The untimely death of Peter Berghammer

I came across this article titled " Prophetic insights about social media and Occupy Wall Street from security vulnerability expert Peter Berghammer. "

This gentlemen passed away on October 1, 2011 of unexpected heart failure...

Source

Peter Berghammer died unexpectedly from heart failure. He was an innovator who was the founder of Copernio and served as the Senior Strategist for Public Communications Worldwide.

What I find peculiar about this untimely death is what he was doing on September 29 2011, just two days before his death, and what he has been teaching law enforcement officers in the past about social media and user vulnerability, as can be read in the article.

Source

On September 29, just two days before his death at age 51, Peter Berghammer, the aerospace and defense industry expert, successful entrepreneur, physicist and cryptographer, who was also a frequent speaker on security vulnerability topics, addressed an audience of law enforcement officials and social media aficionados at a conference in Dallas known by its acronym “SMILE,” which stands for “Social Media, Internet and Law Enforcement Conference.” His probing comments touched on many of his favorite themes, such as (just to name a few) the role of user-generated content (UGC), who is committing the worst privacy violations, when does technological cooperation cross the line, and what is the possibility of privacy and security existing side-by-side.

This is where it gets interesting and why I find it so peculiar that he died just days later of unexpected heart failure. But first let's have a look at what he has been telling law enforcement about OWS and Anonymous.

" Here is an example of his delight in the logical twists, turns and unintended consequences of complicated public issues, his answer to the last question -- whether privacy and security can co-exist: "

( Same source )

“The answer is almost no,” said Berghammer. “These items are possible only to the degree that users take advance pro-active steps to ensure it. The average user is tagged, tracked, snooped, profiled and categorized ad infinitum on everything they use… and not by law enforcement either.”

" That was from an earlier presentation to a SMILE conference, back in May of 2011. But the September 29th SMILE presentation was only five days after two ladies were pepper-sprayed at an Occupy Wall Street peaceful protest in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. As Berghammer noted, “And then you can read what happened here. This guy went ahead and ‘maced’ people who were already restrained. And because it was a non-violent protest, people had issues with that. "

He then made this statement about Anon retaliating in defense of the pepper spraying incident, which Anon displayed officer Bologna's personal information on the net.

( Same source )

“And then you know our friends at Anonymous decided, ‘well you know that’s not quite right, you don’t just round people up, restrain them and then mace them.’ So, they went ahead to this wonderful site, if you know it or don’t, you should and trust me if you don’t lock down your servers you will know this site one day. Which is Pastebin. So they went ahead and said, ‘Hey, based on this guy’s badge, who the hell is this guy?’ So, they went ahead and outed Officer Bologna. Home address, family, relatives, relatives’ addresses and phone numbers, etc, etc. Everything and anything you could want to know about this guy was outed. And his family, and his kids. So, you know things just escalate from there.”

"To the disbelief of attending law enforcement professionals, Berghammer went on to predict that the pepper-spraying incidence at the Occupy Wall Street protest five days earlier would be the catalyst, via user-generated content and social media, that would propel the Occupy Wall Street movement into a nationwide movement with hundreds of thousands of supporters. "

Then reportedly after this comment Anonymous hacked into the Website of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

( Same source )

As if to underscore his point, Anonymous then reportedly hacked into the Website of the International Association of Chiefs of Police during their annual conference in Chicago, releasing 600 MB of documents and personal data about IACP members.

Interesting to say the least...

I would have to do some searching in my litany of books and magazines but I recall learning about a - heart attack gun or some such device. When the cabal/illuminati/whatever want to stop a researcher or scientist or whistleblower type person - they use the device on them and within 48 hours - presto - heart attack.

Would not surprise me if the gentleman who is at the centre of your thread was zapped and suffered a heart attack. I do not recall the details but the technology being used is very covert and hard to detect. Guns and other conventional weapons are messy and leave too much evidence.

As for computers - they will end up being the bane of the powers that be. I spoke to the computer technicians where I work - a secondary school - and was told that even if the global internet was taken down - a local intranet could be built and maintained in a short space of time. Apparently you build your own intranet then work at a link to the nearest town and so on and so forth.

Looks like Peter Berghammer died for nothing - killing him will not stop the people from moving forward.

Much Peace...to Peter Berghammer...

So, let me get this straight. He reminded police officials that when they let their officers get out of hand there will be blowback. In this case that would be increased support for the occupy movement. He warned them that they were vulnerable to attack because of the new social media.

Anon proved him right so they killed him? Really, that makes no sense. He was warning them of the power of social media and how it could ignite a grass roots movement. That isn't worth killing somebody over. There are consultants that get paid big money to tell departments that same stuff everyday.

Sometimes unexpected heart failure is just that. We all die at some point. It is like Jim Fixx falling over with a heart attack.

reply to post by MikeNice81


Agreed...it just seemed a little untimely. Wasn't making any suggestions about him being offed by anyone or anything. Thanks for your reply.

Peace