political systems operate and in so doing pushing you to think. We have said many times that we do not want drones. What we want is for you to train yourself in looking at reality and making your own decisions. We cannot and we do not intend to be everywhere at all times. But we can, if you let us, train you to think at all times and everywhere. Just one warning which we hope you will take very seriously. Once you begin to think there is no turning back. Reality will unfold in front of your eyes and you will not be able to enjoy ignorance any longer. It is entirely up to you now whether you prefer the bliss provided by the PR blanket extended by GCHQ apparatchiks or you prefer to live your life enlightened and with direction.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
