Is The Internet Really A Gift... From The Military???

Excuse me if this is already a well known conspiracy theory, but it just clicked in me that the very medium that is proving to be tough to protect our privacy in, while also being a blessing, came from a military project.

Is that just a coincidence? A gift from Big Brother?

Also, has anyone ever noticed how after the Internet birth, we don't hear so many medical warnings against sedentary lifestyles so much anymore? It's like we are taking to this new Internet a bit too well.

jats

Well, just about all technology had a military origin.

Yes the internet is a gift from the military.

the internet was born out of the bulletin board system - not unlike this, albeit in a more basic format. it was derived from the US Arpa net developed in the 60s and 70's

en.wikipedia.org...


the HTTP thing we all know and love was invented by a chap called tim berners-lee (who used to live quite close to me! - I can see the plessey controls building from my house!)

en.wikipedia.org...


interesting?

Yes, it is. Al Gore sure didn't invent it.

Yep. Humanity found a way to take something designed for military purposes and we started using it to expand our consciousness and share all kinds of ideas. If it weren't for the internet , 80% of the new information we are privy to (just guessing) would have taken us either twice as long to obtain, or we would never have heard it.

One thing I am perfectly aware of though, is that the internet is an open book to the government. They can and do observe all of us. The things we know as 'cookies' are just the visible trackers that monitor our activity. We have no idea how easily the government can mandate open-portals into peoples computers for 'national security' reasons. In other words, the common virus is nothing compared to a BUILT-IN gateway to our internet lives, and that's more or less what's been going on with every new computer released since the internet was born.

This is mostly conjecture on my part, except that I know the programmers who are by law required to leave these gateways open. ISP's need not even be aware that this is possible if our internet gateways are pre-programmed to begin with.

reply to post by NewWorldOver


No they do not. You can easily monitor every bit of traffic leaving and entering your computer, using any of the tools available or write one yourself.

In theory its possible that the Microsoft tcp/ip stack is programmed to not report certain packets and therefore leave them invisible though, but thats not possible with open source tcp/ip stacks such as the ones used in Linux.

Maybe Im not understanding what kind of "gateway" you are referring to, but it sounds like you think the government can access any computer connected to the Internet? The only way that would happen is if the government knew about holes in the operating systems, and gained access through them, just like ordinary hackers do.

A good firewall would protect you from that though, unless you think all firewall manufacturers are also in on it, in which case you can write your own firewall or use a open source firewall to get safe.

Another way into a computer is by using a hole in a software program such as a ftp server, web server or similar. Anything that listens to the Internet and listens on a port from time to time and is allowed to do so by your firewall. Its best to use open source software if you dont trust Microsoft or other corporations.

And a cookie can only be read by the site you are visiting, or someone having access to your computer as described above. You can open a cookie and find out what it says. Sites can use them for storing a unique number so they can identify your computer, since IP's are not unique.



[edit on 1-12-2007 by Copernicus]

Tor (The Onion Router) is a gift from the military also.

Tor is a program that allows you to remain "anonymous" while using its Onion layered style network. In short your traffic hops through several other computers on the "secure" Onion network first before trying to get to its target (web site, ftp, etc).

Tor is widely championed by the EFF and others however few people seem to mention that it was developed by the US Military.

The US Navy currently operates the Tor related web site onion-router.net

onion-router.net is one of those very very ugly 1990s looking web sites. Why the navy is running a .net web site is unknown to me (vs a .gov or .mil) and it should be noted that the word "Navy" and the Navy seal don't appear until the very bottom of the page.

Despite how secure Tor may seem and all the fanboy love it gets please never forget that Tor was born from the US Military.

Think about that for a second. Is the government going to pass out a tool that will allow you to possibly commit crimes - even against them without their ability to detect you ? Not likely.

By using the Tor network in a way you're waving a huge flag saying, hey everyone - I got something to hide ! Don't look at me !

By the way - if your local police station starts passing out free "anti-finger print stuff" that probably don't work so well either.

On another note

I'm fairly sure every ISP is still has to allow law enforce access to their networks. Almost anything you transmit over the internet can easily be intercepted by our (the US) government and possibly other governments (not counting regular hackers).

The vast majority of your internet traffic isn't secure and even the secure traffic may be subject to compromise. If anyone has the computing power to crack something it's the US Government.

[edit on 1-12-2007 by discomfit]

[edit on 1-12-2007 by discomfit]

Originally posted by Copernicus
reply to post by NewWorldOver

 

In theory its possible that the Microsoft tcp/ip stack is programmed to not report certain packets and therefore leave them invisible though, but thats not possible with open source tcp/ip stacks such as the ones used in Linux.

Good point. Linux is an exception, along with you as said, most open source operating systems.

As far as Microsoft goes, we need to accept the fact that Bill Gates is not Microsoft. The CEO's etc. are not really running the company like we think - they are supervisors to a massive corporation which is involved so deeply within the government that they practically have a blood oath. Why do I say this? Simply for the fact that 90% of the software running the country, from Airports to Libraries, are programmed within and operated in the Windows O.S. Despite what we think after seeing Bill Gates go to trial etc... the Government is not his enemy. They are mutual beneficiaries.

I hope I'm just being paranoid. Maybe open-protocol for computers is something they only enforce in public systems, like public libraries etc.

[edit on 1-12-2007 by NewWorldOver]