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Hackers: Uncle Sam Wants You!
scraemondaemon writes: "A new TV public service announcement targets U.S. computer hacktivists with a blunt message: Uncle Sam wants you to help fight the war on terrorism. They demonize you and criminalize you and then ask for your help. What's a hacker to do?"
Frankly, I was hoping that there'd be an opportunity for those of us who are old and/or out of shape to do something more to help the war effort than just giving blood. I can't shoot for beans, but I can run cables and configure routers and code and so on and so on. I'd love to do something meaningful.
While the superficial similarities between rewarding spook hackers and punishing civilian hackers seem sufficient to establish gross hypocrisy on the part of the Federal government, it's in fact little different from the time-honored tradition of our military and other militaries which, for aeons, have hired people to commit the same act of killing that would be punished as murder if it had been committed by a civilian acting without state authorization. Big deal.
What's more, the Sixth Amendment's "double jeopardy" clause is still in effect (one of the few clauses with some teeth left in it after decades of judicial erosion). If the Federal government establishes an arrangement whereby criminal acts are committed by individuals acting under government aegis and with the encouragement of state agents, then those acts cannot be subsequently punished (apart from certain situations such as genocide and other circumscribed offenses). One only need remind oneself of Whitey Bulger (on the FBI's most wanted list) who has gotten the FBI into a bit of a morass by acting as an informant for many years and during those years receiving tacit permission from the FBI to commit all manner of offenses including murder. The egg on the FBI's face hangs pendulously, because the FBI is now without legal recourse to punish those acts.
That glib tone is unbecoming, by the way.
Vint Cerf was interviewed on NPR's Public Interest yesterday. You can listen to it in RealAudio here. He makes a great case for how the Internet was put its first real test of the original intention of using packet switching, which was to ensure a reliable method of communication in the event of an enemy attack here on US soil - and passed the test pretty well, with the exception of some of the major media sites being slashdotted.
He is joined by George Sadowski, Executive Director of the Global Internet Policy Initiative, GIPI.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
The FBI and CIA have been known to do turnabouts on hackers. Just ask Max Vision. The gov't fought long and hard to demonize and criminalize even the whitest hats of hacking, and Ashcroft's pushing to get them labeled as terrorist acts on top of that.
The DoD's had it's fair share of smudged histories. Be Alert. Keep your pistol handy.
Yes, you can be useful in combatting terrorism. Just make sure you know where the line is getting drawn and be on the correct side of it.
And realize that some of combatting terrorism may go against projects you've been supporting, like anonymous remailers, strong crypto for everyone, anti-censorship protections, and the elusive set of projects working to enable dissidents in countries such as China to safely communicate with the outside world. These and other tools can also be used by the bad guys, and will no doubt become targets.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
You think they'd have messed with 767's if they had nukes? This isn't a game.
You think they'd have done anything at all if the CIA, through Pakistan's ISI, hadn't trained them to be extremists? Like you said, this isn't a game - I just wish states and their "intelligence" arms would realize that next time someone involved with them feels like installing a military junta or training "freedom fighters" to "uphold policy". Nations in both East and West are guilty of this, and until these deadly cloak-and-dagger games of subversion and manipulation stop, there will be more incidents involving "blowback," where innocent civilians - like WTC employees, and women in Afghanistan - get caught in the crossfire of others who should know better.
And you wonder why people trust their governments less and less...
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
The English tried this before... giving ships the right to be privateers, attack their opponents, and keep the loot. When the war ended, the government took back the permission, and pirates were born.
I saw a letter about this in the most recent (summer 2001, p. 52) issue of 2600. It is as follows...
"Dear 2600: I was going to send you an e-mail two weeks ago stating that we should channel many of our frustrations with the U.S. justice system toward our adversaries, i.e., China. All of us in the U.S. hacker community are still U.S. citizens. Let us not completely denounce our country. We can utilize our special skills in a constructive manner that is conducive to U.S. information warfare policy. Later, we may use this as legal leverage for future legislation. -ICFN PMP
*response* As one of many such messages we got from the Navy, let us remind you that hackers are not soldiers and are far too individualistic and free-thinking to buy into jingoistic nonsense, regardless of the source. You should seriously consider the effects of reducing hackers to the equivalent of some kind of weapon. It will only increase paranoia and fear. And we find it extremely telling that the authorities, the media, and apparantly a whole lof of people in the military feel it's OK to vandalize sites if it's done for nationalistic purposes."
(As an aside, there's an interesting picture of an Ewok holding a rifle behind the article)
It would seem quite hypocritical for us (typical /. posters), who are so against Big Brother poking his nose into our business to turn right back around and do EXACTLY the same thing to other members of the US public. I seriously doubt "fighting terrorism" involves busting into a secret (insert arabic country here) computer and taking vital military plans. Rather, it will involve spying on your neighbors and seeking internal 'threats,' probably in ways which violate the 4th amendment to the constitution.
A different kind of animal
Translation, "Script kiddies and trolls put down your keyboards." Not a bad thing to ask, and the appeal to patriotism is nice too. The message is consistent with others, such as making DOS attacks and cracks a terrorist offense with a real death penalty. "Doodz, you got the death penalty?", not to funny anymore and much less nice.
You don't really think the US government wants to hire out 10,000 script kiddies do you? What, with every CS teacher, National Lab researcher and defense contractor willing to jump right in the US has no shortage of computer operators. OK, they might use one or two. Warrez operators please report to the office of cracker mobilization right next door to the Imigration and Nationalization Free Refridgerator Service Office for Illegal Aliens.
Give it up, bitches! Turn off your crack bots and behave. Carry out useful and constructive protests instead. In the end, survival is cultural victory, so build up rather than tear down.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.