It appears the status quo may be finally making its moves to getting control over the heretofore free and open internet. As I and many others have noted previously, the internet is one of the most powerful tools humanity has ever devised. It frees information in a way that was simply unimaginable decades ago and empowers each of us to be as informed or uninformed as we desire.
Just last week in my post, Say Goodbye to “Net Neutrality” – New FCC Proposal Will Permit Discrimination of Web Content, I mused that in so-called “first world” countries like the U.S. the illusion of freedom must be maintained even as civil liberties are eroded. Thus censorship must be administered surreptitiously and slowly. The following plan to implement an “Internet ID” will initially only be rolled out as a pilot program in two states (Michigan and Pennsylvania), and will only deal with government services. That said, we can see where all of this is ultimately headed, and the program, called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, should be monitored closely going forward.
Vice reported on this a few days ago:
A few years back, the White House had a brilliant idea: Why not create a single, secure online ID that Americans could use to verify their identity across multiple websites, starting with local government services. The New York Times described it at the time as a “driver’s license for the internet.”
Sound convenient? It is. Sound scary? It is.
The vision is to use a system that works similarly to how we conduct the most sensitive forms of online transactions, like applying for a mortgage. It will utilize two-step authentication, say, some combination of an encrypted chip in your phone, a biometric ID, and question about the name of your first cat.
But instead of going through a different combination of steps for each agency website, the same process and ID token would work across all government services: from food stamps and welfare to registering for a fishing license.
The original proposal was quick to point out that this isn’t a federally mandated national ID. But if successful, it could pave the way for an interoperable authentication protocol that works for any website, from your Facebook account to your health insurance company.
To start, there’s the privacy issue. Unsurprisingly, the Electronic Frontier Foundation immediately pointed out the red flags, arguing that the right to anonymous speech in the digital realm is protected under the First Amendment. It called the program “radical,” “concerning,” and pointed out that the plan “makes scant mention of the unprecedented threat such a scheme would pose to privacy and free speech online.”
And the keepers of the identity credentials wouldn’t be the government itself, but a third party organization. When the program was introduced in 2011, banks, technology companies or cellphone service providers were suggested for the role, so theoretically Google or Verizon could have access to a comprehensive profile of who you are that’s shared with every site you visit, as mandated by the government.
Then there’s the problem of putting all your security eggs in one vulnerable basket. If a hacker gets their hands on your cyber ID, they have the keys to everything.
For now, this is all just speculation. The program is just entering a test phase with select state government agencies only (there are currently plans to expand the trial out to 10 more organizations.)
But it’s not far-fetched to think we’re moving toward a standardized way to prove our identity in cyberspace the same way we do offline.
Keep a close eye on this.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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kaspersky talks about this as do many others.
It’s not that you are being alarmist, it’s that you are not properly contextualizing what’s going on here.
the internet has already been weaponized by both government and non-govermnent actors.
what remains is for sophisticated and well funded entities to now ‘balkanize’ the internet create secure ‘bulkheads’ or ‘territories’.
the end result is that an ID system combined with special firewalls applied on a person by device basis will now be used to control any individuals who use the ‘government’ internet.
each governmnet will have their own internet. and anyone on that net, will be monitored entirely. this way, the governments create their own fiefdoms of control over their own employees and ‘guests’ on their internet.
this ‘gating off’ of government internet of course creates a dual classs of citizens. those who use the ‘safe’ internet. and those who use the non-govnerment internet, which is of course subject to being shut down by the government at any time.
this is a preparation for creating a moat around the internet for civilian government and military workers in order to provide a communications fortress for the next epoch of warfare . this epoch is not necessarily a large nuclear war, but a continuing cold war world wide, where civilian resources are up for grabs by corporations central banks and their own sovereign governments.
———–CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT——-you are wrong in believing that ALL civilians will be required to have this. that is the ‘lie’ being told in order to mask over the truth which is fairly dark. the truth is the government is preparing for balkanizing the internet, and the chinese russian and european governments will all follow doing the same. if good ‘fences’ make ‘good neighbors’. then one must ask—-if all these governments are doing this to become better neighbors——who loses?
the civlians , across the world, they all lose as government consolidate balkanized networks. many sets of civlians wanting secure jobs must look for government employed. and civilians who are in the ‘revolving door’ of high eschelon government to corporate employment, then get an inside scoop to the balkanized systems and how to get around them.
the average joe loses out entirely. and as government systems become more difficult to penetrate, the average joe will be blamed for lapses in his own security, even when it is the government itself , and not ‘criminal hackers’ doing the penetration.
i think you scaremongering is problematic. you are warning about something ‘sounding the alarm’ of something not yet here. something not likely to come here in the black and white fashion you are worried about . what i am talking about is already happening
IT IS HAPPENING. and there’s nothing you can do about it. it is the next logical game theoretic step in government internet ‘security’ . and it is every bit as much about coralling its own citizens, as it is about vigilence regarding the ‘bad actor’ wolves.
don’t take this as personal critcism, i’m writing to share the research i’ve done into this area on internet security. this is already happening and will progress down this road for the foreseeable future.
oh yea, one last thing. the ‘moating’ type software packages for providing internal ID systems for government, go hand in hand with corporate systems, such that, as things get cheap enough, the sophisticated ID/firewall will be offered as corporate packages and if you wnat to work at a corporation that uses this, it will be their policy for you to comply with all their requirements. giving them more control over employees on and off work.
to some extent already, this organizational trend has begun, but the future is a more sophisticated encompassing version of these systems. you will see it in government first.
Curse of the Materialistic world (or Materialism)???
Latest Edward Snowden message
Hey! Look here! http://truth4israelnz.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/warning-nationalised-online-id-ahead/
http://www.realme.govt.nz
Its happening and its already happened here in New Zealand, its going forward. it will in future be mandated. at the moment anyone on NZ’s welfare system who wants an online account is forced to sign up, it is being more integrated with banks, govt systems and im sure in future it will be more mandated. Thanks to the new counter terrorism and money laundering bill that has passed in NZ they get a way with this
Have you gone through these websites too? Eye-opening indeed…(no need to go thru all the articles, but you can at least scroll thru and choose).
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=13
http://dublinsmick.wordpress.com/