Article of the general director of MTT company Anatoly Klepov. Democracy and Human Genetic Memory. When Is "Information Hitler" Expected to Appear?
Article of the general director of MTT company Anatoly Klepov. Democracy and Human Genetic Memory. When Is "Information Hitler" Expected to Appear?
«People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do isprevent it ».
RayBradbury
Genetic memory is the ancestors’ experience passed down to ancestors in DNA. Genetic memory is enshrined in a person over the centuries and doesn’t depend on his individual experience. It was a subject of Carl Jung’s studies, and was called “collective unconscious” in psychology. According to C. Jung, a person’s experience is not erased after his death: vice versa, it’s stored in the genetic memory of the society.
However, people learned to modify the memory of generations and erase “unnecessary” recollections. The revision of truth about real historical facts in the minds of people may serve as an example. Mankind is gradually forgetting Hitler’s crimes. Many people consider such monstrous acts as the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, to be improbable, and they doubt, whether they have really happened.
An eminent Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud gave a scientific explanation to the process of erasing the experience of generations. He thought that many facts in history lapsed into obscurity due to repression, a special psychological defense mechanism.
Some of these processes occur in our mind due to natural biological processes, and some of them may be triggered by an active external influence and replacement is performed by a focused flow of information.
Therefore, it’s possible to manage, alter and manipulate not only the contemporaries, but also the mind of future generations. After all, as we know, a man passes over his experience to his offsprings. So, we change the future changing the past we.
Many historical facts prove that human genetic memory was extensively influenced. For example, formidable censorship laws sow the fear of telling the truth and thus people were absolutely defenseless confronting the state machine.
Speaking about Russia, we find documentary evidence of overall introduction of the fear of the power back in the times of Peter the Great. 300 years ago, in 1718, he issued a terrible decree “On death penalty for those who hide and write, and also for those who witnessed such deeds, but didn’t report."
Considering the political situation at that time, it’s clear why Peter the Great was especially afraid of those who "hide and write”. Those who wrote openly or with open doors were not sentenced to death according to the decree. The Emperor didn’t consider rhymers, love letter authors or people who lived away from their families and wrote them, to be a threat. He was afraid of the enemies of his own regime above all – spies, lampooners, pamphleteers and schismatic Old Believers. He couldn’t detain them effectively (secret political police didn’t exist at that time), so the Emperor decided to create a universal tool to eradicate the internal enemy in the society, imposing a habit of snitching. It became legitimate and every informant was paid by the state.
The Emperor ordered the Holy Synod to bless the disclosure of confession and report the authorities if the confession contained information dangerous for the state power. In the course of time snitching became a way of life for the society where everyone was afraid of everyone. Snitching ingrained so much into human genetic memory that for hundreds of years it played a crucial role in the fate of the civilization. It has survived till the present time. It was supplemented by such a common phenomenon as electronic compromising information, based on mobile phone and email interception and hacking secret databases.
Peter the Great wasn’t the only ruler in Russia who practiced mind control of his contemporaries and tried to re-educate even future generations. A few generations later, in 1804, Emperor Alexander I signed another censorship statute.
Justifying that new draconian law, the Russian Emperor thought he should give it a democratic gloss and explained: "I enact it (the Censorship Law) ... not to constrain the freedom of thought and writing but only to adopt decent measures to prevent its abuse."
But even the appeal to censors to interpret ambiguous parts "in a way which is advantageous for a writer but doesn’t pursue them" didn’t alter the aims and the objectives of the decree. It was absolutely similar to the decree of the First Russian Emperor and was aimed at strengthening the control over people and suppressing dissent in the society. In the long run, the only difference was in stylistics. The obsolete Old Slavonic wording was replaced by modern Russian. Moreover, Alexander I introduced new restrictions.
Nicholas II tried to comply with the European spirit at that time. He regularly read the letters of his subjects but didn’t use that information to punish his opponents. Those were Russian "a la Europe" democratic reforms. Despite his ostentatious democracy, he didn’t dare to dismantle the censorship institution; besides he preserved all the laws of his predecessors. That was why the "genetic" memory had always prompted people to keep their mouths shut when authorities were discussed or to listen attentively to lay information against unreliable citizens of the Russian Empire.
No wonder, the next generations of Russians who lived during the communist rule were thoroughly controlled by authorities. Their phone calls were tapped, their correspondence was censored. The head of the NKVD Henrikh G. Yagoda wiretapped even Joseph Stalin’s telephones but he was shot for that reason.
Wiretapping was so massive in the USSR that it spurred a well-known expression - "it's not a phone talk”.
Wealthy people in Russia were affected by the habit of listening to "all and sundry" most of all.
I was shocked by information on security firms published in the public domain. There are about 600,000 personal bodyguards (legal and illegal) in Russia today. Their services cost nearly $ 20 billion a year! Russia holds one of the first places in the world by the number of armored vehicles used by businessmen. Security officers are armed with various lethal and non-lethal weapons. But the most surprising fact is that only a negligible number of well-guarded businessmen use encryption devices to secure their information! It’s probably the most striking result of Emperors’ decrees and NKVD and KGB control on the genetic memory of people.
Not only businessmen have a habit of talking for all to hear (it doesn’t mean openly!). General Gennady Troshev, the commander of the Russian troops during the war in Chechnya, wrote in his book "My War. The Chechen Diary of a Trench General":
“A miser pays twice ... The troops paid in blood the lack of encoders…” The ruling power those days thought soldiers fighting in the war should better die, than it would lose grip on their communications!
However, there’s the same attitude to soldiers abroad. During the war in Iraq Arab Mujahideens easily tapped mobile phones of American and British soldiers. Then they called their relatives in the United States and England and reported false information. Trying to hurt them badly they lied to relatives that soldiers had been killed or badly wounded. The US and UK government couldn’t find money to secure personal information of their soldiers! And the reason was the same: they didn’t want to lose control on information. It made innocent people grieve and suffer.
***
It’s clear that Russia, then the Soviet Union, and then the Russian Federation were no exception from the rule. Every country had its own “Peter the Great” in a certain historical period who tried to modify the genetic memory of the society to consolidate his power.
Referring to democratic traditions in Europe and the United States we shouldn’t forget that under any circumstances the experience of previous generations couldn’t change so quickly. Even in the most economically developed countries many people are still bluffed and knee-crooking vassals, like their ancestors.
Modern ideology of governing a state supports censorship the same way as hundreds of years ago. Moreover, today, thanks to scientific and technological progress, rulers can examine and analyze virtually all correspondence of their citizens and make them always subconsciously fear the all-seeing eye!
Nowadays, no one is lynched, burnt alive or sent to the Gulag camps. Nevertheless, the genetic memory keeps tenaciously the experience of previous generations, associated with excessive talkativeness, and considers the authorities’ advice to report on people who don’t observe general rules but act elsewise.
Two hundred years ago free people in the USA laid the foundations of the most democratic state of that time. But due to the irreversible changes in that country we can say that the samples of true democracy vanished, and we can assume that the genetic memory of Abraham Lincoln’s and George Washington’s descendants was substantially modified.
For almost a century the US citizens have been subjected to brainwashing on the pretext of "national security". It is so massive and powerful that it’s rapidly changing their genetic memory.
A ban on the citizens’ right to use cryptography clearly proves that the situation in the country, considering itself to be the "free" world leader, is not democracy at all.
Think back, that the United States gained their sovereignty and legally adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States because the founders of the United States George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and their associates used strong encryption in private correspondence. Nobody, even the British government, could decrypt it. For a long time the citizens of the only democratic country in the world were allowed to freely express their thoughts and defend themselves from prosecution for their democratic convictions; and they efficiently used that possibility.
However, those freedoms were abolished in the first half of the last century. Cryptography was banned, and John Edgar Hoover, the legendary founder of the FBI, applied new technologies to control and wiretap practically all people in the country - from ordinary citizens to the political, economic and cultural elite of the country, including presidents, prominent lawyers, journalists, TV and movie stars.
John E. Hoover wanted to wiretap phone calls any time but there was a seemingly insurmountable obstacle on his way. On December 11, 1939 the Supreme Court ruled that government wiretaps were unlawful.
The case of “United States v. Nardone” played off the government against gangsters. The recordings of five hundred wiretapped telephone calls were presented to the Court as the testimony. The lawyers referred to the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibited divulging the contents of overheard conversations.
The Supreme Court affirmed that the law was abundantly clear: "plain words ... ... forbid anyone… to intercept phone messages and direct in equally clear language that “no person” shall divulge or publish the message or its substance to “any person”. By the way, this Act is still valid.
However, there was another – more obsolete act – secret services referred to. The US citizens were prosecuted under the Logan Act of 1790 for hostile communication with the representatives of foreign states. The Act allowed wiretapping, lustration and other means to prevent such situations. But there were many immigrants among gangsters. They had friends and relatives abroad and wanted to keep in touch with them. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court decided to reject the Act, assuming that the guarantee of individual freedom for citizens was more important than the suspicion of a foreign plot.
Note: Any American, calling or sending messages abroad, automatically falls under the control of the NSA. In fact, the Act of 1790 is still valid in the United States. But today judges and prosecutors put it above the Communications Act of 1934, which guaranteed confidentiality of private information.
John Edgar Hoover lost the suit but revenged, though it took him fifty years to modify the freedom-loving genetic memory of hundreds of millions of Americans. He used mass wiretapping and total control conducted by his secret services under his guidance.
Therefore, at the beginning of the XXI century the American society turned into an amorphous mass: it humbly accepts the violation of civil rights by government agencies and fears even its own shadow. Over the years the hunt for political opponents, waged by the US secret services under Hoover’s guidance, changed the psychology of people, so that their descendants were even afraid to secure their confidential information!
Here’s a classic example. General David Petraeus, the former CIA Director, had an affair with a journalist who was writing a book about him. He was afraid to use special secure communication line to talk to her, so he invented a way to correspond with her over regular e-mail.
Petraeus’s memory about total wiretapping and monitoring public officials, practiced since the times of Edward Hoover, turned into fear: he was afraid to be accused of anti-state activities, if someone found out that he used encrypted communication for private purposes.
Soon special services detected strange electronic communication of their Director and his mistress, and the brave general had to resign. The investigation results were filed to the court and D. Petraeus was accused of possible divulgence of State secrets.
What was the main violation the retired head of the CIA was accused of? What’s your opinion?
It turns out it was the use of insecure communication means in the office! He didn’t encrypt his love messages but he sent them from government computers containing top secret information...
As a result in the framework of a plea agreement David Petraeus agreed to plead guilty, pay the state a fine of $40,000 and receive a two-year suspended sentence.
A member of the Clinton family acted practically the same way. As it became known recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent nearly 50,000 plain messages and didn’t even bother to secure them. As a result almost all of them were intercepted by intelligence agencies of different countries, and "accidentally" by the allies from the German BND. Such disregard for elementary rules of information security are all the more strange, taking into account that Hillary Clinton was the First Lady in the White House for two terms and reasonably was supposed to know very well the rules for senior officials. Somehow she ignored them.
Quite possibly she remembered the affair of her husband, President Bill Clinton, with a White House intern. Bearing in mind those recollections she was sure that it was much easier to monitor encrypted information on the servers rather than unencrypted, i.e. plain!
By the way, Bill Clinton also spoke to Monica Lewinsky over open communication lines also tapped by special services of other countries.
As an example, let me refer to Jack Wheeler’s article “Boris. Bill, and Monica: Trouble for Hillary”.
The article reads: “In October of 2000, part three of his autobiography was published, Midnight Diaries. In it, there was an astounding revelation:
That in "late 1996," after Bill Clinton's re-election in November, he (Yeltsin) received a highly classified report from his Foreign Intelligence Service (Russian acronym SVR, formerly a branch of the KGB). Russian intel had learned that the President of the United States was having an affair with an intern named Monica Lewinsky.
This was over a full year before the world learned of the scandal via the Drudge Report internet website on January 19, 1998.”
So, how did SVR manage to get the information on Bill Clinton’s and Monika Lewinski’s love calls? We may accurately suppose that the phone call records were received from Interception Center in Cuba.
Now tell me, if presidents are afraid to be accused of using encryption devices and encrypting their private correspondence than what may we expect from common people.
The fear that had been planted into the minds of Americans by Eduard Hoover was so strong that Barak Obama had to admit in his recent speech that 70% of the US companies did not have any information security systems. That enabled hackers’ to deposit hundreds of million USD per annum to their criminal budgets! Therefore, limiting the strong encryption system use among the US citizens actually sponsored criminals and terrorists worldwide as they exploited information security holes to charge their budgets.
Most certainly, any person has a ‘hiding instinct’ active somewhere in the back of his mind every time he/she wants to be independent. However, brainwash with state propaganda and anti-democracy legal limitations made people ‘used to self-censorship’. It has taken strong roots in the people’s minds worldwide since early XX century.
Ron Wyden, senator and famous NSA critic in the US Congress, states: “For centuries privacy has been partially secured by limited capabilities. It was impossible to collect all information about every single citizen without a wide spy and agent network. However, in the XXI century mass intelligence is not a challenge any longer – it’s cheaper and easier to spy. The only privacy security we may have in the future is the legislation and society-secured demand for freedom and transparency.”
***
Our genes are our base and our intuition, in a way. Inherited genetic memory remains unchanged for centuries. The society features are transferred from generation to generation, preserving the feeling of fear and absolute lack of self-responsibility that has been imposed over time.
However, people often realize the mistake severity of being light-minded only when they’ve lost personal or state position, fortune, or have appeared in the court room.
Therefore a proverb saying “a peasant needs thunder to cross himself and wonder” describes the current global mentality best of all.
People all over the world are aware of personal danger or threat but either do absolutely nothing to change the situation or simply ignore it. Let’s mention doctors who are well aware of smoking hazards but still smoke or people with digestion problems still consuming unhealthy food.
This is a paradox feature of human beings that can’t be explained: hope for a miracle. The majority of death cases start with them thinking “Hope luck’s on my side”, “Hope this won’t be too much”, or “Hope they won’t discover this”, etc.
That is why we say “Better safe than sorry”. The severity of information security mistake may be compared to medical errors. Both may cost one’s life. The only known remedy is cryptographic security of information. Unfortunately, it is not broadly available today even in the most democratic states.
Hi-Tech experts increasingly talk about “Internet of Things”, not people. What does this mean?
Increased mobility and Internet penetration is going to lead yet to another significant transformation. It may sound as science-fiction but people will not be the only ones to exchange data over the Internet. They will be joined by various devices ranging from cell phones and players to vehicles. Even nowadays some vehicles exchange the collected data on road condition and gas stations with other vehicles on their way. This will go even further. Physical systems with software will use the Internet to facilitate our lives. Moreover, this feature will expand globally.
200 million years ago our mammal ancestors gained neocortex. This is a stamp-sized tissue covering the nut-sized brain. This tissue has made the humans the way we are today. Ray Kurzweil, one of Google directors, encourages us to prepare for another leap in brain operation as we master Cloud computer technologist.
He believes that by 2030 the market will witness nanorobots (small computers made of DNA strings) able to integrate with and analyze human brain. Nanorobots will be capable of registering human emotions and react in real time. The cloud artificial intelligence will be a relay for system communication with humans. Who can guarantee that the technology will not enslave the humanity? Current situation gives us ground to forecast that one may hack into the network of nanorobots residing in someone’s brain and artificial intelligence in the cloud. This will enable a hacker not only to intercept the communication traffic but interfere with the process and control the person!
What shall the civilization expect from such a globalization coupled with almost no digital information security of private data and total control?
There is a possibility the global fear of state authorities and imposed feeling of “Big Brother’s” presence will give birth to yet another “superman” – information equivalent of Hitler and his ideology. The person will concentrate the funds and most advanced digital technology sufficient to gain the keys not only to information machines serving humanity but to human minds as well.
The creation of new reality will initially require new intimidation and deterrence methods, including ideological and informational genetic memory wash. This will resemble a situation in the Middle Ages when the Turkish Sultan raised the abducted children of his enemies as janissaries, his defenders. Years later they didn’t hate their master but served him with great devotion.
Numerous man-induced disasters will precede the digital seizure of power by “Information Hitler”. Moreover, he himself will remotely control them. Out-of-control aircrafts will crash, nuclear power plants will explode, and climate will change. Every attempt will be made to plant fear among the people. Then a new world dictator will appear as the “Saver”, supposedly capable to prevent global disasters using the most advanced technologies available to him only.
The main difference of “Information Hitler’s” will be his information and technological superiority over every other person on Earth.
Having created a brand new global field of digital interaction of robots and people he will be able to merge computer and human minds and set a new goal – to serve the new power. Finally, “Information Hitler” will gain control over unlimited resources connected to every single information system of the civilization, human brain included.
This problem is also a matter of concern for my US colleagues – David Kay, Special UN Expert and strong encryption proponent, and Phil Zimmermann, a cryptographer. When thinking of “back doors” their biggest concern is the petabytes (1m gigabytes) of information already accumulated by the likes of Google and Facebook. They believe that “If you collect all that data, it becomes an attractive nuisance. It’s kind of a siren calling out inviting someone to come and try to get it.” Moreover, “why can’t our intelligence agencies have it?”- wonders Phil Zimmermann.
I believe that before the special services get hold of the citizens’ personal information it will be exploited by hackers and criminals who possess as powerful technologies as special services do.
Some may consider the scenario unreal. However, 80 years ago nobody could imagine Hitler coming to power in Germany, or the disaster striking the world, or the Holocaust, or tens of millions losing their homes, getting wounded or killed. When Hitler came to power Germany had no technology to build up a modern army. After the defeat in World War I the Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limitations in the sphere of new munitions development.
Back then Germany was not equipped well enough to enslave the world. But Europe and the US handed over to the Nazi the most advanced technologies, funds, and natural resources in an attempt to increase German financial and economic dependence. Therefore, the Third Reich turned into the most technologically advanced state in the world. There wouldn’t have been World War II without the technology and Western funds that enabled Hitler to create the vast military machine.
Recent ISIS Islamic fanatics’ case demonstrated that advanced technology in the Fuhrers’ hands immediately lead to large-scale wars.
With the access to modern weapons the militants immediately waged a war and are now advancing on several frontlines simultaneously, including the information front.
Moreover, the ISIS hackers have already started hacking into Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defense and Government information systems. Though, this country rolling in oil dollars purchases all the most advanced and expensive military technologies.
The great availability, low cost, and extraterritoriality of digital surveillance technologies demonstrate that “Information Hitler” will not need to take power in large countries like Russia or the USA. Currently surveillance technologies are well developed in China, North Korea and other countries. For instance, there are 6,000 hackers in North Korea alone. BBC reports that the state spends 10 to 20% of its military budget on Internet operations.
The statistics clearly show that cyber forces become fully functional fighting arm. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense pays special attention to the cyber troops.
Rogers, the NSA director, acknowledged the trend and confirmed that U.S. military strategy “views cyberspace as another theater of operations similar to land, sea and outer space”.
Other state governments follow the similar route.
What does it lead to? Every year, every military conscription increases the number of experts trained to steal or destroy enemies’ information using cyber-attacks as well as provoke destruction in other countries, plant chaos not in the Internet only but in real life as well.
A great number of people get specialized professional cyber-warfare skills. So, where do all these super qualified experts go after the service if hacking is the only thing they know?
Maybe, they can be overbought by behind-the-scene players of world Cybercrime Empire. Note as well, the official international law enforcement authorities reported at the British Parliament that hackers’ illegal profit had already reached $400 billion (!) per annum, exceeding the combined profit of drug and illicit munitions traffickers. Hitler could not event dream of such financial opportunities.
It means that “Information Hitler” may emerge anywhere in the world. Moreover, unlike the German Fuhrer he doesn’t need huge armada of tanks and planes for digital Blitzkrieg. He does not need any natural resources. All he needs is information and tens of thousands of professional hackers-killers trained to crack and control any information resources.
The hackers’ main target will be personal data and data bases of state workers – the foundation of any power. I raised the matter in my previous publications and have already given the warning. I believe the hackers’ attempts to collect the data base on state workers are the most probable signs of “Information Hitler” coming to power.
However, we shall not use the future tense when discussing the matter. Mass state workers information thefts have already taken place.
A few days ago we learnt about a unique cyber-attack on the US government Information Systems.
The White House admitted the secret data of state departments and even US President had been exposed to hackers. US officials and OPM members reported that data had been compromised and about 4 million workers might be affected. The figure may increase. The cyber-attack on the US OPM was among the most extensive thefts of information on the federal work force. Experts believe that it was clearly aimed at gaining valuable information on current intelligence members. This information may also be used for black-mailing, target phishing attacks or new cyber-attacks.
The dictator may commence his way to world power from any remote location (most likely that will be the case) with Internet access available.
The US President, Barak Obama, called the cyber-attacks on the US state departments a return to “Dark Ages”. What does the “Dark Ages” mean in our civilization framework? First of all it means an unlimited power of dictators and oppressors as well as an absolute lack of democracy.
Considering the Information Security-related issue we may interpret Obama’s works as an inadvertent admission of the fact that even the top leader of the USA acknowledges the possibility of “information dictator” emergence.
I think that the “Dark Ages” are not the long-forgotten past. It’s rather a very near future awaiting every one of us unless we take all the efforts to secure personal information of citizens and, most important, state work force.
***
Nowadays it is clear for everyone not a single traditional method can ensure personal information security for average Internet users.
The fact that “the Internet's decentralized and anonymous nature has also left citizens vulnerable to cyberattack by everyone from teenage vandals to criminals to military forces”, says Michael Rogers, the director of NSA – the king of word wiretapping.
The international information network creators – Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf – confirmed the fact. Robert Kahn admitted: “I should have paid more attention to identification and authentication issues – where an e-mail comes from and what device I am connected to. These things play the most important role.”
He also believes that there is no way to make the Internet secure. We will need to develop an absolutely new information exchange network. The main problem is the users’ reliable authentication in the World Wide Web.
This global Internet vulnerability enables hackers to breach any standard security software and gain access to any PC, mobile device, and even to anyone’s social network or e-mail account. Moreover, hackers can to falsify information presenting it as authentic. In many cases even highly qualified technical experts find it difficult or virtually impossible to tell whether the transmitted information is authentic or falsified.
Hasn’t the civilization forgotten the history lessons and the price of victory over Hitler’s Germany way too fast?
We may notice already the signs of the awaiting arrival of information dictator in the virtual environment of the planet. The first bell is impressive concentration of digital information in one location. Second bell is integration of all information systems through the Internet. Finally, the third bell is the information communication systems monopolization.
There is another prove of “information dictator” possible emergence. In fact it is the lack of state strong encryption of citizens’ and state leaders’ personal information. Today it’s the only way to stop any hacker attack and related copying, modification, or destruction of digital information of major part of citizens, including government workers, army, police, and courts.
In such a situation the control over the people will be performed by information flow rather than the army. Moreover, traditional opposition with cannons and nuclear weapons will become impossible as the munitions will fail to operate in the digital jungles harvested by “Information Hitler”.
There is a paradox. We disarm ourselves repeatedly neglecting and even prohibiting the use of strong cryptographic information security means in global networks and connected digital devices. At the same time we do arm the “Information Fuhrer”! While we are well aware of the universal power formula deducted by a famous finance expert, Nathan Rothschild, who said: “He who owns the information, owns the world”.
Don’t you think the attempts to falsify real history in the world, justify ex-Nazi criminals, erase the truth about World War II from nations’ minds may be a kind of a rehearsal, a try-out before yet another world order change, information world included?