Most people who experienced the ease with which they could work and participate online during the pandemic want to hold onto those advantages going forward. While traveling to work and seeing colleagues in person also can be important after the isolation that many people felt, some form of online opportunities still hold an appeal.
The New Hampshire Legislature is grappling with how to continue offering virtual participation going forward, and I interviewed Bristol Representative Ned Gordon to understand the prospects for continuing the remote meetings in which the public has been able to more broadly participate.
One of the issues surrounding virtual meetings is equal access. Some people are not computer-literate, and some simply don’t have access to the internet because their communities lack broadband capability. There are efforts to expand broadband, both federally and through state, with some local efforts also taking place to serve under-served communities.
The Bristol Broadband Now initiative used a $1.52 million Connecting New Hampshire Emergency Broadband Expansion grant through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to install a high-speed fiber-optic network as the first step in a high-tech corridor along Interstate 93.
As more home and business computers get connected, the opportunity for cyberattacks increases, so precautions like two-factor authentication are recommended. Even that may not be enough if people unthinkingly click on links or respond to emails from people they do not know.
The United States and China have taken to blaming each other for some of the major cyberattacks in recent years. President Joe Biden, joined by 29 other nations, accused the Chinese Ministry of State Security and hackers supposedly linked to it for the attack on Microsoft’s email server software earlier this year. China countered by accusing the United States of mounting cyberattacks against Chinese government scientific, aviation, and other technical institutions for the past 11 years. Is there any reason to doubt that both countries have been involved in cyber warfare?
The latest development is the accusation that Pegasus software had been used to target journalists, lawyers, activists, and politicians. An investigation led by the Paris-based nonprofit journalism group Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International claims to have identified 50,000 “people of interest” who may have been targeted by the highly sophisticated military-grade software produced by the Israeli firm NSO. The spyware can be covertly installed on a smartphone, and then record calls, copy messages, and even secretly turn on cameras or microphones. It is intended to allow governments to apprehend terrorists, drug dealers, and human traffickers, but the investigation points to its use in targeting people in opposition parties or journalists who report on government corruption.
Almost everyone now uses smartphones and computers, so being aware of how the technology can be turned against the user is something to always keep in mind.
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