With the recent hacking streak that is going on on our beloved Internet, it feels like as good a time as any to talk about hackers and hacktivism. Even more so with the recent Sony Pictures affair, as it sort of brings out both the greatest and the worst from these individuals or groups.
Hackers have been around for as long as the technological sense of security has. Since the Edward Snowden whistleblowing episode, they have been euphemistically referred to as security researchers. Even so, the euphemism may in fact contain more truth than intended. After all, it takes one who is knowledgeable in the field of cybersecurity to be a hacker.
I’ve come across this TED talk sometime late last year by a cybersecurity expert and self-professed hacker Keren Elazari, and I would like to echo what she has said. As much as the current hacking streak by GOP and the Lizard Squad has made the world feeling nauseous when we hear the word, it is what the Internet needs, and is not something we can do without. Ms. Elazari calls hackers the immune system of the information age, and I agree. Another way of seeing it is as a very aggressive form of customer feedback on the security end of things.
Think of Facebook, or any social networking platform. There might be things there that you want everyone to know, and some others that you don’t. Assuming you haven’t taken complete leave of your senses, it takes a hacker to expose what you intended to keep private, but it also takes a hacker to stop it from happening.
Back to the recent Sony Pictures affair. Personally, I found the whole thing to be absolutely hilarious, but I understand if anyone disagrees with me. I do not deny that the whole situation is unsightly, especially for those who are directly involved, but it happened because the victims weren’t taking Internet security seriously enough, and it needed to happen so that they do. Evidence to that is Anonymous’ tweet on the matter.
This will sound like victim blaming, and maybe it really is. But the point stands; when things like this happen despite being warned that it can happen, the only reasonable conclusion is that it was allowed to happen, intentionally or otherwise being quite beside the point.
At this point, I hope that you’ve listened to the TED talk I mentioned, because Ms. Elazari has elaborated on these points, and more, with really great examples. Also, one thing you will be able to infer from the talk is a phrase which I’m sure you’ve heard from one medium or another: Knowledge
is power. And in the age of information, this couldn’t be any truer.
Knowledge on the Internet is like money in real life. In fact, the right kind of knowledge can bring you money. That’s why data security is all the rage right now; trying to stop people from getting the kind of information that will get them money while making others lose money, and then some.
Of course, this is inevitable; hackers will continue to exist as long as computers and the Internet do, and no one can control what a hacker does with his or her discovery. Should they decide to be nice about their discovery, then the world learns of an exploitable loophole somewhere and works towards fixing it the easy way. Should the hacker choose the path of GOP and the Lizard Squad, then the world learns the hard way. Some may offer bug bounties, but nothing is stopping some hackers from doing it for the giggles, as some might claim to do.
Despite which way the world learns, if the people responsible for security take it seriously, then we are all better off. As for us nondescript users of the Internet, we can also avoid being collateral damage by taking a few simple steps. Not using passwords that are too simple is one which so many people fail to do that it beggars belief. There are some tools like biometric scanners – the likes of fingerprint scanners and retinal scanners – and the really complicated tools like this prototype smart keyboard, but personally I find these to be excessive, and may lock you out of your own data, for instance when you got a cut on your registered finger, or when your typing behavior changes over time. And of course, be mindful of what you put up in the Internet.
To sum everything up, hackers are here to stay. They will continue to expose the chinks in the Internet’s armor until the end of time or until all the weaknesses have been sealed, whichever comes first. There is nothing we can do about this short of denouncing technology entirely, which will also never happen. All we can do about it is take precautionary steps to not end up being collateral damage, and just watch the drama as it ensues.
And on that insensitive bombshell, adieu to y’all.
This originally showed up here.
