Freedom fighters or terrorists: Hacktivism

Both cases I’ve described in previous parts have one common thing: enemies of The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks were attacked by denial of service attacks.



However attacks on these sites are quite different from standard hacker attacks, it’s not few people but hundreds of so called hacktivists (hacker + activist = hacktivist) which are organized to attack selected targets.

Many of these hacktivists are not even hackers, now everyone can download special program and became part of distributed denial of service attack.

Originally term activism is very broad as it includes both violent and non-violent actions. Both Gandhi and Che Guevara were activists.


Hacktivism is somewhere in between as on the one side it’s non-violent and on the other hand these activities cause financial casualties and can possibly endanger many people for example someone might not be able to buy medicines because his/her credit card network will be attacked by denial of service attack.
Questions:
1) Do you think shutting down websites of organizations such as RIAA or PayPal can be justified by defending free speech?
2) How do you see future of hacktivism? Will it continue and evolve or will be finally shut down?
3) What do you think about the safety of e-commerce now?
4) Are hacktivists freedom fighters or (cyber) terrorists? Or maybe something in between?

Freedom fighters or terrorists: WikiLeaks

It’s time to discuss the hot topic of this month - WikiLeaks.



I think I don’t have to introduce this portal as almost every media is talking about it but it’ll summarize its major ‘achievements’:
• Helicopter attack video in Baghdad


• Afghan war diaries

• Iraq war diaries

• US Department of State internal messages (so called Cablegate)

So far in my opinion there is nothing spectacular in these documents but their release is very spectacular and embarrassing for United States.

Following Cablegate WikiLeaks has been cut off from money by PayPal, MasterCard and Visa, thrown out of servers, lost their domain and its founder Julian Assange arrested and faces extradition to Sweden for rape charges.


After these actions websites of Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Swedish government were attacked by denial of service attacks.



In my personal opinion nothing goods comes from WikiLeaks because there is nothing important in these documents however their actions might put some people at risk and destroy careers of other ones which in turn might be used as an excuse to limit free speech. On the other hand I don’t like the way US government is dealing with this. It should openly accuse WikiLeaks of illegal possession of secret government documents (i.e. espionage) instead of secretly influencing private companies to close their accounts and Sweden to accuse him of rape.

Questions:

1) WikiLeaks claims it’s fighting for free speech, do you think it’s their true motive or just an excuse?
2) WikiLeaks was founded in order to release documents from countries like Russia, China, North Korea etc... , why then its major releases are almost exclusively US documents? Is it because it’s much easier to get US documents or it would be much more dangerous to release Russian documents for instance?
3) Do you think United States can be trusted in terms of confidentiality? Should Poland share its state secrets with United States?
4) What do you think about this whole blockade of WikiLeaks and counterstrike by hackers?
5) Do you think WikiLeaks is truly independent organization or it’s backed by someone else?
6) What’s your opinion about charges which Julian Assange faces? Is he guilty or is this just a show trial?

I had no ambition to make a fortune; mere moneymaking has never been my goal. I had an ambition to build

My presentation is about the richest man ever John Davison Rockefeller. I have entitled my presentation after his words: " I had no ambition to make a fortune; mere moneymaking has never been my goal. I had an ambition to build."
I'll follow a certain plan. At first I'll write about Rockefeller's early life. Then I’m going to describe his Standard Oil Company. Later I'll focus your attention on thing that is the most important - I mean MONEY of course. Fortune is a 3rd point of my presentation.




John Davison Rockefeller was born in Richford on July 8, 1839, second of six children to William Avery Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. His father was a traveling salesman of dubious products, such as "cancer cures." He was also a philanderer and a bigamist. Even as a young boy, John knew how to make money. He would buy candies and later sell them to his brothers and school children for profit. At fifteen, John entered Central High School in Cleveland and joined the Erie Street Baptist Church.

“The 16-year-old Rockefeller found employment as an apprentice bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle, for 5 cents a day. His seriousness, diligence, and honesty led to steadily increasing responsibilities and pay over the next two years. In 1859 he left to form his own produce commission business with a partner, Maurice Clark. Clark & Rockefeller quickly became a successful firm, and its partners accumulated enough capital to invest in other Cleveland businesses. In 1863, they invested in an oil refinery with a chemist Samuel Andrews. In 1870, John Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller, Samuel Andrews, Henry Flagler, and a silent partner, Stephen Harkness, formed the Standard Oil Company, with John Rockefeller as president.”

What I have already written is a short history of Rockefeller's early life and formation process of Standard Oil company. Now let's move to the second point and read about his company.



Standard Oil is one of the largest and most well-known organization in history. The corporation has dealt with the extraction of oil.
In 1980 Standard Oil had a 88% market in the United States, it had a monopoly in this industry. The Market share grew very rapidly until it reached 91% in 1911. Standard Oil 55% of its production exported to the whole world.
In 1911, the corporation shattered by the Supreme Court. Standard Oil split into 34 companies. Some of these companies are:
- ExxonMobil
- BP
- Texaco
- ConocoPhillips
- Esso
- South Penn Oil Co., now owned by Shell
- Swan and Finch
- Union Tank Lines
- Waters-Pierce
- Chevron

Below is a map of how businesses operate today, derived from the Standard Oil .

You can also watch this video about Standard Oil.










Right, now we know about Rockefeller's empire. But how much did he earn? Let's check! The point that you were awaiting breathless: FORTUNE

189 000 000 000$

The list of the most wealthy historical figures is based on research done around the world
by Forbes magazine in 2006

#	Name	Wealth in Billion USD	Origin	Current Residence	Company
1.	John Davison Rockefeller	189	United States	United States	Standard Oil Company
2.	Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr.	122	United States	United States	Hunt Refining Company
3.	William Henry Gates III	100	United States	United States	Microsoft
5.	Lawrence Joseph Ellison	58	United States	United States	Oracle Corporation
6.	Walton family	48	United States	United States	Wal-Mart

This is too much money for one man. How to spend it? There is a simple answer: by philanthropy. From his very first paycheck, Rockefeller tithed ten percent of his earnings to his church. As his wealth grew, so did his giving, primarily to educational and public health causes, but also for basic science and the arts.



Questions:
1. Do you think you will be a rich man, do you think money makes people happier?
2. How would you spend such money if you were as rich as Rockefeller?
3. Are you generous now and do you think you will be as a rich man?
4. Why do women are more generous than men in Poland?

Freedom fighters or terrorists: The Pirate Bay

This semester I’d like to discuss topic which is rather hot last days – the conflict between various internet groups\sites\etc… on the one side and states and corporations on the other.
Today I’m going to discuss case which is perhaps not so popular at the moment but was the largest battle between pirates and anti-pirates so far.




This website which was created in 2003 is an indexing site for torrent files.

For those of you who don’t know the details it works in following way: User downloads .torrent file (hosted by TPB) which is used by his\her software to download the proper file (movie for example).

Everything would be fine if not the fact that many of these files are illegal files obtained without license and this site is one of the most popular sources of such files.



In 2008 Swedish prosecutors supported by entertainment industry filled a case against TPB for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws". Swedish court found people operating TPB guilty and sentenced them to 1 year in prison and 3 million dollar compensation to the industry.




Following the trial websites of anti-piracy organizations involved in the case were attacked by distributed denial of service attack.

Questions:
1) Do you think they were guilty the charges and if so what’s your opinion about the sentence?
2) What’s your opinion about computer piracy?
3) Do you think TPB trial is a single case or is it beginning of such trials?

Healthy lifestyle - part III

In the last part of the presentation I would like to present some tips for a healthy life:

1) Eat properly – 5 times a day

- remember about breakfast – it’s a good start for a day, and forget about supper after 6.00 p.m. – it’s too late for your body to metabolize it. What’s more, try to eat regularly at similar hours of the day

2) Avoid stress – if it is impossible, try to limit stressful situations or relax if possible because stress is said to be the most common reason of heart attacks, strokes and gastrointestinal diseases. So listen to music, have a hobby, meet friends

3) Eat a lot of fruit and vegetables – cooked, fresh, steamed – they give energy, improve complexion and physical and mental state

4) Drink a lot of water at least 2l a day – it cleanse the body of toxins and helps your kidneys function well so you feel good

5) Avoid too much fat and sugar – especially fast food, they raise cholesterol and in the long run lead to laziness and carelessness not mention obesity

6) Avoid couch-potato lifestyle

– go for a walk, do some gardening, parents should encourage their children to do some activities outside instead of playing computer games

7) Have a positive attitude to life – smile, laugh, have some fun because it increases the level of serotonin in your blood, which influences the cardiovascular, renal, immune and gastrointestinal systems in your body.

8) And last but not least - Don’t smoke or drink alcohol .

Remember it’s never too late to change your lifestyle.

Questions:

1) Do you think that your lifestyle is healthy? What do you do keep fit?

2) Do you think that Polish people live healthy lives?

3) Can you recommend any tasty and healthy recipes?