Things are getting a little scary, at least to me:
Amid growing concern/speculation/hysteria that Kaspersky Lab products could be tied to the Russian government, retailer Best Buy has stopped selling its antivirus. Minnesota’s StarTribune first reported the move, citing a source who said that the company felt there are “too many unanswered questions” after conducting its own investigation. There’s no word on what those questions are, or why Kaspersky’s offer to share its source code isn’t enough to prove there’s no backdoor, and the company hasn’t spoken about the move beyond confirming the report. In a tweet, Kaspersky noted its products are available through other retailers and said that while its relationship with Best Buy is suspended, it “may be re-evaluated in the future.”
I’ve seen a couple of news stories now that everybody has probably seen. On the surface, they mean nothing to anyone. But they described small windows I saw where an aware citizen could gain some escape from the security state, and how those windows were being closed. One by one, doors are closing, and the only options available to the citizenry are gradually becoming total subservience.
One of the larger moves I saw seems likely to be temporary, so if they have been amassing names then the window during which they would act on that list and eliminate any opposition would seem to be in years at most. Though I suppose if they want they can hold that door shut longer, it will just become extremely awkward. Then again, nobody noticed now, and the media probably will never talk about it again, so who knows. Still, it makes me wonder if the eggheads at the top think the collapse is a lot closer than anybody thinks, and they are setting the stage now.
Notice here, Best Buy is the entity that runs its own Geek Squad employees as government-trained computer-searchers. Kapersky makes its source code public, which seems as if that would lead to a public article by some security expert exposing any Russian backdoors, if they were there. So what we have is a government-run spy-shop simply declaring foreign anti-virus programs to be off limits.
Note also, Kapersky identified Stuxnet, while other western programs paid no attention to it. I suspect in the next few years, all that will be available to Westerners are Anti-virus programs that are likely simpatico with western intelligence services.
Either people have lost all sight of normal boundaries, or people are sticking their necks out and spending this prodigiously to gain all this control because they have some plan to make use of the control when the economy comes down.
The truth is, when the apocalypse hits, the chaos may actually allow 5 or 10 thousand additional deaths to float under the radar, if they are staged properly. Chans, Redditors, and other alt-right figures might be wise to save up a vacation fund, and make themselves scarce in an overseas location for a month or two after the collapse, at least until the dust settles and normal law enforcement gets a handle on the chaos, making additional mortality more difficult to hide. The alternative may be a rash of car crashes and heart attacks that cripples the online right, and because of the anonymity, nobody may even know what happened.
Unfortunately there isn’t really any way for us to know what the truth is these days. It is a weird world lately, where nothing makes sense in the context of older paradigms. In these conditions of uncertainty, the only option for those who want their survival assured, is to assume the worst, and play it safe.
I’ve been preachin’ it for years; Linux.
Yep, be safe. Just look at the list of people the Clintons buried…
If Best Buy is banning it, then all the more reason for me to use it.