1984 warns of dystopian future where a evil political party enslaves the entire human population. It was meant to be a warning. A warning that we would one day live in a world where our government enslaves us in exchange for mere conveniences.
1984 continues to be taught in schools across the United States to remind young people of the dangers of giving our governments too much power in managing our lives. 1984 depicts a time where the federal government can watch our every move--a reality we now deal with.
Soon after the 2001 9/11 attacks against the Twin Towers the Patriot Act has allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on all cellular communication.
In 2013, Edward Snowden classified documents revealing how the NSA spies on our personal digital lives.
Your cellular communication is not encrypted by default. This is why security professionel recommend you use Signal--even the FBI cannot get to it. Still, most people continue to use phone networks and until we teach our children to switch to privacy-preserving apps such as Signal--we ourselves will be somewhat forced to endure using insecure technology such as SMS and phone calling to contact the people we care to stay in touch with.
Thankfully in 2015 Congress passed the USA Freedom Act--which bans the government from storing mass cellular phone data in bulk. However, there is a catch to this. Telephone providers must be willing to submit such data to the US Federal Government on request. So once again use Signal. Don't use any other alternative. Other cryptographic developers have admitted alternatives have security issues with them.
If we were to go back in time at the beginning of the 20th century we can appreciate how the Information Age gradually led to the mass surveillance we now live in. Before the 20th century laws were difficult to enforce without access to modern electronic technology that allowed us to communicate even at far distances in seconds. Hence the term "The Wild West" in the United States. In the hit video game series Red Dead Redemption the gangsters struggle to outrun the United States. One reason why the private agency hired to hunt the gangsters down--the Pinkertons--were able to eventually find the gang wherever they ran. One reason why is that brand new technology such as the telegram and telephone allowed law enforcement to react to a crime scene.
That's the new power the federal government played with--sending a message in seconds. Think about that. You can send your thoughts to someone in seconds. And it could be used for good or evil. On the plus side emergency response teams can respond to disasters such as wildfires faster. The downside is terrible people can take advantage of that technology to organize crime as well.
You might be watching this going--why would I care about someone knowing my SMS messages--I have nothing to hide. Well the thing is once you say something people can start getting away with molding and twisting what you said. Micheal Bazzell, an ex FBI agent, admitted in his book "Extreme Privacy"--that he has seen SMS text messages used against someone in court. If you have ever heard of the game of telephone you should be aware that people can corrupt a message you intended to send to someone. People can even twist information based on what is true to manipulate others with it.
A life lesson we learn from 1984 is that the easier it is to get a person to act out of anger--the easier they are to manipulate. There is a reason for that. A sufficiently angry person can't think for themselves. They are easier to manipulate. Let me repeat that again for young people here. The easier it is to make you angry and engaged in something--the easier it is to manipulate you. Today social media platforms are infamous for spreading anger quickly. You are watching me on Youtube right now. Youtube has a feature called Autoplay that automatically plays videos of similar content. One angry video reacting to something on the news designed to upset you leads to another. Meta and Instagram (now owned by Meta) are even more notorious for this. There is a problem with that. It increases abuse of another person. A study by Pew Research Center concluded online 59% of young teens have experienced some sort of abuse by another person.
There is a reason why social media companies tolerate all the hate speech on their platform. It is human nature for negative emotions to stick in people's minds much more than positive ones. Hate and fear drive engagement--and engagement drives ad impressions. And the more ad impressions the more ad revenue for them.
Some social media companies have started to become more strict on this. Reddit has banned several hate communities in the past. Now to Reddit's credit the people in those hate communities were saying terrible things--including but not limited to racist comments. But be aware that social media censorship has a double-edged sword--social media corporations get to declare what people get to say on their platform--not you. In response to problems like this decentralized social media apps such as Mastodon--an alternative to Twitter--was invented.
Another major theme of 1984 is the use of technology to watch your every move. Today our smartphones can detect, record, and send information on our every move to telephone providers. Bazzell, the writer of "Extreme Privacy" admits that this technology allows law enforcement to hunt you down no matter what.
Even if you threw away all your belongings including your phone and ran off to the woods--law enforcement will still find you. Another technology used to manipulate the public are telescreens. The government makes use of telescreens, which are the televisions we see in modern times--to spread propaganda. In the real world oppressive regimes have taken advantage of television to get people to fall head-over-heels over them. Joseph Stalin, the infamous dictator of the USSR, took advantage of television to brainwash the general public to think he was an amazing ruler. That's just one example of countless cases in history where oppressive governments have done the same thing.
The USSR was exceptionally cruel to its political dissidents--many in ways not unlike what was depicted in Orwell's book. In Orwell's book Winston is threatened to be eaten alive by rats if he does not repeat the lie that 2 + 2 == 5. The math is nonsensical--and the point of that exercise was for the party to see if they could succeed in controlling Winston's thoughts. They succeed--and Winston lies that 2 + 2 == 5. There was a real life Winston. A real life person that unlike Winston--succeeded in taking down
A real life human being documented the troubles he faced in the USSR. Alexander Solzhenitsyn used to be a strong advocate of Joseph Stalin. But once he said a single public statement criticizing Stalin's decisions--he was thrown into the Gulag. Solzhenitsyn recalls the horrors he faced in the gulag--which are the USSR's enslavement camps. There he has seen real people being thrown into pits of insects. The insects would eat the remains of fugitives.
Solzhenitzyn was eventually freed from the Gulag after Stalin's death. Solzhenitsyn risked his life during 1958-1967 to write "The Gulag Archipelago"--a memoir of the horrors he faced in the Gulag. Several times the USSR police and KGB--the Russian secret police--confiscated his writing materials. Solzhenitsyn began writing his manuscript in secret--not even telling most friends or family about it to avoid further seizure. To protect the original manuscript Solzhenitsyn entrusted his original manuscript to only a few friends that kept it secret until the aftermath of the Soviet Union's Collapse in 1991.
"The Gulag Archipelago" was one of the manuscripts read in secret by people who grew up in the Soviet Union. "Underground" publication networks passed around the manuscript to peole that were plotting to overthrow the USSR. Of course, that underground movement succeeded--and "The Gulag Archipelago" was one of the literary works that motivated the opposition. The series quickly gained popularity in underground publication networks in the USSR--and Solzhenitsyn earned recognition for being the first authentic ex-Gulag author--brave enough to speak out against the Soviet Union government.
Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970 for his impact against the oppressive Sovient Union--an award well-deserved. Even after receiving the prize, Solzhenitsyn lived in fear against the harsh protests conducted by the Soviet Union on his grant of the award.
Solzhenitsyn is a real-life role model on how to responsibly take down an oppressive regime--and it begins by being brave enough to speak out against comforting lies oppressive people make.
I shared the real-life story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn to remind all of you that it is possible to do something against an oppressive set of people. One of the important things Solzhenitsyn to succeed was select who he entrusted his criticisms of the Soviet Union carefully. Exercising one's freedom of speech comes at a price--it is your responsibility to choose who hears what you have to say and when. So choose wisely.
What are my thoughts on the US Federal Government and how it handles US Civil Rights? I honestly think the US Federal Government does a better job of honoring freedom of speech on their end than most businesses in the US do. Think about it. I gave one criticism of the NSA in public just now. Yet I do not fear I will be thrown in prison because of the US First Amendment. Meanwhile, if you give constructive criticism of your employer in public--right or wrong--you may just find yourself getting fired. The fact that the US Federal Government tolerates criticism of itself is one of the most important things about the US that separate it from most governments throughout history.
We now live in a world where it is too easy to leak sensitive details about us to others when using Internet technology. To prevent this the US federal government standardized cryptographic systems to protect secrets. Why am I talking about cryptography in an article about 1984. Cryptography is indispensable to protect our online privacy. It is meant to ensure people that you do not want to hear what you are saying can't understand what you are saying. Only an entrusted person that knows a secret will be able to hear what you are saying.
Federal government cryptographic standards were not just meant to be used by the government. There are now a legal requirement in banking and healthcare institutions as well. All tech companies that conduct business with government, healthcare, and banking institutions are required to use government-certified technology to protect secrets. The US's impact in cryptography is so strong the entire rest of the world follows it.
You will find privacy-focused products and services including Proton, Tuta, Nitrokey, MullVad, and other privacy-preserving products and services headquartered outside the US to be featuring the cryptosystems the US Federal Government authorized for use. And if you are serious about protecting your privacy you should research these privacy services and start using them. I use Proton, Tuta, Nitrokey, and Mullvad as I am talking to you. All of them market themselves as using US government approved cryptosystems.
The US is not just the dominant force in standardizing cryptography in its own country--but around the globe. Why does the US as a nation have such a strong impact on how other businesses in other countries?
First, the US has a reputation for developing very strong cryptosystems. The US host international competitions where cryptographers around the world are more than welcome to submit new cryptosystems to solve new issues. Just recently the National Institute of Standards and Technology authorized Ascon as a family of ciphers for use in embedded systems. Yes, the US federal government is reputed for choosing cryptosystems wisely and authorizing their use.
Second, the US has strong economic influence in the tech world. This should be common sense. Google, Microsoft, Intel, ARM, Netscape, and Mozilla are four organizations that have had an impact in the deployment of cryptography for modern Internet usage. It makes sense that businesses obey US standards impactful organizations like these provide--it helps grow their own business.
I mentioned earlier that businesses that offer these services are designed to protect your privacy online. How does this relate to 1984's depiction of mass surveillance. Are you aware of this? Your email provider--assuming it is a free-of-charge email provider is watching your email content to learn about your consumer purchase behavior. They do this to target ads to get you to buy things. There is no point in you disagreeing with me. If you have ever used a free-of-charge service like this you have been subject to this before.
I remember talking to a university professor about this. He admitted his email provider, Gmail, was reminding him to make a bill payment. He was at first surprised by this--never do you expect an email provider to remind you of your bill payments. He admitted he switched to Proton at that point because he does not want Gmail to be monitoring his emails.
Email providers such as Tuta and Proton encrypt your email data stored on computer servers to prevent IT administration teams from reading them. I went to real-life meetps where I met IT personnel. These people admitted they self-host their own email on their own bare-metal servers since they know all companies occasionally violate their privacy policy. Even companies such as Proton have been known to hand over email data to Swiss authorities before. Do not think that just because your email provider offers end-to-end encrypted email means they cannot read your email.
If you are serious about protecting your privacy its best to switch to a privacy-preserving application such as Signal for that reason.
Mullvad is a Virtual Private Network service. This is a service that prevents your Internet Service Provider from spying on your browsing behavior. All Internet Service Providers in the US monitor your browsing traffic. They document your consumer behavior and market predictions of your consumer behavior to third-party companies. One of the best ways to do this is by watching what website domains you visit. Unlike TLS, there is no built-in privacy for DNS, the protocol to translate website domains to IP addreses, in-mind. Every DNS request you make by default is sent in plaintext through your ISP's DNS server--and yes they can see what domains you are visiting. VPNs such as MullVad encrypt the DNS traffic and route it to their servers. Its true Mullvad can document and record your website traffic--but there are no documented cases of Mullvad violating their customer's privacy--yet.
If you are serious about making use of cryptography to protect your privacy and freedom of speech you should take the time to educate yourself on the matter. Two important primers on cryptography I have read are "Real World Cryptography" by David Wong and "Serious Cryptography" by Jeanne-Phillipe Aumasson. You should then research which privacy-preserving online services suit your needs.
Finally, if you are serious about making an impact you should do projects in cryptographic development on your spare time as I do. A word of warning--do not deploy your cryptosystems in a production environment without thoroughly testing your cryptographic software. I strongly recommend you pick up the ANSI C langauge if you have not already. You can start by checking out my free C programming tutorial by clicking on the link in this video description. Some of the best documentation I have ever seen in cryptographic development was written using ANSI C code--such as BearSSL. So its important you choose a programming community that has a reputation for delivering production-ready code as much as educational-quality material.
You will also need to pick up assembly. Certain attacks such as timing attacks can allow an attacker to steal the key. To double-check that one's cryptographic code is not vulnerable to these it is important to take a look at the assembly and ensure there is no such vulnerability.
If you really want to go as far as you can with protecting secrets you will need to take the time to invest in hardware cryptography--a concept that David Wong mentions in "Real World Cryptography". Hardware implementations in cryptography protect the secret and sometimes even speed up the cryptographic operation. Hardware security modules are a famous technology used in the industry to accomplish this. I highly recommend you research this technology after you finish watching this video.
I hope this video has taught you how some of Orwell's warnings in his book relate to today and how cryptography will play a crucial role in determining how good of a job we do protecting our privacy and freedom of speech--two civil rights you should deem as very important.
Comments