Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.
fredag 11 november 2011
Can open-source software create war?
With social medias it is true that the bigger it gets and the more users it has, it also becomes more powerful. However the users can only use the tools and functions provided by the administrator or owner of the social media service. Hence it is not to say that social media technologies can't be used for purposes not intended from the beginning, like building extremist-groups or likewise. This matter can become even more dangerous in terms of open-sourced software; because the users basically are creating it they also know what loopholes there might be and some can therefore use this for creating viruses or so cald worms. But the link below takes this to a whole new level and could actually have the potential to create war, you can maybe even say that it already has.
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Kommentarer till inlägget (Atom)
Isn't this the same as most of the threats discussed in Benkler's book. There are always users with malicious intentions, but the majority of people will probably not tolerate this. So if a small minority is designing open-source weapons then eventually the majority of people will rise to arms to counterbalance this...at least I hope ;)
SvaraRaderaI think the story of Stuxnet is heavily under-reported. I still have a problem with calling it a "weapon". If Stuxnet is a weapon, then I guess industrial sabotage = war!?
SvaraRaderaTom: Perhaps it is the same as many other things, but the problem is that we have made ourselves very dependent on our information infrastructure and that it in worst case can be crashed by malicious evildoers. The mobilization of a "counterbalance" force implies a "game" that will go on for a long time, and I'm not sure that is applicable for example in the case of this kind of sophisticated and targeted virus. I read about Stuxnet at a point in time when it was identified but when no-one still knew what it did (i.e. crash Iranian nuclear plants). I don't know what could have been done to stop it at that, or at any other point in time.