From: Christian Szegedy (szegedy@or.uni-bonn.de)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2001 - 02:37:52 MDT
Implications?
Here we have the worst thing could ever happen.
Not (only) becuase of the losses. This sounds cynical, but
I am much more afraid of the implicite implications.
Secure communication, cryptography and privacy. Forget them.
These events will clearly be anough to get the support for
the most draconian laws one can imagine.
It reminds me at the Reichstag fire in Germany,1933.
Altough it was probably the deed of a lonely terrorist, it
gave Hitler the public support against his political opponents.
Altough the 1933 Germany is very different to the 2001 America,
it shows that such extreme events can lead to extreme political
consequencies.
That time it helped against socialists and jews. Today it
can help luddites against new technologies.
I cite from
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm
> "Uncrackable encryption is allowing terrorists - Hamas,
> Hezbollah, al-Qaida and others - to communicate about
> their criminal intentions without fear of outside
> intrusion," FBI Director Louis Freeh said last March
> during closed-door testimony on terrorism before a Senate
> panel. "They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement
> to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities."
You can guess the consequences...
Computers can be used by terrorist? Outlaw them!
Total survaillance for every bit of information!
We don't have any other choice, do we? Nanotechnology could
lead to disasters also. (Altough I doubt that politicians
will recognize its potentials too early.) Prevent it!
Bush said: "The freedom is attacked." I fear: we will
defend our freedom so strong that we won't have any anymore.
I am afraid that the terrorists will succeed in attacking it,
this time...
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