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Editorial: Zero Tolerance
Joe Smithy
OSAll Contributor
For a long time, the Net and computers were something of a technological frontier... a wild west, if you will. Hackers were seen in a similiar light to those old, romanticized cowboys. They were the anti-heros, the revered experts, the sharp-shooters and quick-draws. They could steal your password before you had your hands on the keyboard.
The romanticism ended, however, much like it did in the Old West. Much like the outlaws who were eventually caught, the better hackers were caught. They had to pay for their crimes (real or imagined). Similiarly, the Internet and computers have become more mainstream -- just as the West did. As people enter the arena of hackers (or gunslingers), they realise that they are in the thick of the battle. They become scared. They start itching for the capture of the "outlaws."
When Citibank lost ten million dollars, when important people had their mail read, when Kevin Mitnick was led away in chains, when millions of people went online... the era of zero tolerance began.
As of right now, the FBI and other similiar agencies worldwide do not allow computer security exploration of any form, at least not publicly. When the White House Web site was defaced, the FBI raised the stakes with a string of raids eventually searching the homes of more than twenty hackers and crackers.
Hacking is no longer in vogue. It´s no longer an act of simple civil disobediance to deface a Web site. Too many people are now on the Web for law enforcement to turn a blind eye without losing face.
At this point, the government simply doesn´t understand who hackers are, what they want or anything about the culture. They do, however, need to be educated. Likewise, hackers need to understand where law enforcement is coming from -- otherwise, they can not be defeated. |
