SOPA & Bill C-30 - The Bizarre Fear Of Our Own Governments

There are days when I become so confused by the confused logic employed by so many that I sometimes wish my head actually would explode.

The ongoing hysteria over proposed government legislation on the Internet is one of those illogical knee-jerk reactions that I can’t reconcile with reality. I try, honestly I do, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t make the facts fit the assertions being made by the righteous defenders of liberty and democracy feverishly screaming across social media networks. I've even been accused of fear mongering for pointing out general issues about cyber crime.

Let’s look at a few facts.

Let’s start with a basic question. Who owns the Internet? While lots of people who use social media like to think they own it, the simple fact is that they don’t. They don’t provide the infrastructure, the software, the protocols or any of the other things required to maintain and operate the Internet. Government doesn’t own the Internet either. In fact, if you look at the Internet as a single, global entity, nobody owns it. The Internet is an interconnected group of small to large networks all over the world.

But if nobody owns it, how does it exist? The basic infrastructure is owned and operated by large corporations like ATT, Sprint, Verizon and others.  Protocols and domain name registrations are handled by organizations like IAB and ICANN. Web sites, networks and individual systems belong to whoever produces and operates them.

Social media and other sites routinely track
and collect personal information and user
habits which they then use to make money

Nonetheless, it is clear that most people who use the Internet feel some kind of ownership and look on any attempt to interfere with what they see as their personal freedom as a violation of their rights and what they mistakenly believe is pure democracy at work.

Those of us who use the Internet do so at the pleasure of those who provide the infrastructure and sites and at our own risk. How much risk? More than most who are opposed to any kind of government regulation want to admit to themselves.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Centre there has seen an 1800% growth in online crime in the past decade and that’s just the crimes that are reported and they know about.

Business and governments tend to under-report the growing level of crime in order to maintain public confidence in the economy but it is growing and faster than in the physical world.

“More criminals that were involved in traditional crimes

are moving towards the Internet. They know that it’s easier, 

more profitable and the probability of being caught is lower.”

-East-West Institute report on cyber crime

Among the most often reported crimes were identity theft, FBI scams and non-delivery of merchandise or payment.  Panda Labs, a major provider of online security software, reports a significant increase in credit card theft now escalating into the theft of other financial information, passwords, bank credentials, log-ins and fake credit cards.

Of the top 10 countries with the most perpetrators of cyber crime, The United States is first, Britain is number two and Canada is fourth.

The odds of a person being in a plane crash are 1 in 10.7 million, a car accident 1 in 6,000 and victim of a cyber crime 1 in 2.27.

The U.S., Britain and Canada lead the
world in cyber crime

These statistics reveal even more clearly the level of risk. 79% of people who spend 49+ hours a week online will be the victims of a cyber crime at some point but even those who spend far less time are not safe. 64% of people who spend anywhere from 1-24 hrs per week will be victimized by cyber crime

Add to this pedophile rings, racist attack sites, suicide promoters, Craigslist scams, sexual predators, copyright piracy, as well as, all those legitimate sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter who track their users and collect and sell personal data to make a buck and it becomes clear that the Internet, for all of its benefits, has some serious issues.

Malware sites now exist offering cheap software that allows even the most inexperienced would-be scammer, spammer or just out and out twisted mind to invade the systems and computers of others. Similar sites, so called 'bullet-proof' sites, now exist where pedophiles, hackers, and the sellers of stolen and fake credit cards, pedophile rings, terrorist groups and petty thieves can operate with relatively impunity and anonymity.

Online users have 1 in 2.7 odds of
being victims of a cyber crime

Cyber crime is evolving. Where once it was reasonably simplistic it now includes highly sophisticated techniques that include: Hacktivism, Clickjacking, Cross site scripting, Attacks on vulnerable mobile devices and Cloud computing loopholes.

Much of this crime is enabled by groups like Anonymous and other groups and individuals who devote their careers to theft, destruction, promotion of hate, violation of the privacy of others and online bullying along with every day users gleefully engaging in the piracy of movies, music and other copyright material. It's all protected by the anonymity and lack of regulatory law that the Internet affords them. These are also some of the key groups leading the charge against legislation like SOPA and PIPA in the United States and Bill C-30 in Canada. They have an investment in keeping the Internet free of regulatory protection of honest users.

They’ve been quite successful at whipping up paranoia about government intervention in an attempt to protect “their turf”. In this, they’ve been more than ably supported by online companies and sites that make their living off of the very kind of tracking of personal information so many now fear from government.

But, it will not be Anonymous or Facebook or MySpace that the victims of cyber crime will turn to when they get hit, it will be government law enforcement agencies like INTERPOL, The RCMP in Canada and the FBI in The United States. These are the same government agencies they currently protest and try to deny the very tools needed to provide that protection.

In Canada, people are in a tizzy over the provision in Bill C-30 that will require Internet providers to turn over basic IP and contact data without a warrant to law enforcement. They scream that it is an invasion of privacy, an example of Big Brother undermining democracy but this is the same data that is currently already being handed over voluntarily in 95% of all requests by law enforcement.

They are also concerned about interception and monitoring of communications, something already being done but mostly by hackers and cyber criminals like Anonymous who released a Scotland Yard conference call and posted it online.

Does it not trouble you that the people leading the charge against Internet regulation are the same people who use the Internet to disrupt, to track, to spy, to make money, to do all of the things they've told you government wants to do? 

It’s the same in the United State and democracies around the world.

What most people fail to realize is that clarifying in law what police can and cannot obtain without a warrant, actually protects us. When there is no law, there is confusion. When there is confusion, the wrong information or too much information may be turned over. With legislation, the boundaries of what law enforcement can demand, is established. We are further protected by our courts who routinely overturn laws that violate our constitutions and Bills/Charters of Rights. Do you currently have that same protection from those who would invade your computer, steal your data, intercept or track your communications?

The current hysteria is both misplaced and poorly informed.

Canadian Pubic Safety Minister, Vic Toews

Yesterday, our local rag ran a front page story about a Twitter account that was used to post personal information about Vic Toews, the Canadian Public Safety Minister.

This is just one more example of the misuse of the Internet and how those who scream the loudest about privacy and their rights are among the first to violate those of others.

But what I found most interesting is that the newspaper was actually able to obtain and track enough information about the Twitter account without any assistance from law enforcement. Using readily available software, the newspaper was ablt to track down the IP address to Canada’s House of Commons. That’s right, the ability to track you is already all over the Internet and being used daily by people and organizations you don’t know and will never meet. I installed anti-tracking software last Sunday. It’s Saturday morning today and that software has already blocked more than 7,000 attempts to track me and to monitor my online behavior……and that software only blocks some of the tracking.

The account, by the way, has been shut down by the user who having violated Mr. Toews right to privacy is now concerned about being exposed and maybe facing severe penalties for misuse of a government IP address, penalties that could include termination of employment.

That\s the other side of the Internet, too many people acting and reacting without consideration of the consequences to themselves or others in the real world.

It’s a sad thing when people become so paranoid about their democratic government they align themselves with the very people and groups who can hurt them. These are the same people and orgnaizations who most benefit from keeping the Internet free of regulation so that they can continue to shear others as though they were little more than sheep. Sheep follow blindly and too many are blindly following the wrong people and that my friends is a more serious threat to our democracies and our way of life than SOPA, PIPA or Bill C-30.

….and that is not only a logic I can’t fathom, it’s just dangerous and willful stupidity.

Sources for the statistics in this post:

The 2011 Norton Cyber Crime Study; Panda Labs Security Cyber Crime Investigation Report; East West Institute; The Ottawa Citizen, a Post Media publication; The Crime Complaint Centre; The FBI Cyber Crime Reports and techmaish.com

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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