How Is Big Brother Watching Us Media Essay

How Is Big Brother Watching Us Media Essay Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which tells the story of one mans attempt to rebel against the totalitarian state in which he lives. In the society that Orwell describes, everybody lives under complete twenty-four hour surveillance by the governing authorities. Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the phrase Big Brother has entered the English language, to describe any attempts by governments to use mass surveillance.  [1]   The main surveillance tool described in Orwells novel is the imaginary telescreen, a cross between a television and a security camera  [2]  , and in the past decade growing comparisons have been drawn between the imaginary telescreen and the Internet-connected personal computer that is in many modern homes. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the mass surveillance of Internet communications carried out by western governments today, and the technologies used to carry out that surveillance. The essay will first look at the current privacy landscape in the USA, the European Union, and the UK, in terms of policies and legislation. Then it will discuss some of the most interesting technical methods used to carry out mass Internet communications surveillance. The terrorist attacks on New Yorks World Trade Centre, of September 11th 2001, heralded the dawn of a new global political era. Following those atrocities and subsequent attacks in Egypt, the United Kingdom, Spain, Bali, Russia, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, governments around the world have responded by tightening existing legislation and creating new anti-terror laws. Many of the countries that changed their laws to combat terrorist threats also increased the powers of their law enforcement and national security organisations to perform communications surveillance and carry out electronic data search and seizure. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, more commonly known as The Patriot Act, was signed into law less than seven weeks after the Twin Towers attacks. The Act is organised into ten titles, including Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures, and Title IX: Improved intelligence. The Patriot Act, which was Americas legislative response to the September 11th attacks, hugely increased American law enforcement and national security services authority both in the USA and abroad. The Patriot Act strengthened immigration, banking, and money laundering laws. The Patriot Act also amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, which includes subchapters covering electronic surveillance and trap and trace devices (used to capture non-content information regarding electronic communication). FISA was also expanded by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.  [3]   In July of 2002 the European Union passed the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications  [4]  . This directive was amended in 2005 by the Electronic communications: personal data protection rules and availability of traffic data for anti-terrorism purposes directive.  [5]  These directives will lead to European telecom firms being required to store data regarding the time and duration of all fixed line, internet, and mobile telephone calls, the location of mobile telephone calls, and details of all internet connections and e-mail messages (although e-mail content is not recorded). The UK government was the prime mover in lobbying for this directive, stating that data was the golden thread in terrorist investigations.  [6]   We have seen then that current privacy landscape has been heavily influenced by the changing global political situation with specific reference to global terrorism. We know that legislation exists that allows western governments to carry out mass surveillance, but what do they actually do and how do they do it? Mass surveillance can take many forms, including physical surveillance in the form of identity systems, audio, video, RFID and satellite surveillance. Data surveillance can also be used in the areas of electronic commerce and public records.  [7]  For the purpose of this essay we will look specifically at some of the most interesting technologies (allegedly) used by government organisations to carry out mass surveillance of Internet communications. One of the most infamous alleged mass electronic communication surveillance technologies is ECHELON, a top-secret Anglo-American collaboration tasked with gathering signals intelligence around the world. Although its existence is still officially denied the European Parliament commissioned a report in 2001 entitled on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)  [8]  . They were sufficiently convinced of ECHELONs capabilities to recommend that European citizens and businesses should routinely encrypt their communications in order to maintain privacy  [9]  . The idea of the ECHELON network was supposedly agreed between London and Washington as far back as 1948, although its existence was not brought to public attention until the publication of New Statesman article in 1988. ECHELONs capabilities are the subject of much debate; some estimates report that it can sift through 90% of Internet traffic, though the European Union found that the technical capabilities of the system are probably not nearly as extensive. The hardware used to collect the information also remains something of a mystery, with some sources claiming that ECHELON controls over one hundred satellites and dozens of ground based listening stations. Others point out that very little ([10]  111213 The alleged widespread use of packet sniffing systems first came to light during congressional testimony in April 2000, when the FBI was forced to admit the existence of its Carnivore system, so called for its ability to get to the meat of intercepted emails  [14]  . Carnivore was later revealed to have grown from an earlier FBI project called Omnivore, reportedly began in February 1997 but Omnivore itself probably grew from an even earlier project that still remains secret. Carnivore could be used in conjunction with two other pieces of software, called Packeteer and CoolMiner, the three together being known by the FBI as the DragonWare suite  [15]  . Carnivore was reportedly used to sift through the data of ISPs following the 9/11 outrages, although by this time it had been renamed to DCS1000 following adverse publicity  [16]  . It is generally thought that, if Carnivore was used at this time, it was coming to the end of its useful life as the FBI moved onto commerciall y available software, probably the NarusInsightà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ suite  [17]  . Narus is an American company that describes itself as a leader in providing the real-time traffic insight essential to profitably manage, secure and deliver Services over IP. However, Narus gained notoriety after its STA 6400 system was named in the Room 641A scandal  [18]  . In May 2006 Mark Klein, a former ATT technician, released statements alleging that he had discovered an illegal intercept facility, operated by the NSA, in room 641A of the ATT building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco  [19]  . Mr Klein alleged that in 2003 ATT built secret rooms in its premises in various American cities to house computer systems capable of allowing the American government to tap into ATTs WorldNet service and the entire Internet. Mr Klein stated in his testimony It appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet, whether that be peoples e-mail, Web surfing or any other data. USA Today later claimed that after 9/11, the NSA asked the large American telecommunications companies for access to their call records, and that at least the three largest, ATT, Verizon, and BellSouth, had agreed. Although not listening to, or recording, the content of the calls, the NSA was allegedly tracking call data in order to analyse patterns for suspicious activity. The story alleged that the NSAs goal was to create a database of every call ever made inside America  [20]  . Although the nature of the governmental mass communications surveillance means that many of the claims made are alleged rather than fact, it is certain that mass Internet communications surveillance does take place. However, anyone who is familiar with modern cryptography might ask What is the point? After all, easily available software such as PGP is described by security expert Bruce Schneier as the closest youre likely to get to military-grade encryption  [21]  . Wouldnt any intelligent lawbreaker, especially an international terrorist plotting some outrage, simply encrypt their communications using a good privacy tool, such as PGP, and a 128-bit key (the maximum size allowed by US Government export policy)? According to accepted mathematical theory the computing power required to try all possible 128-bit keys in a brute force attack on an asymmetric key encryption algorithms is not only impossible, but will remain so for the foreseeable future  [22]  . Of course, in fact on average only half of those keys would be tried before the correct one is found, but again any terrorist or criminal could use a key size of 256-bits or even larger. Such arguments have led to much speculation, on the Internet especially, as to the NSAs ability to crack asymmetric keys. In particular, the hypothetical hardware devices TWINKLE and TWIRL, proposed by Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute of Science, would enable the factorisation of 1024-bit numbers in one year, if they were built  [23]  24. Rumours of the existence of such machines are fanned by reports that the United States has broken modern ciphers used by, amongst others, the Iranian intelligence service  [25]  . Although the European parliament report on ECHELON recommended that organisations and individuals use encryption to guard their communications against electronic eavesdropping  [26]  , the report also led to the establishment of SECOQC  [27]  , an organisation working for the Development of a Global Network for Secure Communication based on Quantum Cryptography. This seems to suggest that the European Union does not see conventional cryptography as the answer to secure communication, at least in the future. So, in conclusion, it seems that the answer to the question Is Big Brother Watching Us, is quite simply yes. More pressingly, should we be worried about this mass surveillance, or are our governments only interested in protecting us from attacks such as those that shocked the world on September 11th 2001? Few people can argue that much of the legislative changes mentioned in the first part of this essay will make it more difficult for large-scale terror organisations to function. However, many of those new policies and laws also affect privacy and civil liberties. In the United Kingdom, for example, the threat of terrorism has been used to justify the introduction of national identity cards  [28]  , even though the home secretary at the time of the London bombings, which killed more than 50 people in July 2005, admitted that I.D. cards would not have prevented them.  [29]  . Opponents of such laws argue that reduced authorisation requirements often weaken due process. At the start of this year Britains Internet Service Providers Association (Ispa) singled out the UK for its role in pushing for Europe-wide data retention laws.  [30]  On the 10th of January 2006, then Home Secretary Charles Clark stated Agreement on retaining communications data places a vital tool against terrorism and serious crime in the hands of law enforcement agencies across Europe. However, the UK government had originally proposed this policy in 2000 (over a year before the twin towers attacks) and at the time had been accused of deceiving the public over their proposals and of duplicity for lobbying for the law change in Europe, yet publicly denying that it was seeking such sweeping powers.  [31]   The United Kingdom is widely regarded as the Western democracy that subjects its citizens to the most surveillance.  [32]  In a graphic published by the Daily Telegraph on November 2, 2006, showing Privacy Internationals rankings of privacy protection around the world, Britain is described as the worst-performing western democracy. In fact we manage to achieve the worst ranking available, classing the UK as an endemic surveillance society. We share this dubious honour with Russia, China, and Malaysia, and achieve a worst countries ranking in no less than six out of thirteen invasive national practices.  [33]   Recent history has shown us that can and do abuse human rights. Although there is a clear and present need to fight terrorism we must have balance and control at the same time to ensure that democratic and legal due process is not weakened.

Heavy Metal Essay -- Art

Heavy Metal Heavy Metal’s popularity is and has been on the rise due to its many bands and increased guitar technology. Since the mid 1960’s, when heavy metal spread to the U.S. from England, it has grown in popularity. Many of the first bands that came from Europe came with two intentions; to spread heavy metal to other parts of the world, and to make it grow in popularity. (Ragland 1). Heavy metal is a form of rock ‘n’ roll music played on electric guitars and amplified to unnatural volume levels. Such effects as feedback, distortion, reverb, and Wah Wah pedals are commonly added to the music. These effects create completely new sounds, exploiting the possibilities of electric guitars. Most heavy metal music is based on death, Satanism, youth, and teenage rebellion. It is broken into three sub categories; speedcore, thrash metal, and death metal. Heavy metal is the general term for these three categories combined. It is often just called metal. Most heavy metal music is based around the electric guitar. (Ragland 1-2). Guitar technology has changed a lot since the beginning of the rock era. In the early 1950’s electric guitars were very expensive and had few capabilities. Inventions such as wah wah pedals, fuzz boxes, distortion, reverb, and amplifiers have increased the electric guitar's capabilities of making new sounds and music. The new devices have also made rock music more popular. More among the heavy metal population than the many other branches of rock ‘n’ roll. (Hewens). Heavy metal music grabs a hold of rock’s most rudimentary elements; youth, rebellion, sex, fantasy, and a good time at all costs. It is directed towards the alienation and trauma that plagues adolescent life, particularly among the lives if teenage boys. They tend to see their lives as controlled by parents and teachers. For many others, it is a way to release frustration and anger. For instance, a heavy metal concert to those who like heavy metal, is not just a musical performance, full of elaborate costumes and settings. It is a community of teenagers who participate in a shared celebration of youth. (Ragland 1-2). Heavy metal tends to be male-oriented, but metal is not exclusive to the male population. Its basic audiences are dominate by white, male teenagers from criminal backgrounds. Women in heavy metal are usually objects of lust. They are visualized as m... ...icion. "Money is what makes the world turn round." Although that is just a saying, it is somewhat quite true. It brings happiness and misery into peoples lives. In Great Expectations, Pip proves to the reader that money can really make a difference in a person's life. In the beginning of the story Pip was not wealthy, he was living in poverty. His manners were not as great as a rich person's, he did not own much of anything, and he was treated poorly because of that. Joe was not wealthy, and nor was Mrs. Joe. They treated Pip like they would anyone else, as an equal. When he went to Estella’s house, she treated him like he was a laboring boy. Just by looking at him, she concluded that she was better than him because he looked poor, and she looked rich. That was the first time Pip didn’t look at everyone as an equal. He looked at Estella as being rich, and him being poor. As Pip gets older, he becomes wealthy. He took this for granted and treated the poor as he was once treated so many years ago. He believed that money was power. Estella and Ms Havisham were powerful people through his eyes. He wanted to be more like them. As he became a gentleman, he became more like them.

Bob Knowlton Case Study Essay

Attribution process in chapter 4 is referred to as the ways in which people come to understand the causes of their own or others’ behavior. Knowlton felt that Fester was brought in to take his position as project head. With all the questions and research analysis that Fester completed on his own, Knowlton felt betrayed since his friend and mentor Jerrod never took the time to explain to him what was happening. When Knowlton did approach Jerrod to question why Fester was there, Jerrod replied, â€Å"We’re taking him on [. ]†Jerrod also replied that, â€Å"I don’t know yet where he will finally land †¦I thought he might spend a little time with you by way of getting started. † I believe that Knowlton should have gone back to talked to Jerrod again. Knowlton should have got his point across about the way that he and his team was feeling about Fester questions the work that he and his team had completed over the last six months and how calling his home at 2 o’clock explaining how Link’s patterning problem could be solved among other things. Jerrod could have then explained that Fester was brought in to be the project head for another department. In 1996, my husband and I were transferred to Korea for one year by the Army and our two kids that were 15 months old and 3 ? months old stayed with my mother-in-law. Once we returned a year later, our kids had grown so much. However much importantly to me, my kids were calling my mother-in-law mommy and I had not prepared myself for that. In the beginning, I was very hurt as well as confused as to why my kids was calling their grandmother â€Å" mommy†, but I came to the realization that they were at that stage in life where they were just starting to talk and mommy and daddy were their first words. After about a week, I asked my mother-in-law if she wanted the kids to call her grandma or nana so they would get use to calling my husband and I mommy and daddy. Finding of Facts 2: Self-Esteem The letter that Knowlton wrote explained that he would be glad to come back later (he would only be 40 miles away) to assist if there was any problems with the past work. Recommendation/Justification Self-Esteem is defined as the extent to which an individual believes that he or she is a worthwhile and deserving individual. In Knowlton’s situation he felt that he deserved the promotion to project head because he had the knowledge, skills and ability to perform the job. However, when Fester came and started challenging the result that he and his team had determined, he lost his self-esteem as well as his self-confidence and felt as if he was worthless to Mr. Jerrod and most importantly to his team and that allowed him to make a hasty decision to leave the organization. I recommend that Knowlton fight for his position, his team and most importantly his self-esteem. I recommend that Knowlton think about the achievements and contributions that he has made to the team as well as the organization. Once Knowlton builds his self-esteem back up, I recommend that he talks with his supervisor Mr. Jerrod and express his true feeling regarding how Fester approach toward his team is being very disruptive. In the military, we are usually transferred to different duty stations every three to five years. This one particular time, I was transferred to Ft Bragg, NC and they were not aware that I was coming to be assigned to the unit. Since they were not aware that I was coming, they did not have a place for me to work so I was consider a â€Å"floater† going from section to section to help out where ever needed until they found a permanent slot for me. The first section that I worked in was the processing section. The section was running smoothly, and I was there for observation purposes only. However, the leader that I am, I could not stand by and allow the soldiers to continue to work long hours without giving suggestions that would allow them to work smarter. I saw the hesitation that they were giving so I called a meeting and explained my purpose of being in the section and also let the soldiers know that I was just there to assist. Once they realized that I was not there to take anyone’s job, and that I was there to help the section run more efficiently, the soldiers began to gravitate toward me for more suggests. After about a week, the soldiers saw the results of my suggestions and incorporated those suggestions into their daily routines in the office. The soldiers also requested that I be assigned to their section permanently without my knowledge and when it was brought to my attention I was very impressed and decided to stay in that section. Findings of Facts: Team Empowerment Bob always prided himself on the fact that the work of the lab was guided and evaluated by the group as a whole and he was fond of repeating that it was not a waste of time to include secretaries in such meetings. Recommendations/Justification: Team empowerment refers to the degree to which its members perceive the group as (1) being competent and able to accomplish work-related tasks (potency), (2) performing important and valuable tasks (meaningfulness), (3) having choice (autonomy) in how they carry out their task, and (4) experiencing a sense of importance and significance (impact) in the work performed and goals achieved. Bob was proud of the members of his team. No one thought that they were smarter than anyone else on the team; they respected each other and valued each other’s opinion. However, from the very first day that Fester arrived, he made it clear that he was not a team player. He thought that everyone should work individually on their portion of the project, come together to complete the project and that be it. Bob also stated that he valued everyone’s opinion including the secretaries. Every member of the team know that if they did not pull their weight on their particular part of the project they could depend on their team mates for assistance and again Fester was not a fan of that. I believe that Bob should have stepped in and expressed his feelings as to how he and his team worked together on everything. He should have expressed how he valued everyone’s opinion and that he was not going to let him or ever Jerrold tear them apart. If Fester still had concerns he should have taken that up with Jerrold however, it should have been a dead issue to Jerrold since Fester was not going to be in charge of the department that Bob was currently heading. At my last unit, I was the section chief for the Personnel Section. I had just completed my training about three weeks prior when another sergeant came to the section that out ranked me. When the other sergeant came, after one week of watching how my section and I conducted business she wanted to make changes. One day she just came in the office and started making changes without consulting me or our commander. When I arrived to the office and saw the changes that she had made, I asked to speak with her separately, and I respectfully told her that I didn’t appreciate her coming in and changing my section around. She began to say that the changes that she was making was how she had her section set up at her last unit and the section ran smooth once all the changes were complete. Since she outranked me, I had to tell her again, respectfully that this was not her section, and the commander had not approved any of her changes nor did he have any knowledge of any of her changes. We then went and talked with the commander and he had agreed with me that first he would make the final decision if she was going to be in charge of the section or if I was going to continue to run the section. Also, if he was going to put her in charge of the section any changes that she wanted to make still had to be approved by him first. So needless to say, she was not happy with me, however, about a month or so later we had a talk. She stated that she admired me for standing up for myself as well as my section. She then went on to apologize for trying to use her rank to intimidate me. After our discussion, we were able to work together in the section as equals.

The Political Philosophies Of John Mill - 1879 Words

Abstract Many different political thinkers have greatly influenced the current political ideologies. It is more than true that political thinkers and ideologists are constantly changing and influencing the political world. But, none have quite influenced the liberal ideology like John Mill. Mill was not only one of the most influential political thinkers of all time, but also a philosopher, and used his ideas and understandings of the world, ethics, and morality in his political ideas. Mill believed that every man was a key member of society, and society was made of men, all with individual ideas and voices. But, when it came to morals or religion, those voices should not be used to influence government or freedom. Mill Advocated for complete and total freedom, as long as it didn’t hurt or cause harm to anyone or anything other than the person â€Å"doing† the act. Using ideas from worldviews like naturalism he came up with his own political ideology that forever influenced wh at is now known as liberalism. The History of John Mill John Stuart Mill lived alongside his father, James Mills, and his Mother, Harriet Barrow. His father, James, was a very intelligent man who considered himself a Philosophical Radical; a party started by James and his friend Jeremy Bentham. James was a huge influence on John s life, and taught his son things like Latin, Greek, and History. His father severely pushed John to study and educate himself. This is why John grew up askingShow MoreRelatedKant: Moral Theories1002 Words   |  5 PagesKants moral theory According to Timmons, the field of philosophy is not complete without the mention of Kant whose contributions were major (205). This, he adds, was influenced by his originality, subtle approach and the difficulty of his works. 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