Governments are typically built by intelligent people, but always slip into the hands of the merely crafty. Precious great people appear in the history of human government. Modern governments are probably worse than ever in this respect. Sometimes we are amazed at the ignorance.
So Australia published a government study which recommends everyone be forced to install a government-approved AV and firewall package. The implication is probably not too far from what Paul Joseph Watson alleges, though he does engage some hyperbole. The document itself is breathtaking in its ignorance, for anyone with a little knowledge of how the Internet works.
I have just a little, and I can just about figure this would not be possible without a vast amount of funding. You see, enforcement is by far the most impossible part of this, and the lack of understanding shows what happens when you ask government people what to do, instead of folks who actually know how it works. This would require each ISP to implement a procedure for checking each connected device for the presence of that AV-firewall package. That alone is virtually impossible.
The biggest issue is by what means would the ISP scan for that package? Get this: I can in theory write some software for my computer which would then deceive the ISP scanning computer, and they would not have a clue. They are wholly unlikely to want that clue, because it means a very heavy line use every time the device connects, or reconnects. And if the customer uses a home router for multiple computers, how is the ISP to know when said router hasn’t been programmed to run interference on behalf of all the systems? And let’s not forget how easy it is to allow other computers to run through yours via wifi. The ISP won’t give a rat’s patootie, but will be forced to carry out this demand from government in order to do business legally.
So what if they run Linux, BSD, or any number of other operating systems which have their own firewall built in, and there are no viruses, nor even AV for them? Linux users have fought that mess at colleges, because the administration of most of them is brain-dead on a par with government bureaucrats. How will said government idiots propose to enforce compliance? And how will it play out in the long run, in actual user experience?
I don’t doubt the people who came up with this brilliant plan would willingly go around holding a gun to people’s heads, making them run Windows, just so they could all run the exact some software package so the crackers don’t have to work so hard to get past it. They will, of course. And forcing everyone to run Windows just guarantees there will be even more infected systems polluting the Net.
Of course, we know the real reason for all this is to force everyone into a mold which simplifies the life for bureaucrats. Uniformity means less work for the over-paid hogs at the public trough. They love enforced uniformity. Bureaucrats hate the common Joe finding out things they didn’t tell him. So it’s just another thinly disguised attempt at hateful oppression.
In my opinion, this is the sort of thing which justifies armed revolt.
