The Morgan Doctrine: Cyber Privateer Fantasy League nomination for the "Mrs. Black" role: Nancy M. Harvey, PhD

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Cyber Privateer Fantasy League nomination for the "Mrs. Black" role: Nancy M. Harvey, PhD

As promised in yesterday's post, I'm naming the fourth member of my Cyber Privateer Fantasy League championship team: Nancy M. Harvey, PhD. What qualifies her for the role, other than a remarkable physical resemblance (except for the ears) to be the first female cyber privateer as personified in my BigFix ad (shown here, again)?

Simply, Dr. Harvey is an operational genius. Tough as nails and impossible to intimidate, she served as the President and CEO of TenFold. As a member of the board of directors, I observed a toughness and operational brilliance I've never seen in any other executive. When Stephen Wolfram (inventor of Mathematica and author of the most fabulous technology book I've ever encountered, A New Kind of Science) wanted someone to bring Wolfram | Alpha live and then negotiate use of it to Yahoo! and Microsoft, he nabbed Dr. Harvey to be in charge of the effort. This establishes reasonable independent verification of her genius.

While they don't know each other, I have no doubt she'd work well with both Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff. And my ultimate virus architect Jeff Walker recruited her to be TenFold's CEO, so I know they'd make a good team.

The job I have in mind for Dr. Harvey is to be the public face for any criminals who are looted and who invoke their right of parley as stated in the Cyber Privateer Code. Not only would she be the face seen on the public parley video conferences, but she would be the organization compliance officer, charged with making sure that no innocents are inadvertently looted. Remember, the restitution provisions of looting an innocent are not only onerous, but they are large enough to threaten the very existence of the cyber privateer entity. She's smart enough to see through a fake attempt to plead innocence, tough enough to be immune to threats from some drug lord who just lost a billion or so dollars (it helps that she doesn't have a large number of relatives that could be kidnapped and sent to her piece by piece), street-wise enough to recognize promising talent for recruitment, and thorough enough to make sure the proper releases are signed prior to settlement or repatriation of funds.

Speaking of compliance, notice the gun my cyber privateer creation is holding. William Gibson, inventor of the "cyber punk" genre, just came out with his latest book (Zero History). On page 64 he describes another weapon as a "compliance tool." My Cyber Privateer Fantasy League team will have some swell "compliance tools."

If they ever make my novel into a movie, I'd like to host a sneak preview party just for my Cyber Privateer Fantasy League team members. Seeing their chemistry at an actual meeting would be wonderful entertainment all by itself.

So Dr. Harvey, welcome to an elite squad. Since you haven't responded to my email from yesterday, you must be off on your jaunt to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (oh yeah, Nancy Harvey takes an annual adventure that's parsecs outside my own comfort zone).

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Background: Welcome black hats, white hats and cyber swashbucklers

The Revolutionary War was fought, financed, and pretty well WON by bonded privateers, legalized pirates who were given Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Continental Congress and authorized to attack, capture and monetize British ships. The purpose of this site is to explore the possibility of a modern-day doctrine much like the Monroe Doctrine, by means of which the U.S. government could legally and, more importantly, effectively stop international hackers. Current cybercrime law is not only ineffective, but downright stupid. My Linux servers are attacked hundreds of times a day (mostly from China and former USSR domains), yet if I retaliate against those servers with some creative technology at my disposal (I know some VERY smart guys), then I am in violation of federal law and subject to some onerous penalties. We need more than a new law. We need a new international doctrine. I call it The Morgan Doctrine, named after Morgan Rapier, a fictional character I've created (hey, this is my way of establishing ownership of the concept, should it ever see the light of day).

Why a new international doctrine? Simply, nothing else will work. Introduced on December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine told the world to keep their hands off the Americas. Combine this with current legal thinking on "hot pursuit" of fugitives. In 1917 the US Army went into Mexico after Pancho Villa. More recently, in 1960 Israeli Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Granted, much of the world regards the Eichmann adventure as a violation of international law. I don't share that opinion and therefore use it as the third leg of my Monroe-Pancho-Aldof platform for The Morgan Doctrine.

If someone comes into your home and attacks or attempts to rob you, you may shoot them dead. You may do so as long as they expire on your property. But what about cyber criminals? They attack you in your home from their homes. Retaliate in kind, and you go to jail. The Morgan Doctrine states simply that if you attack my computers (or my banking assets held in US-based computers), then under a certain set of well-defined conditions, a licensed and bonded "cyber privateer" may attack you in your home country and split the proceeds with the U.S. government. For the sake of argument, let's call it a 50-50 split (heh heh).

Right now, American law enforcement is completely unequipped to deal with the sheer number international cyber hackers. Sure, I could report each of the thousand daily attacks to the FBI, as could the millions of other attackees in the USA. But the volume of such reports would make any meaningful resolution laughable. Not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction outside the USA. Yet to make such "enforcement" profitable to recognized (ie, "bonded" "deputized") privateers, as Heath Ledger's Joker said in his last role, "Now you're talking!" You raid our bank accounts, we raid yours. You make money from off-shore child pornography, we're going to loot your bank accounts and, with some REALLY creative black hat operations, you will be taken off the grid worldwide to the extent that you'll not even complete a cell phone conversation for the remainder of your miserable depraved life. Okay, that last part probably won't fly, but you get my drift.

The purpose of this site is to explore the mechanics, legalities and practicality of The Morgan Doctrine.

And I will be the sole arbiter of whether or not your comments get posted. As Mel Brooks wrote, "It's good to be king."

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Cyber Privateer Fantasy League nomination for the "Mrs. Black" role: Nancy M. Harvey, PhD

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