On June 16 & 17 of 2015 (this month as I write) the AP carried a pair of articles about an alleged “breach” of the Houston Astros database, called Ground Control, by members of the management staff of the Saint Louis Cardinals. The New York press waded in with both fists grasping for something salcious and the talking heads of sports nationwide began to smirk and reminisce about the days of yore and stealing another teams playbook. It was a source of great amusement and called up allusions to a century of comedy, including such heartwarming midcentury television favorites as Happy Days. It was just so funny.
The aforementioned AP articles took the time to explain that the two teams use Saber metrics–just like in Moneyball. They assured us that all that was stolen was a bunch of statistics and anyway the FBI and the baseball commission are on top of it so let’s go back to looking at the Team rivalry, eh? After all isn’t it just so much fun? Besides The FBI is on hand and they want it quiet.
The real issue here is privacy. We in America are guaranteed privacy in the 4th Amendment to our Constitution. The Supreme court has in fact ruled stating just that. The 4th guarantees that no-one without a search warrant is empowered to search your business records, body, realestate, or personal property. The actual term is chattel but that’s just an old way of saying something that really, really belongs to you like your hair comb, your wallet, your car (in those days your pets, livestock and woman as well).
The government routinely ignores this with its surveillance programs, so naturally they want to keep the cloud of secrecy thick when they are actually mulling over the possibility that they might enforce one of the federal statues against cyber crimes. Remember, where the executive branch is concerned, the constitution is a smoke screen and federal statute is merely a suggestion. That’s what Nixon told us, right? “Its not a crime if the the president [or one of his agents or departments] does it.”
Then there’s the fact that Houston might not have done enough to secure the intellectual property, the data, their chattel. The law against theft only applies if you have the money and knowledge to guard your property, right? For instance if you have a nce bike and you leave it in front of your house while you take a much needed bathroom break, then it’s perfectly legal for the nextdoor neighbor to take it and keep it. You left it unguarded and he’s bigger than you so that gives him clear ownership. Isn’t that how things are supposed to work in America?
It’s similar to how a young, physically weaker coed who wears a mini-skirt and crop top is actually inviting and sex with the first guy brave enough to take it from her. She’s intentionally seducing him, after all. And if you can’t afford a domicile then you have no right to privacy anyway, because you haven’t done due diligence and locked your doors and windows, signalling the government that you expect privacy. Isn’t that just how the founding fathers intended the constitution to operate? And we can leave it to the good guys in the Secret Service, FBI, IRS, NSA, etc. to decide for us because, ultimately they have our best interest at heart. And drone beach patrol units are for shark watch only. Where did I leave my red pill?
Cyber security is a growing problem and the biggest culprits are the very gate keepers who design and enforce the security standards that we are dependent on. It is never in the interest of those who enforce law or prosecute war to make it harder to spy on you or search your person, properties and business–so it remains easy. You have little recourse and so long as we, as a people, remain convinced that their is a terrorist in every back cupboard and a bomber under every bed, things will only get worse. We have to say know to the war on terrorism just like we did Joe Mc Carthy’s War on Communism.
War is a perfectly reasonable tool of diplomacy between political entities. Between a political entity and a movement, ideology, or behavior–its not war. That sort of war is oppression–for better or worse, I certainly support the oppression of thieves, rapists, murders etc.–and using posse commitatis and the whole military infrastructure to hunt and kill individuals for their, admittedly insane, religious and political beliefs, even when those beliefs make them violent, is equally insane and cannot coexist with a free and democratic society.