Governments and megacorporations are becoming a treath to the very survival of humanity, because they keep on silencing those who don't nicely follow the official propaganda.

Then, you get statements like this recent one by Finland's head of the police force, saying that the biggest treath to this country's security is people who feel alienated by the state and by society in general, because the average person has access to modern technology that would easily allow him/her to start a terrorist cell and topple a government.

Should this really be surprising to anyone?

Piss people long enough and, sure enough, they will use their piloting license to hijack a plane into the WTC, their chemistry degree to invent something even worse than the bubonic plague and their MCSE to crash the government's whole IT infrastrcture.

During the middle ages, all the average peasant had was sticks and rocks, which the King had swords, cannons and musquets. Fast-forward to the 21st century and each individual is the missing piece of the puzzle for any group that wants to bring a government to its knees.

So far, only Mulsim groups have used the power of knowledge to fight superpowers as equals. Meanwhile, the average westerner is happy enough to participate in a public demonstration against the G-8 Summit. What is worrying me is that the fate of the western civilization appears to be tied to the presumption that the populace will never dare take on their governments using equal resources. The real question is, how long will this myth survive, before someone wakes up and it's too late?

This is disheartening. I had my hopes up back in '98 when the Keisatsu seemed to be trying to address the legal framework necessary to support national cybersecurity.

If anyone ever doubted that governments are frequently impulsive and willing to take liberties with their citizens' lives, one only need observe efforts like the Japanese government's here, and the United States' willy-nilly deployment of electronic voting technology without adequate review.

I think the sad reality is that most commercial enterprises are more conscious of the issues than the governments. If most companies tried to operate this way, I suspect their auditors would flunk them and they'd become uninvestable.

Clearly critical issues are at idea-level (manage people like numbers, keep full control of people vs improve efficiency and efficacy of social services) and in the way it's actualized (extension of the scope, code distribution limits vs burocracy reduced and management cost limitation).

Is there, in Japan, some institution set up to care about the population rights, even in the opposition to some wrong laws ? I'm thinking to the italian Autorità per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (not ever working as it supposed to)

Ejovi's suing the Japanese government for violation of freedom of speech. Apparently it's the first of its kind in Japan - seems like the government's effort to hush up the matter has actually resulted in attracting global attention instead.

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2662