Wilde Things
| by Fingal Wilde
Fascists under your bed
The invite was intriguing. The ninth annual Security Summit to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre from
27 to 29 May 2014 promised to cover it all, from strategy, tactics, and the most efficient technology solutions.
I, being internet challenged, looked forward to hear how I was going to be able to stop those banks from stealing
my money, to protect myself from those pesky Nigerians offering me vast amounts of money, and to hear more
about the latest anti-virus software, and how good it is.
T
op-rated international
and South African
speakers were to
cover a wide range of
infosec security issues and
to bring their expertise to
bear on world trends in
surveillance and privacy,
and the impact of the
Snowden revelations on
South Africa, and (cue
salivation) more.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I settled into my seat and
soon realised I was in a
room full of conspiracy
theorists, and worse. It
started pretty well with
a reasonably balanced
introduction by two South
African commentators,
but then I was exposed to
two international keynote
addresses by two very
interesting individuals.
6.
Jacob Appelbaum,
introduced as an
independent computer
security researcher, hacker
and core member of the Tor
project; and Christopher
Soghoian, with an even more impressive
introduction as principal technologist,
senior policy analyst with the Speech,
Privacy and Technology Project at the
American Civil Liberties Union; proceeded
to describe the FBI, the CIA, the United
States Cyber Command, the National
Security Agency and anything remotely
right of their perceived centre, as evil
incarnate, and desperate to snoop on
every single one of us, with nefarious
motives.
My mind immediately went back to the
movie “Enemy of the Sate” which I saw
about 15 years ago. These guys had
obviously seen this movie as well, and they
clearly took it very seriously. I used to be
like that. I remember being outraged after
I saw the movie Z in 1970, and willing to
start a revolution. And then I grew up.
As I sat there, amazed at the single minded
self- righteousness of these individuals, I
saw a bit of my teenage angst in them, and
I would have loved to have asked them
some questions around their beliefs, but
unfortunately question time was curtailed,
so I will just have to ask these questions
rhetorically in this public space, without
their right of reply (of which I am sure they
will have a lot to say):
| words in action
62
august 2014
If you are a good guy,
should you care about the
government snoops?
Is this paranoia about
the snoops not just a
good reason to create an
exciting industry?
Aren’t we all utopiasts?
Marx and Trotsky were
in a permanent state of
revolution. Are you in a
similar mode?
Just as Joseph McCarty
found a communist under
every bed (shades of the
swart gevaar in South
Africa in the 70’s and
80’s), are you not finding
a fascist under every
bed?
Are you the new thought
police?
The answers to these
questions would indeed
be interesting, but I’m
not going to hear them.
However, I did get some
satisfaction from the
Summit. I found out that
anti-virus software is a
waste of time and money, and the
interplay between the keynote speakers
and the MC Jeremy Maggs made for
some amusing theatre.
They clearly did not know
much about Maggs, and he
clearly did not appreciate
their patronising stance
towards him. It was good
while it lasted.