Cyber Disobedience: Re://Presenting Online Anarchy

by Jeff Shantz

  The possibilities for a better alternative emerging—in place of the authoritarian forms of what might coalesce as neo-fascism or prison-industrial capitalism—are dependent upon rooted material forms of organization and the preparatory building of the infrastructures of resistance. Tools and practices of cyber disobedience will be important parts in the day-to-day work of these infrastructures of resistance and in their construction, but they are not a substitute for the organizations, resources, and relationships that make up infrastructures of resistance themselves. This is what the early TAO organizers understood clearly, but which many later generations of cyber activists have lost track of.

  Cyber anarchists, and activists more broadly, need to devote more attention to affirming what they want—what they are for rather than what they are against—and preparing conditions, providing means, by which it might be realized. Direct action in tech workplaces, and organized efforts toward workers’ control can secure these means—indeed, they will not be secured without syndicalist organizing in tech industries.

  Endnotes

  Chapter 3

  1. Mansfield-Devine S. DDoS: threats and mitigation. Network Security [serial - online]. -December 1, 2011; 2011(12): 5-12. Available from: E-Journals, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 25, 2012.

  2. Hacktivism: coined by Omega, a hacker, and member of the Cult of the Dead Cow in 1998. The term refers to the combination of computer hacking and political activism. (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/07/64193.” Wired News, July 14, 2004. Retrieved March 10, 2012.)

  3. “http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16situation.html?_r=1.” New York Times, June 15, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2012.

  4. Ibid, P. 16

  5. The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, P. 70

  6. http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20062398-281.html CNET. May 12, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2012.

  7. Free sharing of technological information.

  8. Note: The proposed SOPA & PIPA bills are similar reflection to the English Enclosure Acts proposed by the Feudal lords when wealth was needed. In the same way that they expropriated land, passed laws that legalized the theft of land and created enclosures of the “commons.” The Internet is now becoming privatized. In the feudal period, the laws and enclosure acts were enforced by the military; today, we are seeing the same occurrence with Homeland Security, FBI, RCMP, and CSIS. The theft of the “commons,” or in today’s terms the Internet as a commune; the acts are being upheld through law and force. The intellectual theft of property and software piracy is being done under the conditions of capitalist competition; individual capitalists are acting on their self-interests of “profit” or exploitation. The work being done by criminal justice agencies may be for the best interests of their company, and the state police appear to be there to referee that competition. As a result, accessibility to information is taken back.

  9. English Wikipedia anti-SOPA Blackout, January 18, 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2012.

  10. International Business, Times. “Anonymous Unleashes DDoS Attacks on DOJ, U.S Copyright Office, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music Sites.” International Business Times 1: Regional Business News. Web. 27 March. 2012.

  11. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/05/sony-online-entertainment-hack/ WIRED. May 2, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2012.

  12. This quote is a reference to the 1982 book “V for Vendetta”; Anonymous members also often quote the 2005 film adaptation and wear Guy Fawkes masks as made popular through Occupy movements protesting against tyranny, politicians and corporations.

  13. Geers, Kenneth. “The Cyber Threat To National Critical Infrastructures: Beyond Theory.” Journal Of Digital Forensic Practice 3.2-4 (2010): 124-130. E Journals. Web. 28 March. 2012.

  14. www.stratfor.com

  15. Where an estimated 86-145 Afghani’s were killed, mostly children, by an American aircraft on May 4th, 2009.

  16. A satirical term coined by Stephen Colbert referring to telling truths from “the gut” without regard to evidence or logic.

  17. The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, P. 40

  Chapter 4

  1. Zero-day vulnerability: a vulnerability whose details are unknown. Its exploitation can potentially yield any privilege on the destination host. (Wang et al., 2010)

  2. Phishing: a form of social engineering in which an attacker attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information from a victim by impersonating a trustworthy third party. (Jagatic et al., 2005, p. 1)

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