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The Myth of the Superhacker

mlimber writes "University of Colorado Law School professor Paul Ohm, a specialist in computer crime law, criminal procedure, intellectual property, and information privacy, writes about the excessive fretting over the Superhacker (or Superuser, as Ohm calls him), who steals identities, software, and media and sows chaos with viruses etc., and how the fear of these powerful users inordinately shapes laws and policy related to privacy and digital rights."

14 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. This article is stupid by quokkapox · · Score: 5, Funny

    There are no super hackers out there.

    Disregard that, I suck cocks.

    --
    it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
  2. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising by jimbolauski · · Score: 5, Funny

    The solution to super hackers is simple, hot women need to take one for the team and date some nerds, this way their not in their parents basement but our with a real live girl. Girls on the plus side you can walk all over them and get anything you want.

    --
    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  3. Hmmm by kildurin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just came from a meeting on this very topic. The thing I came away from this meeting is that the real fear is that the Superhacker works for you. Or worse yet, you let him go yesterday. O. M. G.

  4. I know the Superhacker exists... by operagost · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know the Superhacker exists... because he's me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to my 3D virtual reality interface, hop on my lightcycle, and infect the alien mainframe with the Michaelangelo virus. If you need me, I'm at IP address 24.75.345.200.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  5. You punctuated incorrectly... by beckerist · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're punctuation is wrong. You wrote:

    Girls on the plus side you can walk all over them and get anything you want.

    What you meant to write:
    Girls (on the plus side), you can walk all over them and get anything you want.

    1. Re:You punctuated incorrectly... by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your use of "you're" is your mistake, though.

  6. Ohm's Law by tjhayes · · Score: 4, Funny

    Law School professor Paul Ohm
    I wonder if he teaches Ohm's Law?

    1. Re:Ohm's Law by tachyonflow · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wonder if he teaches Ohm's Law? As a law professor, I imagine if Professor Ohm sought to teach electronics, he'd encounter a lot of... resistance.
  7. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising by ResidntGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not just the incompetent that think that way, I'd go so far as to say a vast majority of computer-interested people do. Which is more entertaining to read, and think about: Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent, with its stories of master programmers writing the best rootkits ever made over the course of two weeks to install on the systems they're about to root with their 0days for the purpose of bouncing their traffic around the internet while they use IPv6 to get around firewalls on Japanese military computers as a test to find out if they're worthy to hack the computers of several African banks for a mysterious man named Knuth in conjunction with a phreak gaining access to an African telephone switch by use of a stolen cell phone so that Knuth can intercept the phone calls of an enemy while a third hacker, who happens to be a very attractive female drunk and recently returned from shagging a random good-looking but smart computer nerd she met at the club while on Ecstasy, uses steganography software to send a message across the globe to a chick she met a while back (who is also a good-looking female computer nerd), all this happening at the same time a 16-year-old college sophomore (with a hot, nerdy asian girlfriend) is pulling a sweet hack involving duct-taping a laptop to the back of a computer cabimet and using it to intercept all traffic to a lab computer for the purpose of concealing his SSN-stealing activities on the school's network so that Knuth can sufficiently conceal his identity for his trip to South America where he'll live comfortably off the interest for the rest of his life, free from any government oppression................ or a study showing that almost all botnets are built using one of two common worms?

    People want something to aspire to, and the idea of the existence of a superhacker controlling every aspect of the internet at a moment's notice is pretty good at taking up brain space.

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    ResidntGeek
  8. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ROFL!

    "Girls on the plus side you can walk all over them and get anything you want."

    You may want to define where that comma should go, or else you're gonna have some angry plus-size girls after you!

  9. Re:Ah, just call me... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    So why is Ohm resistant?

    Get out of here! Now!

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  10. Whois Paul Ohm? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny
    I tried to run a "whois 'Paul Ohm'" like they did in the movie "The Net", but it didn't give me picture of his employee ID badge. What gives? Perhaps if I hit the Esc key a few times, I can hack into his computer and get it...

    I can't imagine where people get all these ideas about "super hackers" and the like. Now where are my VR goggles? I need to hack a Cray using this pay phone down the street...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  11. Re:Myth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "My high school still has absolutely zero knowledge of some of the hacks I pulled, and they never will know."

    FYI Andrew Matecha of Vancouver BC, there is enough information on your band's website and MySpace page to identify you and figure out which school you committed your crimes against. Not that I care, but you might want to think about that before you brag about illegal activity you've participated in.

  12. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising by ookabooka · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mod parent up!

    Not only is he making a good point, but he did so with a single 1 paragraph-long sentence.

    --
    If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.