34 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 www.vanguardcanada.com
The Perfect Cut-Out:
When Global Politics, esPionaGe and
Greed converGe With technoloGy
F
iguring as tool in the commission of a
crime or as a delivery system to exploit
many vectors, 'technology for bad' is not
new, but what we have seen recently is –
and it's troubling.
When mixed with global politics, less-than-be-
nevolent corporate tactics and espionage, tech-
nology can be a powerful means to create a few
degrees of separation, as in a trusted intermedi-
ary, method or channel to facilitate interactions
and communications. In fact, it can be the perfect
cut-out.
Recently, two incidents showed that technology
could be used surreptitiously to move political and
corporate agendas, but at opposite ends of the spec-
trum: the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi with the
use of the Pegasus tracking spyware, and the alleged
spying by Huawei via its own technology.
Each has an element of politics at the highest level,
where controlling social and economic influences
benefit the agenda of a nation and its allies – but one
ends in murder and the outcry for human rights, and
the other, we're not sure yet. It could have been the
crime of the century.
Fluid, agile and accessible – the malicious use oF technology can
range From simple, uncoordinated attacks to complex, highly
coordinated persistence.
by Valarie findlay
