Darkside and the Pipeline Hack

[alfred russel]

I'm not well versed on the beginnings of feudalism. Could you elaborate on that?

Disclaimer: I am going to paint with very broad strokes.

Aristocrats of the early Middle Ages established their rural supremacy on the control of resources - chiefly territory, weapons, and dependents. Theirs was a power that was continuously tested (and therefore ranked) in limited engagements, the main objective of which was to hold other powerful people (but not only them) as ransom. The relationship of protection / threat worked only insofar was it was codified in some ways, and that there was proof that it was at least somewhat reliable - either as threat, or protection. Otherwise, early vilains would have settled on someone else's lands, and arrangements between aristocrats wouldn't have been reliable. Obviously some oaths were broken, and some peasants got murdered... but that is the case in any normative regime. By the 11th century (chronology varies a lot depending on where you are in Europe), settlements were a lot more permanent, some aristocrats were becoming a lot more powerful, and the possibilities of change eventually narrowed.

Nowadays, the main analog we have is that of organized crime (or terrorist groups), and that's usually what we evoke when we wish to describe the situation. And it may indeed be more appropriate - these are groups that are often, in fact, intimately connected with existing organized groups. But I think reflecting on the early years of feudalism brings into the forefront 1) the past normalcy of ransom (which is no longer the main source of revenue of organized crime) and 2) that decentralized consolidation of power into all sorts of hands can be quite accomodating of law, norms, and can easily be entrenched so deeply as to become an incontrovertible feature of society.

I have been thinking a lot more about feudalism in the past few years.

I want to live in a new corporate feudal society, but I'm scared I'm too old to live to see it.

Imagine corporations establish monopolies in their respective fields, and raise additional funds by launching ransomware attacks on each other's IT systems. It will be highly entertaining until people starve after the attack on McDonalds (in the future will have the monopoly on our food supply).

[Admiral Yi]

Any student of the archives knows Taco Bell wins the fast food wars.

[Tonitrus]

Any student of the archives knows Taco Bell wins the fast food wars.

Fun fact: the archives outside the US say it was Pizza Hut. 

[Admiral Yi]

Fun fact: the archives outside the US say it was Pizza Hut. 

Funky.

We're talking about the same thing, jah?  Demolition Man?

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Zm4r4bT_g

FBI recovers 69 of 75 bitcoin paid in ransom, won't tell how they did it.

[Razgovory]

Whatever it was, I hope it was painful.