Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
This is a, “Work in Progress,” but it occurred to me when bringing together materials for my new blog, “iSD,” that in the world of self-defense it is critical to our abilities to protect ourselves from an old yet new threat, the predatory virtual adversary.
It came to mind simply because until the last decade most karate and martial arts self-defense teachings focused on technique based models then suddenly the whole world of self-defense, a decade ago, became known, i.e., the adrenal stress-conditioned reality of violence, the need to avoid, escape and evade over the more physical, the articulation to first responders to remain within the law and legal system of self-defense-defense, the ramifications of applying violence for self-defense, and then the ramifications of what comes after legally, emotionally and economically, etc. It was this thought that said to me, what about the virtual predator?
When we teach self-defense through the physical disciplines such as karate and martial arts we think of the dangers and damage from actual hands-on humans, i.e., we think of, “The Fight.” Like all the other aspects of self-defense we tended to either ignore them or simply didn’t know of them because they were not exciting, dangerous or gratifying like the early teachings of karate and self-defense with all the trophies, the drills, the self-defense scenarios, etc. that allowed us to go hands-on.
iSD is not exciting and because it does not involve human violent interactions and tends to come from sources we cannot readily see, hear or feel we tend to ignore them unless we are the unlucky one to be attacked.
In iSD there is no sneaking up behind us, surprising us with a blow to the back of the head or behind the ear, the sudden loss of balance and structure and the instant freeze of our minds where we end up in the hospital emergency room. When iSD is needed we experience most often nothing until some other type of signal reaches our brains and tells us something is amiss, there is something wrong and often you don’t know what at the moment.
In an iSD attack you will not be approached physically from any direction, you will be approached swiftly, silently and with deadly intent outside your perception of any wrong happening. You won’t become unbalanced physically, you won’t lose your physical structure and you won’t be surprised by a physical damaging attack for the attack happened completely and utterly outside your physical and mental awareness.
A predatory virtual attack is not about you and your personal physical health, safety and security. It is about all those electronic attachments and connections you walked into without even a smidgeon of knowledge and understanding to what you just don’t know that you don’t know that gets you and it is about your virtual self such as your identity and your virtual economic self such as your bank accounts or your actual mental safety, security and health.
In the physical world you often have signs of impending danger and possible conflict and violence but rarely do you have these signs when a predatory virtual attack is on. It is not personal as with a physical predatory attack but it is personal as it attacks your virtual personal self, the one you knowingly and voluntarily put out there in the iVerse open and accessible to everyone be they, “White Hats” or “Black Hats” or “Virtual Predators.”
Where we have like parallels knowledge in self-defense is from seeking and acquiring, “Knowledge,” so that you can understand the dangers of a virtual predatory attack and you can achieve some semblance of safety and security.
Unlike physical self-defense you cannot find safety in any type of environment by avoidance unless you turn off your electronic devices and stop connecting to the iVerse itself. Unlike physical self-defense there is not actual environment you can live, work or play in that is not subject to attack from virtual predators.
In our physical world where we live, work and play can be controlled by ourselves to remove dangers of both social and asocial attacks. In our physical world where we live, work and play you have those warning signs and can escape and evade an attacker and you can defend yourself before the real damage is done. In a sense through education and understanding you can develop a security model that can avoid conflict and violence at higher levels outside the more social acceptable types for your entire life.
In the iVerse, the virtual world, in which we now live you can go no where on this planet and find safety from attack or possible attack. You cannot see the predators that surround you like you can in the physical world, they are not human breathing flesh but one’s-n-zero’s that don’t sleep, don’t ever stop and never ever slow down and they are in your face twenty-four hours a day, every day and they are eternal.
The types of damage you will encounter and have to endure is not personal, there are no emotions involved and it is a clinical like emotional empty and of a nature that is not prejudiced in any way, it is not a human thing but humans end up victimized.
The dangers are real and in many cases can lead to a mind-fuck so intense and dangerous that it can actually lead to human grave harm and death. They can kill you both literally and virtually. Like true reality non-virtual violence it has repercussions that reach as far and even further than those encountered when physically attacked. In some sense it is actually more dangerous and more damaging then if a predatory simply attacked you physically and put you in the hospital for the virtual repercussions regardless of your status in the legal system and to the law because it last decades and it has the good chance of never being resolved.
When I step out my front door I am self-assured to my personal safety and even if a danger is presented I am self-confident of my ability to handle it starting with avoidance to escape and evasion but when I turn my cell phone and computer on in the morning the danger is present and more dangerous, the danger is constant, continuous and truly diligent in its goals with barely any security to impede let alone stop it. Even in my home, with my physical security model and my personal training and expertise I can feel safe but when my devices are on, there is virtually, no pun intended, no real confidence of safety or security except in the most minor ways.
I liken our virtual vulnerability to the old show, “Star Trek TNG,” where when encountering the, “Borg,” they hear, “We are the borg, resistance is futile.” In our virtual modern world today the borg are out there but in this case they don’t provide warnings, they are absorbing our lives and data silently, swiftly and with deadly intent and resistance is definitely futile in our present security state and posture regardless of the so-called effort of the virtual security industry. You won’t see the borg cube, you won’t get a screen communications of a borg hive leader, and the borg leader of the hive will not be giving you even a hint by saying, “We are the borg, resistance is futile.” In our case, “We are the coders, resistance is futile or We are the data brokers, resistance is futile,” etc.
Bibliography (Click the link)
No comments:
Post a Comment