Undermining Dissent

The folks at the University of Toronto have another interesting report Keep Calm and (Don’t) Enable Macros: A New Threat Actor Targets UAE Dissidents that is a reminder of how government's handle dissent.  What is interesting about this one is the flow of adoption of some pretty powerful tools to government's other than the usual suspects, China, Iran and Russia who pursue dissent relentlessly.  Yes, we have known that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and many other examples I cited in my last book, The New Cyberwar, but some of those countries were using tools made for law enforcement by U.S manufacturers.  This seems to be a set of tools developed for the purpose by the UAE and the targets were press and dissidents.  The techniques used were not very earth-shattering or unique, but it seems the ability to discourage and target press and activists is not limited - more and more countries are doing it.  Mexico and South Sudan also has been recently added to that list.  

Our culture of democracy may be a disadvantage at times, but I have to remind myself, on occasion, that it is a good thing.  We allow a free press, though we lambast them for what they say, even openly criticize them for doing their job in a way that exposes us to criticism.  On the flip side of that, I have always declined press interviews because they take a view of events and bend the facts to fit that view.  That is on them.  We have too many reporters who take political sides and editorial slants to news that used to be factual representations of what occurred, not a reporter's or editor's interpretation of those events.  Reporters need to be more like hockey referees.  

You will hear, every now and again, that a player will turn to a referee in the faceoff circle and remind him of a simple fact:  "The folks watching the hockey game are here to see us play, not you drop the puck."  It happened last week.  For those who are not fans of hockey, it just means do your job and we will do ours.  The fans are here to see us, not you.  

In some countries, the referee blows the whistle and nobody stops playing or shoots the referee.  In this country, we stop, gather, and await the puck drop.  Everyone has a place.  That allows us to watch  a really good game where different opponents fight it out without interference.  It would be nice if politics were more like hockey.