Chris Blattman

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Why the NSA and Anonymous need one another

In 2012, the director of the National Security Agency, General Keith Alexander, warned the White House that Anonymous was acquiring the capability to attack the power grid; soon major newspapers were speculating about an Operation Global Blackout supposedly planned for March 31; anonymous Twitter users had a good laugh about it.

When the Anons at their computer terminals call themselves freedom fighters, and law enforcement and security agencies call them terrorists, they are not working entirely at cross-purposes; they are empowering each other.

We should have learned this much by now: denial-of-service attacks are an expensive online nuisance, but they should be confused neither with terrorism nor with freedom-fighting.

James Gleik reviews a book on Anonymous by Gabriela Coleman: Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy.

Now, every time I hear a US security official claiming we need to do X and Y about hacking, I can’t help but see it as a very sensible way to grab power and money.

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Why We Fight - Book Cover
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