About those kill-switched Ukrainian tractors

What John Deere did to Russian looters, anyone can do to farmers, anywhere. 

Cory Doctorow  May 8, 2022

 

Here’s a delicious story: CNN reports that Russian looters, collaborating with the Russian military, stole 27 pieces of John Deere farm equipment from a dealership in Melitopol, Ukraine, collectively valued at $5,000,000. The equipment was shipped to Chechnya, but it will avail the thieves naught, because the John Deere dealership reached out over the internet and bricked these tractors, using an in-built kill-switch.

Since that story ran last week, I’ve lost track of the number of people who sent it to me. I can see why: it’s a perfect cyberpunk nugget: stolen tractors rendered inert by an over-the-air update, thwarting the bad guys. It could be the climax of a prescient novella in Asimov’s circa 1996.

But I’m here to tell you: this is not a feel-good story.

I mean, sure. In the short term, it’s really cool to think of those looters arriving in Chechnya only to discover that their looted tractors and combines and such are only good for spare parts (and maybe not even that).

But if you scratch the surface of that cinematic comeuppance, what you find is a far scarier parable about the way that cyberwarfare could extrude itself into the physical world. After all, if John Deere’s authorized technicians can reach out and brick any tractor or combine, anywhere in the world, then anyone who suborns, hacks or blackmails a John Deere technician — say, Russia’s storied hacker army, who specialize in mass-scale infrastructure attacks, which they perfected by attacking Ukrainian embedded systems — can do the exact same thing.

Why are John Deere tractors kill-switched in the first place?

Here’s a hint: the technology was not invented to thwart Russian looters.

No, it was invented to thwart American farmers..........

VIN locks began in car-engines. Auto manufacturers started to put cheap microcontrollers into engine components and subcomponents. A mechanic could swap in a new part, but the engine wouldn’t recognize it — and the car wouldn’t drive — until an authorized technician entered an unlock code into a special tool connected to the car’s internal network.........

We should be building tractors — and phones, and cars, and ventilators, and medical implants — that are robust and resilient, maintainable and repairable even when supply chains break. There are risks to this — a device without a kill-switch is a little more attractive to thieves. But kill-switches impose risks that vastly outstrip the risks they offset.  In an increasingly risky world, that’s not something we should be cheering on....................To Read More.....

 

Tulsi Gabbard Says She’s Being ‘Shadow Banned,’ Shows Examples, Blames ‘Cowardly Leaders’ for Inaction

By Craig Bannister | March 25, 2022

“I’ve gotten some questions from people who are not familiar with the term ‘shadow banning’ and are asking exactly what it is. So, I want to take a minute to show you,” former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) says in a video posted to social media Friday.

In the video, Gabbard shows screenshots of how her account didn’t show up in an Instagram search, how attempting to “@” her account yielded a “misinformation” warning, and of how an attempt to tag her resulted in an error message saying the activity is restricted in order to protect the Instagram community.

“What are they protecting their community from? Nobody knows,” Gabbard says, claiming that she and those posting to her account haven’t been given examples of the misinformation or dangerous content the platform believes she’s posted...............To Read More....

Rep. Jim Jordan Blasts Biden-Big Tech Censorship: ‘If You Can’t Talk, What Do the Rest of Your Rights Mean?’

 By Craig Bannister March 25, 2022

Recalling White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s revelation that the Biden Administration is working with Big Tech social media platforms to limit free speech, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) warned Friday of the threat to Americans’ First Amendment rights.

Last July, Press Secretary Psaki announced at a press conference that the Biden Administration is “flagging posts for Facebook" that the administration would like censored, a comment Sen. Josh Hawley called “really scary,“ given that it came from the federal government:

"I think it's really scary to have the federal government of the United States, the White House, compiling lists of people, organizations, whatever, and then going to a private company that, by the way, is a monopoly, Facebook, and saying: You need to censor. You need to do something about this. You need to tell these users, these private users on a private company what they can or cannot say."

At a press event on Friday, Rep. Jordan recalled that, at the time, he thought Psaki’s comment didn’t seem right to him. But now, he considers her words “very scary,” because, if free speech on social media can be denied, other types of free speech and liberties are at risk, as well:..............To Read More.....

The truth will get you cancelled

October 25, 2021 By Eric Utter

The official Twitter account of Congressman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) was recently suspended because he tweeted, “The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man.” The tweet was in reference to Rachel Levine, President Biden’s assistant secretary for Health & Human Services (HHS), being sworn in as a “four-star admiral” of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps earlier this week.

Upon promoting Levine, a biological male, the administration called him the “first-ever female four-star admiral,” forever robbing that title from an actual woman.

In a statement posted to Instagram, Banks noted: “My tweet was a statement of fact. Big Tech doesn’t have to agree with me, but they shouldn’t cancel me. If they silence me, they will silence you. We can’t allow Big Tech to prevent us from telling the truth.”

But Big Tech is preventing us from telling the truth. It simply won’t allow thought with which it disagrees to appear on its platforms. The mainstream media, academia, most Democratic politicians, and now giant corporations are all also doing everything in their power to suppress the truth. Tragically, it is no exaggeration to say that there is a War on Truth.

When the ruling elite tries to convince people that obvious truths are not…are in fact hurtful and hateful…the death knell has been rung for that society. The Devil’s greatest trick is to convince people he doesn’t exist..............To Read More....