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‘Digital Disruption’
by zed Tuesday, Aug 25 2015, 8:34am
international / prose / post

"Digital disruption" is a quaint term invented and used by the corporate elite to signify massive loss of jobs in the near future -- approximately 40 percent of the current workforce -- due to robotics and the increased automisation of daily life. They view this phenomenon as inevitable, naturally, as it increases profits without the ‘burden’ of the human factor. And so goes the callousness of corporations that too easily forget that it was human workers that propelled them to their current status/success.

Notwithstanding the above and all its social implications, which would require a Ph.D thesis to cover adequately, I would rather take a more radical, revolutionary and literal interpretation of the term, which will no doubt be altered in the near future due to its clearly negative connotations.

Consider the hack on Ashley Madison the indiscreet so-called ‘adultery site;’ a recent report from Canada has attributed two suicides directly resulting from this hack and the subsequent release of personal data. Canadian police have also asked the broad hacking community for assistance in tracking down the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, which speaks volumes on the lack of digital expertise that governments have in this field of endeavour – it is well known in hacking circles that only fifth rate hackers work for governments. But that is not the issue though the community should be aware of the government’s inability to also protect data from hacking elites that in reality rule the digital world – consider this wisely the next time governments wish to retain personal data for whatever reason or pretext.

Now to the gist, it is known that the masses have a comfort level that once exceeded triggers social change, as life becomes intolerable under prevailing conditions -- the apathetic masses undergo a forced transformation from easily managed ‘sheeple’ to a collective force to be reckoned with and once another critical stage is reached revolution occurs and society is restructured, which is not altogether a bad thing, if you’re one of the 40 percent or are aware that criminal elites currently rule the world.

Commentators and alternative journalists constantly spew verbiage, though mostly accurate it is essentially ineffective in triggering social change, as has been proven after two decades of open criminal rule and a passive response from the masses. However, the sure ingredient for rapid change is clearly hacking and the destabilisation of the current digital infrastructure upon which all developed nations depend. The Ashley Madison hack, is a taste of what could be achieved with concerted attacks by elite, untraceable hackers on a range of critical digital infrastructures, particularly those upon which stock markets and the financial sector depend, I should also mention that these institutions employ a higher calibre of hackers, or ‘security consultants’ (lol), their security systems are usually staffed by older former elite hackers as the pay they command becomes tempting to burnt out hackers as does a ‘legitimate’ life as they get older. However, once out of the loop these older or less skilled hackers working for the corporate sector, governments and regulatory agencies face that inevitable day where the security protocols and the antiquated or inadequate methods they employ become vulnerable to the current crop of the elite underground.

I have worked for a quarter of a century in the IT industry and am familiar, via my former trainees, of a lot of the chatter and banter in the underground and though no concerted efforts have been arranged to shock the masses into action it would seem that “digital disruption” in its quaint and literal sense may soon change everything.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-25/ashley-madison-hack-two-people-may-have-committed-suicide/6721840