Cybersecurity, the political domain in the new cold war

By: Orlando Pérez: Today, territorial positions do not count but data, information and regulation in favor of absolute control. It doesn't matter if there are guerrillas or massive demonstrations, the fundamental thing is to have control over the networks and the internet in general.

Mike Pompeo does not hesitate to "collaborate" with Lenin Moreno in cybersecurity. In diplomatic practice, half the world knows that the request of the Ecuadorian “President” is prepared and proposed so that the other party grants the respective approval when it arrives at the nation that, supposedly, requires the support of the greatest political hegemony, military and economic

The Secretary of State of Donald Trump visits Argentina and Ecuador because there they preside over presidents with a very well articulated agenda to that of the United States. and every step they take for that revolves around consolidating a control and security structure that prevents other nations and / or states from touching their "backyard."

Today, territorial positions do not count but data, information and regulation in favor of absolute control. It doesn't matter if there are guerrillas or massive demonstrations, the fundamental thing is to have control over the networks and the internet in general. That explains why characters like Julian Assange or Ola Bini must be annihilated. And that's why we continue to be inoculated with the idea that network users are simple consumers and as such they act on our desires and trends, when we all know who and from where they create those individual “tastes” and “predispositions”.

As Martin Hilbert, Big Data expert states: «The new wars are not going to be about oil. Eight of the 10 most valued companies in the world are digital technology. Today they are more valuable than oil companies. So the data is the new oil. And the one who has control over the data, controls the country, ”according to the blog of Antoni Gutiérrez Rubí. and the latter also highlights something that we already live as a constant and we refer to it as if it were of absolute technical and / or technological condition:

“The fight for data and its interpretation is the new geopolitics. A new twist to the thesis of the alternative facts of Donald Trump. The clash between algorithms and ideas is served. The electoral competition is already, decidedly, a digital competition of enormous political and also democratic consequences. From the programs (of political proposals) to the other programs, the technological ones, with which we can resolve electoral contests with new capabilities. Not all transparent, and many of them bordering the margin between the legal and the forbidden. Understanding data is a source of power. Owning, acquiring or capturing them is a source of greed. Measuring is power. Measuring is winning. ”

Hence it is not an innocent, naive or generous collaboration of Mike Pompeo to work with Lenin Moreno in cybersecurity. Of course, for that they have implemented a curtain of alleged internal threats, such as the National Security Doctrine, implemented since the 1970s. Of course, those internal threats go through actors and movements that with a minimum of action in the networks, blogs , portals or alternative media generate responses and trends in favor of curbing the ongoing neo-fascism.

The Argentine and Ecuadorian press celebrates the presence of Pompeo and his shameless interference. What would happen if China or Russia would suggest collaborating in cybersecurity to guarantee the non-interference in the private life of people, companies and political organizations attending to an elementary and universal principle such as reservation and privacy, data privacy and Everything that involves a person? Not only that a few pelagatos of low bast, but the same authorities would talk about intrusion, violation of sovereignty and other more absurd things.

But all this is more than that. As Irene León says:

“Now that it has been shown that the transition to a new moment of global capitalism is inextricably linked to this technological model, the dispute over the dominance of the related mode of production and the ownership of satellite space, minerals and other goods, such as also for hegemony in the production of knowledge ”.

 This cybersecurity does not happen by guaranteeing us protection against the threats of drug trafficking or terrorism, but by having a financial and military model that protects the businesses of US emporiums. Beyond the commercialization of data, there is a network of control and surveillance below to prevent digital mobilizations, global protests, but above all “attacks” to discover the operations of the largest military apparatus on the planet.

Convinced that with the US We will live safer, Ecuadorian and Argentine media (in general many Latin Americans) applaud the walks through our lands of Mike Pence or Pompeo. Alienated in the logic of the supposed liberalism, that press, many NGOs and peasant leaders, labor unions, students and, as if that were not enough, supposedly progressive academics have been muted and handcuffed by their genuflection before an increasingly aggressive empire. Are you afraid of losing your visa?

Perhaps they act like this, without justifying them, for what Gutiérrez Rubí says:

“The data change our perception of reality, define and modify the knowledge we have of our more everyday experiential perimeter and the general framework in which we are and are, offering us a macro or micro vision of the aspects that define us as a society. Ways to see, ways of thinking. Data is transformed into strategic predictability. And knowing a certain reality, pattern, trend ... allows us to predict, decide and influence. For this, the way in which the data is presented, the way of communicating it is key ”.

For now, Pompeo's visit to Ecuador and Argentina demonstrates the underground work carried out by the security agencies in each government and the way in which details are refined for a more structured control and persecution strategy. Brazil does not even need to go because there was a much more powerful control structured with the collaboration of multimillion-dollar companies.

It would be enough to review how trends are generated to discredit political leaders and progressive organizations to understand what role the media and those “influencers” of our domestic digital areas play. It is not free that in cell phones the gravitational weight of a single way of thinking about reality, given the priority that computer servers place on these devices, have a bewildered, uninformed and paralyzed citizenship to react to the neoliberal avalanche.

Julian Assange already said: "We are heading towards a world of 'total surveillance' network marked by data management and the will to jointly control large governments and large corporations."