Month: June 2024

Facebook regularly abuses the privacy of its users. Google no longer supports its popular RSS feeds. Apple has banned all iPhone apps that are political or sexual in nature. Microsoft may collaborate with some governments to spy on Skype calls, but we do not know which governments. Recently, both Twitter and LinkedIn have experienced security breaches that have affected the data of hundreds of thousands of users.

If you consider yourself a helpless villager in the power struggle of the “Aryka game”, you have thought correctly, more than you can imagine. These are not traditional companies, and we are not traditional customers. They are feudal lords and we are their subjects, peasants, and slaves.

Power in IT has also shifted in favor of two spectrums: cloud service providers and packaged platform vendors. This power shift has greatly affected many issues and deeply impacts security.

Traditionally, computer security was the responsibility of the user. Users would buy their own antivirus software and firewalls, and any flaws were their own negligence. This was, in a way, a foolish business practice. We usually assume that the products and services we buy are secure and reliable. But in IT (Information Technology), we have tolerated countless low-quality products and services, and by buying them, we have actually supported them.

Now that the IT industry has reached maturity, we expect to see automatic installation of more security measures on devices (out-of-the-box method). This has been made possible on a large scale by two technological trends: cloud computing and operating systems (platforms) controlled by vendors. The first means that most of our data is now stored on another network: Google Docs, Salesforce, Facebook, Gmail. The second means that our new internet devices are both locked and controlled by vendors, limiting our ability to configure them: iPhones, Chromebooks, Kindles, Blackberries. In the midst of this, our relationship with IT has changed. Previously, we used our computers for specific tasks, but now we also use vendor-controlled devices to go places; all of these places belong to someone else.

A new security model is being taken care of by someone else, without informing us of the details. I have no control over the security of my Gmail or my photos on Flickr. I cannot demand more security for the content I have presented on Prezi or the tasks listed on Trello, no matter how serious they may be. I cannot audit any of these cloud services. I cannot delete cookies on my iPad or ensure that my files have been securely deleted. My Kindle updates automatically without my knowledge or consent. I am only vaguely aware of the security on my Facebook, and I don’t even know what operating system they are using.

There are many good reasons why we have all flocked to these cloud services and vendor-controlled operating systems, and of course, their benefits are countless, from cost to ease, from reliability to their own security. However, this is inherently a feudal relationship. We entrust our data and computing operating systems to these companies and trust that they will treat us well and protect us from harm. Also, if we are completely loyal to them – if we allow them to control our emails, calendars, address books, photos, and everything else – we will also reap even more benefits. We become their subjects, or perhaps in the worst case, their slaves!

There are many feudal lords. Google and Apple are the most prominent, but Microsoft is trying to control both user data and the user’s operating system. Facebook is another lord that controls most of our social interactions on the internet. Other feudal lords are smaller and more specialized, such as Amazon, Yahoo, Verizon, etc. But their pattern is the same.

Undoubtedly, feudal security has its own benefits. These companies operate with much better security than average users. Many automatic backups store data after hardware failures, user errors, and malware vulnerabilities. Automatic updates also significantly increase security. This applies to small organizations as well; they are more secure than when they did this themselves. For large companies with dedicated IT security departments, these benefits may be less obvious. Undoubtedly, even large companies outsource important functions such as tax preparation and cleaning services, but they still have requirements for maintaining security, data retention, auditing, etc. which may not be possible with most feudal lords.

Feudal security also has its dangers. Sellers can make security mistakes and affect hundreds of thousands of people. Sellers can imprison people in relationships that are difficult to escape from and leave their data and problems behind. Sellers can act selfishly against our interests; Facebook regularly does this by changing people’s default settings, introducing new features, or changing its privacy policy. Many sellers give our data to governments without our knowledge or consent; they almost sell them for profit. This is not surprising, as companies are expected to act in their own interests, not the interests of their users.

The feudal relationship is inherently based on power. In medieval Europe, people would pledge loyalty to feudal lords in exchange for protection. These relationships changed as the lords realized they held all the power and could do as they pleased. The common people were exploited and taken advantage of, farmers were tied to their land, and became enslaved.

This popularity of internet lords and their widespread presence enables them to profit; government laws and regulations facilitate the preservation of their power. These lords compete with each other for profit and power. By spending time on their websites and giving them our personal information – whether through search engines, emails, status updates, likes, or simply our behavioral traits – we provide them with raw material for their battles. In this way, we are like slaves toiling on the feudal lands of lords. If you don’t believe it, try it out, see if you can take your information with you when you leave Facebook! When the war between superpowers rages, we suffer damage from both sides…

So how do we keep our souls safe? We have limited alternatives on a daily basis, but we also need to trust someone and decide who to trust and who not to trust, and then act accordingly. This is not easy; feudal lords deviate from their path to not be transparent about their actions, their safety, and everything else. Use whatever power you have – as an individual, it’s almost nothing, as big companies it’s more – to negotiate with your lords. And finally, do not be extreme in any way: not politically, not socially, not culturally. Yes, you can survive without having a closed source, but these are usually the edges that are influenced. I agree that it may not bring much peace, but it is still a bit of peace.

In the policy section, we have a work plan. In the short term, it is necessary to “circumvent”, meaning the ability to change our hardware, software, and data files, to still legally maintain the neutrality of the network. Both of these reduce the amount of profit that bosses can take from us, and increase the possibility of forcing their market to adopt a more benevolent approach; something we definitely do not want is for the government to spend resources on strengthening one business model and its priority over other forms and suffocating competition.

In the long term, we need to reduce the power imbalance. Feudalism in the Middle Ages transformed into more balanced relationships where lords had responsibilities alongside their rights. Internet feudalism today is both temporary and one-sided. We have no choice but to trust the lords, but in return, we receive very little assurance from them. Lords have great rights but limited responsibilities or restrictions. We must balance this relationship and government intervention is the only way to help us achieve this goal. In medieval Europe, the rise of centralized government and stable rule, which feudalism lacked, was provided. The Magna Carta (personal freedom) treaty obligated the government to accept responsibilities and empowered individuals to create a government for and by the people. We need a similar process to control internet lords and this is not something that market forces can provide. Power, in the true sense of the word, is changing and there are much larger issues than the internet and our relationships with technology providers.

Bruce Schneier is a world-renowned expert in digital security.

In the Islamic system ruling over Iran, more emphasis is placed on not corrupting the people rather than understanding them. This characteristic is derived from the clergy who have always considered themselves as “knowledgeable” and others as “ignorant” throughout history. The clergy of present-day Iran have no new words for those who understand and for those who need to improve their scientific needs. In the midst of this, although the formation of an organization called FATA police has been advertised to justify the prevention of internet users from entering moral corruption, the essence of this organization is based on not allowing people to understand their true nature.

A user who is searching for corruption does not settle for the internet. Because the internet is a virtual space and the pursuit of corruption cannot be justified by describing and promoting a virtual pleasure. We never deny the harms of the internet – in any form or shape – but rather reducing a general concept to a specific term called corruption is an insult to the same understanding that our religious leaders fear from its prevalence.

These days in Iran, for years the average intelligence and knowledge of non-clerics has been surpassing that of clerics. This scientific and informational advancement has posed a great crisis for the less intelligent and knowledgeable clergy. In the past, the majority of people were illiterate and clerics were seen as “mullahs” or “ayatollahs” due to their education. Literacy, or the ability to read and write, in the field of jurisprudence gave clerics an advantage over the illiterate. However, the situation turned into a crisis when the literacy and awareness of others overshadowed that of the clergy. According to Iranian religious leaders, the main cause of this is the excessive use of social media and the internet, which accelerates the spread of knowledge and leaves no room for the effective presence of clerics in the future.

It is known that the establishment of the FATA police or organizations under the name of the Cyber Corps was intended to control and analyze free and non-governmental political and social information. This mission, from the very beginning, proved to be unsuccessful and unstable. This is because obstructing thoughts is much more difficult and destructive than closing a newspaper or a newsstand.

The emergence of individual and collective websites and blogs has become so widespread that it has limited the power of rulers and censors, causing them to accelerate their efforts to block and filter them. The Cyber Army hired a group of young people who were both seeking employment and believed in the steps taken by the army in this field. Their mission was to hack and destroy corrupt websites, even those of Iranian scientists and elites who had brief disagreements with the policies of the Islamic regime.

If the Cyber Corps does not fit within the framework of the law and, like many activities of the Corps and Basij, is outside the general rule of law, the Cyber Police was established to both legally deal with offenders and to always have the shadow of a legal entity over the heads of social network users.

Today, the Cyber Police has organized numerous cases and handed them over to the judicial system. In these cases, we sometimes come across funny subjects that make a person laugh uncontrollably. For example: Why have you paid tribute to the glory of the Achaemenid Empire on your website? Or why do you consider a student to have the right to protest and strike?

Since 1988, the decline in the importance of “actions against national security” and the commission of crimes such as spreading false information with different wordings, even on a personal blog, has accelerated to the point that a group of prisoners these days, after 1988, are somehow connected through the same writing and blogging and managing related websites. This whole attack on the realm of knowledge and critical thinking of the people, especially the youth, is the same concern of the rulers who are afraid of the direct understanding of their audience. Otherwise, they themselves know better that creating difficulties for a young person will definitely make them more eager to sell themselves to the same greedy government’s forbidden desires.

These days, the Cyber Police in Iran has its own laws, regulations, structures and special officers. This police force was directly established and funded by the leadership and its duties were predetermined. The story began when the leader’s office, which until yesterday had enforced respect and compliance with the government’s red lines through a two-line memo in all publications, suddenly found itself face to face with a vast and chaotic space, and to put it figuratively, a “rebellious knot” that completely rejected these orders and obligations and instead insisted on releasing its pent-up frustrations on the keyboard and sending it to thousands of others. This is where the sanctity of that memo was broken. And later, this breaking of the shackles of the repressive regime became the slogan of the people in the protests of 1988.

I sometimes see myself alongside the FATA officers, who consider their appetite for these days to be indebted to the blood of the martyrs of paradise. I think of a solution for the struggles and difficulties of these police and internet organizations. I see that the problem is spreading because the central issue of the FATA police mission is a transgressive technology. Something that if you capture it today with all your might and technology, tomorrow it will slip through another loophole and take on a different form. And since the will and reins of this technology are in the hands of others who have processed it themselves, those others – whether intentionally or unintentionally – do not leave much room for the FATA police to roam.

My suggestion to all the elders, leaders, and the head of the household is not to rush in understanding the people. Especially where the understanding of the people exceeds that of the rulers. They should think about the fact that the tools of murder, looting, and corruption range from a match and a kitchen knife to a telephone, satellite, and many other things that are easily accessible to everyone. If someone wants to kill themselves or someone else, all they need is to grab that kitchen knife. Or by lighting a match, they can set something on fire. Or they can pick up a stone and hit someone.

The best way to isolate and vaccinate the people of a society from social harms is not through excessive police control. Excessive police control throws the government officials and leaders of a society out of the people’s sight and puts them in the hands of oppressors, constantly exposed to ridicule and insults from the people. We must not close the way for our people, we must open the way for them. This statement and suggestion of mine is not at all accepted by the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who believe that people must be forced into paradise. Which paradise? Probably the same paradise where these gentlemen, the authorities and clerics of the government, are standing at the gate.

“In the name of God”

You know that the University of Tehran was established in 1313 (during the time of Reza Shah) and immediately after students and professors entered through one door, politics also came to the university through another door. Some professors and students raised political issues such as freedom and tyranny in universities. It was during this time that Dr. “Taghi Arani”, one of the professors at the University of Tehran, along with 53 other professors and students, were arrested and sentenced to death by order of Reza Khan.

After the escape of Reza Shah and the September 1320 incident, the political atmosphere that had found its way to the university became more open and as a result, activities became more intense. At that time, most of the student activists were affiliated with the Tudeh Party. But after a few years, religious and nationalist groups also joined the movement and with the emergence of God-fearing socialists led by Mr. “Nakhshab”, Islamic associations gradually formed in universities and they also worked alongside the Tudeh Party.

This process continued for several years, but in 1327 with the “Shah’s assassination” at the University of Tehran and the illegalization of the Tudeh Party, their activities were significantly reduced. They became more active against nationalist and religious students and played a crucial role in the events that took place during Mossadegh’s time, such as the nationalization of the oil industry with the slogan “Oil must be nationalized throughout the country”. This spectrum of students played a very fundamental role.

At that time, I was studying in high school and had not yet become a university student. However, because I had a great interest in university and its issues, I heard that the students of Tehran University were planning to go to the National Bank to buy “national bonds”. National bonds were actually securities that Dr. Mosaddegh had issued to compensate for the economic blockade and were well received by various segments of the population, including students. On that day, the students marched from the university towards the National Bank, which was located on Ferdowsi Street. I was present there and saw a large number of students who had come that day to buy bonds and declared their cooperation and collaboration with Dr. Mosaddegh.

From then on, students were active in all the events that took place during the time of Mosaddegh – from the July 30th movement to the August 28th coup – and as you know, only 100 days after the coup, the December 16th incident occurred at the University of Tehran, where 103 students from the Technical University were martyred. From then on, activities against tyranny, dictatorship, and the monarchy became more serious, and especially on December 16th of each year, detailed demonstrations were held at the university; to the point that towards the end of Mohammad Reza Shah’s reign, the system tried to close down universities on this date; but nevertheless, student protests continued, both on campus and in the streets.

Don’t forget the story of the siege of four thousand students of Tehran University in Ferdowsi Hall of the Faculty of Literature in 1339. The students were besieged due to the arrest of several hundred students, including myself. These student demonstrations and public pressure led to the government eventually releasing all the students after a short period of time. Dr. Farhad, who was the president of Tehran University at the time, strongly opposed these arrests and emphasized that university classes would not be held until the last student was released.

Even as we approached the revolution, we witnessed the first anti-monarchy protests carried out by students; during the Eid al-Fitr protests, after the Eid prayer led by Dr. “Moftah” and the sermon by Mr. “Bahonar”, while the clergy who were prepared from various mosques were announcing that the work was done and they were returning to the mosques, the organizers had no specific plan; some students stood alongside Shariati Street and invited people to move towards the Eshraghieh Husseiniyeh (which was closed at the time). Gradually, the crowd grew and the famous Eid al-Fitr protests took shape, which were the first protests and marches before the revolution carried out by students, and the clergy had no role in them. The next protests were related to Jaleh Square or the current martyrs, in which again students played a fundamental role. In fact, the universities, especially the University of Tehran, were so effective in

It was precisely because of this influence that after the establishment of the Islamic Republic system, officials tried to bring the university under their control, which led to the issues that occurred in Tehran University after the revolution. Then, under the pretext of cultural or Islamic revolutionizing of universities, Tehran University and other universities in Iran were closed for several years. After that, numerous purges were carried out, resulting in the expulsion of almost two-thirds of the professors and one-third of the students from the university. Many were also sent to prison and the pressure on universities became even more severe.

These pressures continued until 1991 and gradually, the students resumed their activities. After Mr. “Khatami” came to power and the so-called “reforms” began, the university became active again. Unfortunately, it was during this time that the July 9th incident occurred, resulting in widespread arrests and an unknown number of students being killed or missing.

Among the individuals who were arrested and disappeared during the events of July 18th, Mr. “Saeed Zinali” is one, whose family claims that despite their efforts to seek help from both domestic and international legal authorities, they have no information about his fate. Of course, there are others with similar fates. Currently, “Arash Sadeghi”, another imprisoned student, is on a hunger strike and his condition is unknown. …In any case, the fate of the missing students and their families must be determined.

In any case, after that incident which was a great transformation and excitement in the country, even Mr. “Khamenei” cried and said it doesn’t matter if someone tears my picture; the university lost its intimate relationship with Mr. Khatami’s government. As we witnessed, the last time they went to Tehran University, they faced severe protests from the students and of course he also had a harsh and rough confrontation with the students to the point where he said I will kick you out of the hall.

With the end of the Khatami era and the rise of Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, strict measures were taken against universities and all kinds of activities were prohibited. All existing associations, both Islamic and non-Islamic, were dissolved. Students were expelled, deprived, and marked with stars. In fact, it can be said that Mr. Ahmadinejad destroyed everything. In the incident of 88, a large number of students and professors, including myself, were arrested and I witnessed in Evin prison that thousands of students were imprisoned and subjected to harassment and abuse.

The purpose of discussing these issues briefly was to say that when we study history, we find that in all social developments in Iran, universities and students played a fundamental role. Every government must value universities and strive for their independence in order to be successful.

At the end, while remembering the incident of July 9th, 1999, I ask the rulers to leave the university alone. Let the university fulfill its duty of criticism, construction, cultural activities, and especially scientific work. The university in Iran should be independent like other countries, because an independent university is not effective. As we see the current situation of universities, neither the professor is a real professor nor the student is a real student! I hope that with the changes and transformations that have been created or need to be created in the country, universities will find their true place.

I also address current and younger students, reminding them to keep the memory of July 9th alive and to try not to forget that before the revolution, students and your fathers never forgot December 7th and kept its memory burning in their hearts.