A rant spurred by this....
Global Guerillas: Sony Hack.
It looks to me like the common man doesn't really have a lot at risk to a hack. Sure we all have some monetary/identity-theft risk but Government, business, especially global-corporations, and the global-elite-job-creator types all have a lot of public relations risk that the common folk don't really have.
Sure, an individual has some PR risk but its small, local, and not all that economically important. Face it folks,...we really just don't have all that much to lose. Yes they could hurt you by stealing your identity or leaking the porn sites you visit but your probably not going to pay off all of your own debt anyway and you could always move to another town and get a job at another fast food joint at close to your current income.
The important folk, well, they're a different story. They have money and power and are rarely satisfied with what they have. They want more and are not above colluding with, or stepping on, each other to get it. They play hardball and often get what they want by hook or crook. They talk bad about each other and us Plebs and generally just do a lot of stuff that would be embarrassing or cut into their profits and power if it got out to the public at large.
On top of having a lot of dirty laundry that they'd like to keep secret, they don't make very sympathetic victims. They're rich, powerful, and generally don't have much in common with the rest of us. The common folk just don't really care all that much about them, don't really like them and will laugh when they fall.
Sure, there will be an occasional Princess Diana-type, but in general, most people don't give a damn about any Global corporation, most Americans don't like our own politicians, and very few people making less than 50 grand a year give a rats-ass about any billionaire.
Hell, when GM,.. GM as in "America, Apple Pie and Chevrolet" went belly-up during the last financial collapse, a damned large portion of Americans were raising hell because Obama was going to bail them out. "Let-em-die" they said. We love Chevy but we'd still love to see them fall.
With that in mind...... The Sony Hack
So who really did it? No one knows for certain but if I had to bet I'd put my money on a hacker group, maybe with an inside connection. NK !? Possible but unlikely. So why the NK story? PR,.. man, PR!
Sony was.. may still be.. failing. We were loving it. As the story evolved, their media peers began to devour them, feeding us their embarrassing insider emails, their salaries, their passwords. We were eating it up. and laughing at them. Sony was flailing and failing fast. Then the North Korean story emerged.
This hack wasn't a result Sony's bad security or normal, everyday hackers! No! Sony was attacked by something more anti-American and evil, than a giant, japan-based, billionaire-led, government-connected, global corporation,...North Korea! North Korea, communist member of the famed "Axis of Evil". Lead by a real-life, South-Park-looking, evil man-child who fed his uncle to starving dogs. Damn,..that's evil.
Sony had just made a movie about them and they retaliated by hacking Sony! The FBI (well at least one California-based sect) and eventually Obama (for a few minutes anyway) confirmed North Korea. There were rumors that Russia, Iran and China could be involved. Even more anti-American evil!
Public perception was turned. Sony was on the American side. They were good. We were felt bad for them and didn't really want to laugh at their situation any more. North Korea was the bad guy.
The victim card. Well played.
With the above in mind..... The Future.
We like to see big-rich-successfuls fail. And when they do,.... the others around them, the other big-rich-successfuls, feed them to us for a profit, pick their bones for the scraps, pocket the left-overs and then they fix the rules to protect themselves from a similar fate.
When the Sony story broke, their media peers began to devour them, feeding us their embarrassing insider emails, their salaries, their passwords. Sony was in trouble. The NK story and a threat to sue bought them some time but I got the feeling that the threat to sue really just pissed-off the rest of the media and they were getting ready to jump on Sony pretty hard. However, just as it look like Sony was going to fail big, Obama made his NK-Did-This announcement and the pressure was released. Sony will probably survive though legal battles may rage for years.
Government, global-corporation, and the global-elite-job-creator types all saw this play out and realized that this could happen to them too. They could be hacked and possibly destroyed by their peers who would take their secrets and sell them to the public for a profit. No one is safe. They will say we need some new rules.
Rules....
Rules depend on who gets to make them and since most governments around the world are dominated by corporate-elite interests, I'd expect the rules to favor them over the poor people.....
We'll probably see more calls for global digital property and privacy protection. Especially the property and privacy of governments, corporations, or the elite. The average-Joe's privacy won't matter much.
We will see new laws to prevent the release of hacked data. I'm sure there are already some on the books but that hasn't stopped other media outlets from releasing the contents of the Sony hack. Don't expect any media people to go to jail or be fined for releasing any hacked documents only hackers go to jail.
"Legitimate media" will be able to publish anything any media, government, or business wants leaked or published but hacker-acquired data will be blackballed at some point. Hackers and others who release the same info will go to jail.
The definition of "legitimate media" will be adjusted as needed like we saw with Wikileaks.
Hackers will be targeted as outlaws and chased around the globe with greater intensity.
Whistle-blowers will be handled based on who is targeted and the definition adjusted as needed.
Expect us to keep a few villains around. We need them to blame bad stuff on.
