Indoctrinating children to benefit the wealthy starts at a young age: ‘Hackathon’ challenges teens to improve cyber security.
Improving cyber security is taught as an ethical imperative, but without asking who that “imperative” benefits.
OxFam wrote earlier this year:
Eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report published by Oxfam today to mark the annual meeting of political and business leaders in Davos.
Oxfam’s report, ‘An economy for the 99 percent’, shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had been feared. It details how big business and the super-rich are fuelling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics. It calls for a fundamental change in the way we manage our economies so that they work for all people, and not just a fortunate few.
New and better data on the distribution of global wealth – particularly in India and China – indicates that the poorest half of the world has less wealth than had been previously thought. Had this new data been available last year, it would have shown that nine billionaires owned the same wealth as the poorest half of the planet, and not 62, as Oxfam calculated at the time.
… From: Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world
It’s easy to see the cyber security of SWIFT, “secure financial messaging system,” benefits:
the “[the e]ight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity”
more than “…the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity.”
Do you have any doubt about that claim in principle? The exact numbers of inequality don’t interest me as much as the understanding that information systems and their cyber security benefit some people more than others.
Once we establish the principle of differential in benefits from cyber security, then we can ask: Who does cyber security X benefit?
To continue with the SWIFT example, I would not volunteer to walk across the street to improve its cyber security. It is an accessory to a predatory financial system that exploits billions. You could be paid to improve its cyber security but tech people at large have no moral obligation to help SWIFT.
If anyone says you have an obligation to improve cyber security, ask who benefits?
Yes?