This post is a summary of the book with the title above published in 2013 at https://cryptome.org/2013/03/hacking-digital-dissidence.pdf
The possibility of using all types of tech available to mankind for contributing to political and social changes and of contrasting oppressive dictatorships, and even authority, has been since the very first activities of universities hackers in California during the 1960s, a fascinating and inspiring issue. The idea that computers might not only assist humans, but might also allow the expansion of cognitive capacities and most transparent diffusion of information useful for progress and democracy, first took root in the theories of the protest movements in the 1960s. It seems that there is a very clear common thread connecting those first ideas of the 1960s with events occurring now in different parts of the world, where various platforms are becoming support tools for individuals who not only need to seek knowledge beyond state filters, but also see in these tech, an opportunity to seek freedom in contexts that tend to limit it. The common thread, mentioned above, thus comes even more into focus: these activists are among the few who rightly deserve the name today. They outwit technological barriers imposed by authorities and corporations, attack global surveillance systems, fight for cultural liberties and for the free flow of ideas. The evolution from the ideas that are at the basis of these new activities to actual digital resistance. A strategy aimed at unlocking a corporation, a state or even an entire legal or political system for the purpose of benefitting humanity, is one of the most interesting aspects of communication tech in the modern world. Political systems which base their powers on barriers, are destined to cede and become increasingly transparent in their actions. The introduction of content considered to be improper will be increasingly difficult to avoid. This will result, as it nearly always has, in increased pluralism, democracy and innovation, but also, in some cases, in violent reactions and in systematic violations of human rights. These tech began to help people to gain access to restricted information and to form a political consciousness. People became more informed, more information brought greater security in expressing opinions or led people to expose themselves more. At the same time, this new consciousness increased the level of education and the level of understanding of events. Open governments projects and government data access portals are countless grassroots projects, developed to encourage the transparency and accountability of government activities, improving democracy, combating corruption and waste in the use of resources and protecting fundamental rights. There are often projects to overcome public sector limitations, with an aim to utilize collaborative monitoring as an instrument for improving both the delivery of public services and community well-being. Projects promoting both transparency as part of the political process and the accountability of government through the simple mechanism of aggregation of public data are increasingly widespread. Collaborative monitoring has proved to be a powerful weapon in the defense of transparency and democracy for political and legislative activities as well. Electors now have at their disposition a vast array of tools that allow citizens to oversee democratic process. Common citizens today have in their hands, the most powerful instrument ever invented to protect free speech, to guarantee the confidentiality of our personal data, to focus attention in the public sector projects, to guarantee the free circulation of information on a scale and with an effectiveness never before even imaginable. They have in their hands the tools to inspire the rethinking of concepts of censorship, secrecy, wiretaps, intellectual property, the free circulation of knowledge and culture. It is no coincidence that two of today's catchwords, both on the web and off, are "citizen journalism" and "personal democracy." A number of powers that have traditionally been reserved for political and social castes and unapproachable center of power are now coalescing into the hands of the people. There is a sort of "race for technology" on both sides. Adopting a general categorization, created in the U.S. incorporated by the Eletronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) into the structure of their website, and taken up by the majority of activists today, the five principals fields of action of digital resistance can be seen as: 1) The defense of free speech. 2) The protection of innovation and progress in the social fabric. 3) The reform of intellectual property laws. 4) The protection of privacy. 5) The pursuit of governmental transparency. Internet has become, in the modern age, the most important platform for free speech and the free of thought, and must be, respected in the digital domain just as they are protected by countless constitutions throughout the world. Regarding privacy involves a number of issues that are compelling because they touch upon the most intimate aspects of our lives as human beings. It is clear that new tech are leading to further development of individual rights and liberties, but at the same time, also permit an invasion of the private sphere that is without precedent. From mobile phone which allow us to be tracked to the visibility of the terms we look up on search engines, privacy in the digital world must be respected, and balanced with other individual rights. Each year the Tech Review, MIT's famous journal, honors innovators who are changing the world of tech. The winner of 2010 was David Kobia, a 35 year-old Kenyan who had left his country to study computer science at the University of Alabama, and who is one of the creators of the open source project "Testimony". His project collects eyewitness reports, messages, blog entries, and citizen journalism pieces and places them on an interactive map not only to denounce electoral fraud, or episodes of violence, but also make such deeds known to the entire world. The software is as ingenious as it is easy to use. Based on the idea of the eyewitness, it provides visual testimonies to events occurring in those areas of the world stricken by critical social or political conditions. Today extremely powerful tech is truly available and within physical reach of us all. Anyone who desire to make their voices heard, who intend to take advantage of tech for the common good, for opposition, for activism, can now do so with no other investment than his or her own culture, skill, and imagination. The idea that all information should be free is a central tenet of the hacker ethic and is fundamental to activists way of thought. If there is no access to information, with a view to improving existing tech, the entire systems will collapse. The free exchange of information serves to augment the collective creativity and save energy. Hackers were convinced that the best way to achieve a world based on the free circulation of information was to guarantee an open system to advance their path toward knowledge. Bureaucracy was perceived as a hostile and damaging phenomenon, to be overcome, whether it be at a university, local or national government, or a multinational corporation. All of these factors: bureaucracy, the centralization of power in the hands of government, and dehumanization, are nothing more than defective and dangerous systems, given that they are incapable of facilitating the natural instinct to explore knowledge and culture. The fear that eletronic voting system based on the use of obscure code might reveal damaging flaws, is highly topical in a number of areas of the world and in the thoughts of many ordinary citizens who use these systems when they go to the polls. A distrust towards the efficiency of eletronic voting system is evident in a 2006 documentary, "Hacking Democracy", which garnered an Emmy prize for investigative journalism. This documentary represents a forceful critique of eletronic electoral system. The protagonists are a number of citizens investigating anomalies in the e-voting system during the 2004 election, especially in Florida. Bruce Schneier, security expert, identifies the eletronic devices as a threat to a clear referendum process. Being computer-based, voluntary or accidental actions of a few could affect the entire system. The solution, in Schneier's opinion resides in providing printed voting receipts to every voter at any time, which may subsequently be verified and even counted again if necessary. In short, the ideal would be to use these machines only as systems capable of generating a voting track. The recording of voting should be as simple as possible, the systems should be standards, the votes should be verifiable, and copies should be available on paper, and all computer code used in voting machines should be made public and examined to detect any errors. A fully independent security study of a voting machine, including its hardware and software, shows that the machine is vulnerable. For example, the the authors of the study note, anyone who obtains access to a machine, or its removable memory card, for as little as one minute, could install malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote. Anybody with access to these machines could also create malicious code that spread automatically from machine to machine, a sort of virus. The authors have constructed working demonstrations of these frauds in their laboratories.
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