Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will guard the guards themselves?

Long-time lurker, first-time participant

"ipsa scientia potestas est"

('knowledge itself is power')

Bacon's Meditationes Sacrae (1597).

Having only existed as a digital citizen in the cyber world as a professional researcher and lurker with a paranoia bordering on obsessive compulsive about the protection of my personal details and identity this subject was as confronting as it was enlightening. My enrolment into a Bachelor of Cyber Security and Behaviour came after several years of devouring online courses related to open source intelligence (OSINT) gathering, cyber and social media investigations. I see this Degree as an extension of my existing knowledge base and advancement into an industry sector growing exponentially (O’Connell 2012) My work within this field changes on almost a daily basis as I gather and learn new methods of trawling through what may be defined by people as “dirty Laundry” through the use of search engines across the surface web, deep web and dark web. As a result, I struggled with the visibility, methods of communication and lack of confidentiality that this subject required from me as a student. I now understand that in mainstream society this type of interaction is considered normal and is part of being in global community.

Footprinting

Like a squirrel, daily I gather kernels of information about individuals and corporations to identify, profile and analyze OSINT sourced from social media, free and paid databases, extensive meta-crawling and physical surveillance. This technique, known as “footprinting” is core to a successful due diligence, background screening, and intelligence gathering. In the initial weeks of this subject, we were asked, “why do we put ourselves online” and in a narcissist approach I encourage the uploading of all personal data to the Web as is makes my job easier. Everything that we do on the Web is recorded and stored on servers in the form of metadata which means that the longer we live the larger the electronic footprint that we create. Is this storage of everyday data necessary and why do governments feel it necessary to have access to this information of all its citizens? Have we lost control of our personal data (Berners-Lee 2017)? How do we regain control of it?

Interaction

The push towards doing everything on the Web worries me that we are losing the personal connection in human relationships and the tool that was meant to bring us closer together is isolating us more and more. We no longer need to see someone in person to communicate, we can send our messages over multiple electronic platforms. The use of dating apps such as Tinder and Grindr means that we skip all the steps of getting to know someone. In my single days bananas having out of the shopping trolley at Woolworths on Monday night meant you were single!

Throughout the semester, I have become more observant on how others use the Web around me, high school students play games against each other whilst standing together on public transport, people are engrossed in their phone screens throughout their daily commute and in business emails and texts have replaced calls.

I DON’T want to lose touch with the rest of the world as I do quite enjoy interacting verbally, visually and tactilely with my fellow humanity.

Global Police?

The Web creates a global community and in the definition of community by Wenger it has all the all the elements including disagreement and tension which are essential to make a community. However, as in every community, there are those that try to exert influence over others through surveillance and spying. The US has the unfounded belief that they have taken the role as Global Police and in this case the NSA monitors internet activity. The most frightening aspect of this surveillance is a  is a raft of legislation rolling out across the world but it is all being driven by the US Dept. of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA)which works in with the Security Exchange Act 1934 to define 'Bad Actors’ in which if you bribe, seek one, or any form of facilitation payment involving:

1. an American citizen living/working anywhere
2. or if the communication of (email), or mode of transmission (bank/currency transfer) involves American infrastructure 

you are guilty under this act. Given that all major Internet backbone infrastructure passes through New York unless you are a Kalahari Bushmen living traditionally you are subject to this legislation. This sample of the types of legislation that are reducing the freedom of the Web.

Personal Conflicts

I struggled with joining and posting to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms however with the use of pseudonym I found that I was able to participate and began to enjoy the experience. As most students joined the subject group with personal Facebook pages that had little or no security settings, I could find out more about their family and friends particularly with those in my group activity. Quite possibly this could be a by-product of the voyeurism within all of us. I do understand now the attraction of such mediums and how engrossing they can be.

The ability to be able to log into apps and software using Facebook profiles for authentication whilst extremely convenient is also creating data through the Facebook API which gathers and stores this information and activity for posterity.

Benefits

The significant benefits for interaction through social media and using the Web are clearly visible and whilst I might exhibit a tainted view through my work practices I embrace the technology and the goal of. As a platform for the dissemination of information, knowledge, education and bringing the global community together the Web is a powerful tool. Whilst the Web could be equated to The Great Library and Mouseion of Alexandria, Egypt, there is a lot of false and misleading information out there (not to mention conspiracy theories)

A study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln reveals that whilst the Internet is the preferred research choice for students they used it in conjunction with the library. Whilst I used to be a prolific library user now I read books and magazines on my Kindle and access the university library from within vUWS.

Enlightenment

During the semester, I have reached comfort zone regarding personal activity on the Web however, I will still maintain an alias in the public domain always. At a minimum, I will only access my Internet connection through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and will use Tor as a browser of choice.

Action Plan

1.    Go outside more often. Take off my shoes. Walk on the grass in bare feet

2.    Digital Disconnect. No electronic devices for at least 3 hours a day.

3.    Pick up the phone and call a friend just to chat once a day

4.    Go to the shops and minimise online shopping

5.    Attend more social group interactions