Update 1: October 17, 2019

It's been a busy and occasionally chaotic first few days here at SuperstructHQ. In the immediate aftermath of the site launch party, blockinggriefers, repelling trojans, and bootstrapping the site seemed to takeprecedence over our primary mission. To quote from the official statementof GEAS spokesperson Jeremy Taylor, we'd been anticipating "network attacks on us after the report came out ... [but] were surprised at [their] volume and sheer fury" . We probably could have used some help from the good folks over at OpenSource Security , but - while there may have been alot of fear and rumour-mongering at the beginning - things are starting to stabilise. And with that in mind, it's time to turn to our (slightly delayed) weekly update for Outlaw Planet.

WHISTLEBLOWERS FORCED OFFSHORE

This has been an extremely busy fortnight for the whistleblowing website Wikileaks .The drama started with a group of self-proclaimed "transparency bombers" using the site as one of their primary release points . Dumping a series of video files implicating senior members of the South African legislature and civil service in a major corruption scandal, the subsequent spike in visitors almost bought the site to its knees. A matter of days later, it was revealed that the perpetrator of an attack on the Republican Bank of Malaysia (used in the GEAS video report as an exemplary case study of the Outlaw Planet superthreat) had used Wikileaks to store and distribute documents obtained during the security breach.

Despite their rapid withdrawal of the documents (the contents of which are rumoured to involve ReDS aid and some kind of virtual currency scandal), on Saturday, it was rumoured that American courts were contemplating a request to shut down Wikileaks once and for all . Needless to say, the site's organisers moved quickly. Within five hours of the court order's issue, the site - mimicking a strategy adopted by file-sharing directory The Pirate Bay back in early 2008 - had relocated their activities to an anonymous network of offshore server farms, effectively removing themselves from national jurisdiction. At the time of writing, it is unclear as to whether either the courts or the Republican Bank are likely to pursue matters further. We'll keep you updated.

SURVEILLANCE, FOR GOOD OR ILL

Following last year's classification of Tasmania as a UN "pervasive awareness zone", the measurable impact of Brazil's "all-seeing-eye" on illegal logging has been met with widespread approval from the global environmental lobby. For commentators and pundits, these examples of the increasing prominence given to eco-surveillance are part of a new current within green politics; one which is looking to hitch "bright green" environmentalism to a radical transparency agenda.

With the green panopticon taking on environmental degradation, and "transparency bombers" revealing corruption and wrongdoing, the right to privacy has come under fire , with many approaching radical transparency as the only way to effectively tackle the Outlaw Planet superthreat. TheHeldstone Alliance ('Transparency in all things') is a 'struct in this mould; functioning on the precept that once "everyone's in the open, there'll be no one to throw the first stone", its members have agreed to wire their residences and places of business with cameras and sensors.

Of course, not everyone is willing to place their trust in radical transparency as a cure-all. For a large number of people, privacy is of the utmost importance. As part of their quest to secure anonymity, many seem willing to do things which could - to the uninitiated - appear downright ludicrous. Superstruct volunteer lalaloelie submitted a story from Amsterdam, where students, activists, and supermarketsquatters had converged in a series of mass shirt-swappings , targeted to expose weaknesses in the city's RFID infrastructure.

WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR HAT?

Compared to the other GEAS superthreats, the underlying logic of Outlaw Planet has been attacked as a point of ambiguity. Many volunteers seem sympathetic to the anti-authoritarian nature of virtual pranksters, questioning the negative press given to these groups by the public and mass media. Some have argued that hackers could play a positive role in tackling the superthreat - forcing transparency, revealing hypocrisy, and breaking up the dinosaur instititutions which are resisting change.

Do we see sympathy for the hackers as part of a challenge to our small-cconservatism about morally acceptable solutions? Do desperate times call for desperate measures? Or should we see this as part of a more general celebration of irresponsible freedoms and repressed desires ?

A MEASURE OF TRUST

Looking at the first batch of 'structs, there's been a lot attention given to the "superstructing" of a compromised news ecosystem: The Slow News Networks ('do it local, do it right'), the Rumor Control Center ('Truth, get your boots on!') and the Verification Rating System ('Just the facts') are three that have set out to restore trust by slowing down the news cycle, and supplementing "raw information" with independent fact-checking.

Shifting our focus from the network or ecology to the individual, the problem is approached from an entirely different angle. Rather than worrying whether the information is trustworthy, the next group of 'structs are built on the understanding that the important question should be: "Is the person telling me this information someone who deserves of my trust?" By re-imagining trust as a tradebale commodity, the Trust Market attempts to pin trust down as a characteristic which is fixed and rational - either someone is trustworthy (a good investment), or they're not. Trustnet works from the same starting point; building on a similar model of the "reputation economy" to achieve its aims. What makes the Trustnet 'struct special is its qualified categories ("How do you trust this person?") and its use of physical RFID tags as a safeguard against griefing - something that I can't imagine going down particularly well with the Dutch shirt-swappers , but still ...

GPS HACKERS

Our communication and political infrastructures may be particularly vulnerable to Outlaw Planet, but the geoweb is also in the firing line - with HUDs, augmented reality, and satellite navigation targeted by hackers and organised crime. We've already seen the tragic effects of the MR5ive hack , but "black hat" manipulation of navigation systems is something that has - thus far - gone mostly unnoticed. Following the mugging of one of my friends this last weekend, the most rudimentary scan of newsfeeds revealed that this was far from an isolated incident. So, while satnav may be the primary point of reference for treasure hunters , cyclists, and urban gamers, there are those willing to manipulate it for their own, criminal ends - and we ignore them at our peril.

HYBRID 'THREATS

It's important to remember that Outlaw Planet doesn't exist in a vacuum. In the past week, a couple of stories have come to our attention as illustrative of the different ways in which the different superthreats have come into contact. From the point where Outlaw Planet meets Generation Exile, Superstruct volunteer sockiboo recounts a tale of identity theft, forced migration, and the strength of the family. Stirring stuff, told in two parts.

Then, in our attempt to navigate the waters between Ravenous and Outlaw Planet, we're confronted with the unpleasant face of "fooder" banditry , protection rackets, and dairy-based revenge . But how to handle food piracy? Superstruct volunteer Platonic Jenson suggests taking the fight to the bandits, with that staple of classic espionage - the EMP weapon. Disclaimer: GEAS and those coordinating the Superstruct project will accept no responsibility for damages incurred as a result of the deployment of electromagnetic weaponry, even in self-defence. If, however, you are planning such a response, we do feel obliged to remind you to "Faraday" your electronics and household appliances in advance.

AND FINALLY

We finish this week's update with a request from GEAS volunteer avantgame - with the California Warning System under attack from politically-motivated spammers, she is urging all Superstruct community members to join the Analog Warning System superstructure. When our technology is a medium for chaos and attacks, it's worth remembering that the things that'll survive are the analog, the off-grid, and the out-of-date. When the digital information systems fail, we should be ready to fall back on posters, flyers, and phone calls.

~ jfpickard (London, UK) & phil jones (Bolivia), 17 October, 2019

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