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Many fear electronic voting machines can be hacked and tampered with.

The hacking campaign around the US presidential election, cyberattacks against Ukrain's power grid, and even the internet crippling Mirai botnet DDoS attack all demonstrate how cyberattacks have grown to threaten the very fabric of society itself, NATO has warned.

Citing the impact of high profile incidents like these, Jamie Shea, deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges at NATO, suggests that hackers aren't just a threat to individuals and organisations, but to the fundamental nature of democracy as a whole.

No smoking gun for Russian DNC hacks

The Russian government may have hacked Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to support Donald Trump's campaign, but there's no hard technical proof.

"Cyber is facilitating more advanced and more effective psychological warfare, information operations, coercion and intimidation attacks. We used to worry about [hackers targeting] banks or credit cards or inconvenience to customers, now we worry about the future of democracy, the stability and health of our institutions," he said, speaking at the European Information Security Summit in London.

Russian-backed interference in the US Presidential election has already caused some other countries to rethink the use of electronic ballot boxes. The Netherlands, for instance, is reverting back to traditional vote tallying by hand due to fears that electronic votes could be manipulated or tampered with.

"It's quite remarkable that the Netherlands is going to have an election and they've decided not to bother with electronic counting. After what happened in the US, the credibility is too risky," said Shea. "We are essentially, with democracy, somewhat losing the faith in the very instruments we've created to spur our economy and spur globalisation."

The attacks against the Democratic National Committee aren't an isolated incident. Shea detailed cases in France and Germany where politicians have been warned of hacking campaigns looking to "destabilise organisations, publicly undermine their reputation, undermine public confidence in the democratic systems and meddle in elections".

German intelligence services have reported attempts to hack into the systems of the Bundestag and the German political parties, while Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Defence Minister, called all of the French parties together ahead of the Presidential campaign in order provide information about hacks against French political parties.

"Only two sites needed to be hacked in order for Russian intelligence services to acquire compromising data, which they used at judicious points during the campaign to inflict maximum damage," said Shea.

"The threat was not to a bank or an institution or an individual, the threat was to society itself, its ability to function and the trust that we have in the credibility and integrity in our democratic model."

In an effort to combat the threats posed by cyberattacks and hackers, NATO has declared cyber a domain of operation alongside land, air, sea and space. It has also recognised the role it will play in the security of all of those areas, as military equipment and infrastructure will need to be continually updated in order to fight off cyber threats

"All of our current weapons programmes -- whether it be missile defence, joint information reconnaissance, drones, and so on -- have to now retrofit cybersecurity in a way that possibly wasn't planned in the outset," said Shea.

It might be a difficult task to carry out, but NATO must undertake it, to ensure that it has the ability to fight cyber attackers and remain on top.

"There's no doubt that cyber is going to have an impact on our military strategy and if we don't dominate it, then sooner or later an adversary is going to come up with a method to ensure it dominates us," Shea said.

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Cyberattacks threaten democracy itself, warns NATO - ZDNet

Because the basis of democracy the demos is under attack today

Most talk of threats to democracy today is focused on institutions the need to defend the US Constitution against President Trump, or the European Union against populism.

But by far the biggest threat to democracy is the renewed attack on those in whose name it rules the demos, from the Greek for the people. Indeed, the concerted establishment campaign against populism across the West is code for an assault on the populace who refuse to do as they are told in the voting booth.

The tendency for the revolting masses to use their democratic rights to vote for the wrong things from Brexit to Trump has brought the old poisonous anti-democratic prejudices bubbling back to the surface of our societies. While experts criticise the idea of giving power to low-information (aka low-intelligence) voters, politicians denounce the masses as deplorables.

And this is more than words. Western states increasingly invest authority in unelected, unaccountable institutions, from the courts to expert commissions and the EU, while the political class seeks to operate as a professional caste, insulated from public pressure behind closed doors.

Since democracy was created, oligarchical elites have sought to separate its two constituent elements demos and kratos, meaning power and control. Behind the rhetorical displays of support for democracy today they are seeking to do so again, rendering the modern system of representative democracy even less representative and democratic.

While everybody now pays lip service to democracy in principle, many in power are far less keen to spell out exactly what they mean by it in practice.

This reticence is unsurprising. The real meaning of democracy in Western societies remains largely unresolved, allowing powerful establishments to retain power behind the democratic smokescreen of systems of checks and balances designed to check the popular will.

Yet the recent rebellion by the revolting masses who voted to leave the anti-democratic EU has brought many unresolved issues of democracy and power back into play. It poses once more the historic question: who rules?

The elitist attempts to derail Brexit through the UKs highest courts and the House of Lords have even reopened the unfinished business of the 17th century English Revolution. Where does the real power lie between the Crown, the Commons, the Lords and the People? The image of prime minister Theresa May visiting the House of Lords this week, as a silent reminder to the unelected peers that she represents the expressed will of the people on Brexit, yet also acts in the name of the monarch, brought these questions into stark relief.

The Brexit revolt should start a new debate about the meaning of democracy, a chance to make history by sweeping away all the leftover rubbish of the Middle Ages.

One of the more disturbing trends in modern political history has been the way that the Western left has effectively abandoned the cause of democratic freedoms.

This was graphically illustrated in the EU referendum, where everybody from the mainstream Labour Party to the Corbynite Momentum group backed the establishments Remain campaign. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the election of President Trump had American lefties wishing for everything from government-by-judges to martial law as an alternative to the US system of representative democracy.

Another bizarre episode this week illustrated how far things have gone. While unaccountable peers discussed how to derail or delay Brexit in the House of Lords, thousands of radicals were demonstrating outside parliament. They were not, however, protesting against this attempted anti-democratic usurpation of the British peoples will. No, the left was protesting against the proposed state visit to the UK by the elected US president on the grounds, as their online petition makes clear, that it would embarrass Her Majesty the Queen. If anything is embarrassing, it is this conservative royal toadyism dressed up as radical politics.

In contrast to todays state-centred leftism, however, the British left-wing tradition with which some of us identify has always prioritised the fight for democracy and free speech, from the Levellers through the Chartists to the radical wing of the Suffragettes.

Those who believe in progress fought for more democracy and freedom, not just as a good idea or an end in itself, but also as a means to change the world. The lefts abandonment of those historic causes marks the end of that era. The pressing need now is to start a new public debate about the sort of society we want, and a fight for more democracy that cuts across old political lines.

Once majority rule was attacked as a threat to the property rights of a powerful minority. Now it is more likely to be criticised in the modern language of human rights, as a threat to the civil liberties of minority identity groups or individuals.

This trend was graphically illustrated in the backlash against the 17.4million votes for Brexit and the near-63million votes for Donald Trump, with US protesters telling Trump backers that Your vote is a hate crime! while London protesters declared that Brexit is racist.

These arguments raise a fundamentally false counterposition between mass democracy and minority rights. Liberties, from the emancipation of slaves to womens rights, have been won and defended as part of the broader historical struggle for a more free and democratic society. How else does anybody imagine that individuals would have had the strength to wrest their rights from the powers that be, and hang on to their liberties, other than as part of a wider collective fighting for more democracy?

Of course there are no guarantees that democracy will always deliver the right decision. But the revolting masses whom the establishment fear and loathe remain the best hope for humanity. The alternative, of leaving our liberties in the hands of elite cliques of judges and officials, looks more like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

From Socrates to John Stuart Mill, many famous advocates of individual free speech have distrusted and even despised mass democracy. For the same reason, some who liked my previous book in defence of free speech, may balk at the arguments for democracy in this one. But Revolting! should rightly be seen as a companion to Trigger Warning, if not a sequel.

Democracy is discussed today as the best or least bad system of government, with technical suggestions put forward as to how it might be improved or refined, from proportional representation to peoples juries and more or more likely fewer referendums.

In the classical view, however, democracy was about much more than a system of politics or government. It was about how society was founded, embodying a view of humanity, seeing citizens as fit and able to participate and take decisions on an equal basis (even though those citizens were only white males). It was not just about the ability to place a cross in a box, but the fundamental values for which a democratic society and its members should stand and fight.

Thats why the current attempts to undermine democracy should at root be understood as further diminishing our standing as history-making human subjects.

It is fundamental to our modern humanity to be sovereign citizens with a say over our own lives and societies. The current upheavals provide both the pressing need and the opportunity for us to try to ignite anew the spirit of popular democracy, in a form fit for the 21st century. Drawing on the arguments pioneered by spiked, Revolting! is intended as a contribution to that debate, and a call to arms.

Mick Hume is spikeds editor-at-large. His new book, Revolting! How the Establishment is Undermining Democracy and what theyre afraid of, is published today by William Collins. Buy it here.

For permission to republish spiked articles, please contact Viv Regan.

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Five Revolting! reasons to fight for democracy today - Spiked

In Anaheim, California, video has emerged of an off-duty LAPD officer grabbing a 13-year-old boy by his hoodie and restraining him, before drawing a pistol and firing a single shot. No one was injured in Tuesdays incident, which was captured on a cellphone video that went viral on social media. The video shows a man in plainclothes holding a boy against his will, who says repeatedly, "Let me go." The officer is surrounded by other children, who eventually come to the aid of the boy, pushing the officer over a row of hedges. The man is then seen drawing a pistol from his waistband before a gunshot rings out. Anaheim police say the officer had an ongoing dispute against children who were walking on his lawn. Both the 13-year-old boy and his 15-year-old brother were arrested. The off-duty officer, who has not been identified, was questioned by Anaheim police and released. The LAPD said today he is on paid administrative leave. Overnight, hundreds of protesters gathered near the officers home, before marching through Anaheims streets and blocking intersections.

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White House Delays New Ban on Refugees and Muslim Travelers - Democracy Now!

Norway's Parliament. Kyrre Lien

Politicians in Norway are not as well paid as their American counterparts and most live a more modest, low-profile existence. The basic pay for U.S. senators and representatives is $174,000 compared to $108,000 in Norway.

Many Norwegians just can't shake the feeling that America elected "a reality star as president," according to Silje Ljdal, a 25-year-old barista. "It's just a reality show, the whole thing," she adds in disbelief.

Opinion seems to be just as scathing outside the city of Oslo.

Annette Dahl, a 26-year-old hunter from Norway's rural Telemark region, says U.S. politics "seems like a circus to me. [Trump] seems like kind of clown, you know? The way he talks and the things he says, it's hard to take him seriously."

Many are just as worried about Trump's substance as they are his style.

Despite almost 4,000 miles between them, Norway has always enjoyed a partnership with the White House and was one of the first nations to join NATO in 1949.

Its inhabitants can be forgiven for paying particular attention to Trump's foreign policy pronouncements; they have skin in the geopolitical game in the shape of a 120-mile border with Russia.

Just last month,

But under Trump, many Norwegians say his comments undermining NATO as "obsolete" have made them feel nervous. Norway is also one of the countries Trump has criticized for not paying the recommended 2 percent share toward the alliance's upkeep.

"It's kind of scary because we share a border with Russia, and we've got Putin turning quite aggressive," says Schiefloe, the carpenter.

"The world is going to change, I hope for the better but I fear it's going to be quite bad," adds Tor Bomann-Larsen, a 65-year-old writer from Drammen, a city 25 miles from Oslo. "We've never seen anything like Trump before, it's something quite new and the world is shaking."

Norwegians also worry about man-made climate change, something Trump has repeatedly labeled a hoax and once even suggested was a conspiracy invented by the Chinese.

His claims go against scientific consensus, but they also threaten Norway's delicate ecosystem, where the northern ice is crucial to the symbolic survival of polar bears and other Arctic creatures.

"If I met Donald Trump I would invite him to Svalbard, in the high north, and I would show him what the climate change is doing to our environment," Norwegian Local Government Minister Jan Tore Sanner told NBC News during an interview in the country's Parliament building.

Like others in his government, Sanner says he is optimistic about working with America's new leader. Asked about Trump's environmental policies, however, and his tone changes slightly.

"The ice is melting," he says. "The climate is changing the way we can the can live in the world."

While the statistics and anecdotes may make liberal hearts flutter, Norway is far from a leftist utopia.

It's current government is led by the Conservative Party and includes lawmakers from the right-wing populist Progress Party, which wants to slash taxes and immigration amid

And of course not everyone here agrees that Norwegian politics is all that great in the first place.

"I don't feel we have the best democracy in the world," says Steinar Vetterstad, a 67-year-old former construction worker from the town of Hokksund. "There are a lot of things that aren't right."

Steinar Vetterstad Kyrre Lien

He has lived off disability benefits ever since he was injured at work.

Symptomatic of the global populism that helped Trump into the White House and Britain vote for Brexit last year, Vetterstad used to support the left-wing Labour Party but in 2013 switched his vote to Progress.

"It is the politicians in Oslo ... don't represent the people anymore ... [they're] just politicians in suits," he says.

That there is such healthy debate in Norway betrays the violence in its recent past. Less than six years ago its democracy came under direct attack.

On July 22, 2011, white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb among Oslo's government buildings. Wearing a police officer's uniform, he then drove to the island of Utya, around 20 miles away, and began shooting children staying at a camp run by the left-wing Labour Party. In all, he killed 77 people.

Sanner, the member of Norway's Cabinet, took NBC News to the site of the car bomb.

"It was an attack on Norwegian democracy and ... he killed a lot of young people, young people who were engaged in politics," he says, looking out over where the blast occurred. "They were 16 years old, 18 years old. They just started to be involved in politics and they lost their lives."

The Parliament building in Oslo. Kyrre Lien

"We are still shocked by what has happened, but we will never give up our values," the then-prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said in a speech at the time. "Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity."

Likewise, Sanner sees that dark chapter as a stark warning of what happens when democratic principles are disregarded.

"We didn't think it could happen here but it happened here," he says. "So that shows we have to have an open society, a democratic society, and we cannot take it for granted."

Read more here:
Norway Is the 'World's Best Democracy' We Asked Its People Why - NBCNews.com

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Norwegians are more more likely to vote in their elections than Americans and their rival political parties focus on how they can collaborate, not attack one another, part of why the nation continues to be named the best democracy in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, NBC News reported.

That same report from the London-based consultancy this year downgraded the United States from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy," linked to lobbying and American voters losing trust in political institutions.

Neither is a significant issue in Norway.

"There's something about our culture that says it's very important to vote," 18-year-old Aurora Aven explained to NBC News at an ice rink in Oslo. "Norway has such a good system, so no one feels left out and no one feels misunderstood. Everybody knows their voice will be heard."

Published 2 hours ago | Updated 42 minutes ago

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Civics Lessons From the 'World's Best Democracy' - NBC Chicago