Not much of a surprise, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been infiltrated. A New York-based security consultant called Thomas Ryan and a team of IT security professionals managed to access systems used by the movement.
As part of their intelligence-gathering operation, the group gained access to a listserv used by Occupy Wall Street organizers called September17discuss. On September17discuss, organizers hash out tactics and plan events, conduct post-mortems of media appearances, and trade the latest protest gossip. On Friday, Ryan leaked thousands of September17discuss emails to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is now using them to try to smear Occupy Wall Street as an anarchist conspiracy to disrupt global markets.
What may much more alarming to Occupy Wall Street organizers is that while Ryan was monitoring September17discuss, he was forwarding interesting email threads to contacts at the NYPD and FBI, including special agent Jordan T. Loyd, a member of the FBI’s New York-based cyber security team. (…) …Loyd cited Occupy Wall Street as an example of a “newly emerging threat to U.S. information systems.”
The incident highlights structural weaknesses of open collaborative platforms in social environments with detrimental perceptions and interests. A group that wants to become a mass movement doesn’t have the choice of operating and planning in secrecy. Nor does it have the means to sanction – from the perspective of the group – anti-social behaviour. At yet another frontier, Generation Openness is learning the hard way that sharing can come with costs. It’ll be interesting to observe the institutional innovations, the OWS movement will inevitably come up with.
I couldn’t possibly comment:
We’re delighted to tell you that in late 2012 Netflix will be bringing to our members in the U.S. and Canada exclusively “House of Cards,” the much-anticipated television series and political thriller from Executive Producer David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey. We’ve committed to at least 26 episodes of the serialized drama, which is based on a BBC mini-series from the 1990s that’s been a favorite of Netflix members. (Netflix)
Or, maybe: If you’ve ever wanted the essence of politics, the schemes, the manipulation, the games, the viciousness, condensed into a timeless, enthralling play, enjoy Ian Richardson performance as Francis Urquhart, a modern mix of the Shakespearean figures of Richard III. and Macbeth, who succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minster. (IMDB)
Some of the political wisdoms the series conveys:
- Power and its volatileness: “fear that this might be the day we wake to find the magic gone” (youtube)
- Political loyalty: “a helping hand in these rather trying days” (youtube)
- Leaking: “beware of an old man in a hurry” (youtube)
- Social responsibility: “let’s give our young people a chance to learn self discipline, again” (youtube)
- Power, terrorism and leadership: “Deeper than honour, deeper than pride, deeper than lust, deeper than love is the getting of if all. The seizing and the holding on.Tthe jaw is locked, biting into power and hanging on. Biting and hanging on.” (youtube)
- Trust and power: ” But they all, all of them, betray us eventually. They love us, but not quite enough. They trust us, but not quite enough. And we trust them to be entirely human, meaning less than trustworthy. Which means we cannot entirely sleep. As the cat’s eyelids flicker, some part of us must stay awake, always, ready, as the coiled spring is ready.” (no link here, alas)
- Role of a parliamentary majority leader: putting a bit of stick about