From Newsgroup: alt.security
https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-mulls-monitoring-metadata-for-pre-emptive-cyberattack-defenses
The Japanese government is considering allowing the peacetime
monitoring of private metadata in a way that does not directly
identify individuals, in a bid to bolster its pre-emptive
cyberattack defenses, government sources said Sunday.
Data such as messages themselves, in principle, will not be
subject to monitoring, amid concerns that the plans to
strengthen surveillance against potential cyberattacks could
infringe on privacy, the sources said.
Japan's Constitution forbids the violation of the secrecy
of any means of communication.
Instead, the government would allow, during normal times,
surveillance of changes to information such as amounts
of metadata -- accompanying data such as a message's
size or the date it was sent -- and IP addresses that
identify devices on networks.
. . .
Oh, none of THAT could possibly be abused for
totalitarian ends .......
The basic message here (and across the US/EU as
well) is that the only way to have freedom is to
surrender all freedom.
What was the old phrase from the Vietnam war - "We
had to destroy the village in order to save it" ?
Now, sad and scary thing is, the spooky people may
not be entirely wrong. The overall "online-everything"
environment HAS become almost totally insecure and
eagerly exploited by bad actors private and state.
The rise of "AI" makes it all even WORSE, FAST.
Hate to say it, but it soon may be necessary to
pretty much turn off the Net. Great idea - but
too great a threat now on every level. Does your
banker/broker/whatever-provider even know you
face, your habits, your personality, *you* ?
For many that answer is "No" - which makes it
SO much easier for scammers and worse.
Being an old fart, I'm pretty much still a
paper-in-person sort of guy - I actually
bank AT the bank, anyone involved in my
financial/legal/whatever affairs actually
SEE me. I don't have online banking or
even online CCard access and have a freakin
flip phone. As such I'm largely 'off-the-grid'
so to speak in the modern context. It is
"less convenient" but a lot safer. Ink and
paper are hard to beat (but DO use wash-resistant
ink eh - UniBall 207 is pretty good).
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