Sony’s security nightmare just won’t end. Earlier this week, malicious hackers released a bundle of personal information on thousands of Sony customers that was stolen — quite easily, according to the infiltrators — from Sony’s IT systems. That was only the latest in a long series of cyberattacks the company’s been suffering since mid-April, which forced Sony to shut down its PlayStation Network for several weeks. There’s speculation that these attacks are being launched in retaliation for Sony’s actions against hacker George Hotz.
If we had a rash of people building custom cars, then going out to intentionally run people down with them, would we be talking about, "malicious auto mechanics"? These people are criminals. A lot of halfwits would love to label anyone that puts out information about vulnerabilities, or how things work, as the same, but this is blind stupidity. If everyone doesn't know the only people that do know will be the ones willing to use them to break, damage, steal, or deface websites, and the guy running the database would be just as clueless about the gaping holes in his system as the dude working part time in their warehouse.
Its like the gun argument. If no one was allowed guns, only criminals would have guns. The solution in that case is, don't let *anyone* have guns. So, what is the solution here? Obviously, don't let anyone at all have computers, which is a damn stupider concept, but only slightly stupider than, "Only arrest the people figuring it out, or using it to unlock their cell phone, or Playstation.", while all the actual criminals keep using the tools. Its just can't work.
But, because everyone insists on calling everyone from the guy running a pre-made bot net, who can't otherwise even install Linux properly with an instruction manual (hint, its easier to do that Windows), but **can** follow careful, step by step directions on installing a bot net application, to the guy that just figured out the latest security hole, and published it, so people could find and fix it, a hacker... Seriously, there is a *major* difference. So, you either make sure to be clear what it is, or just criminalize owning a computer. Otherwise.. anyone could be, and have been, arrested, often for some of the stupidest things imaginable, while the real threats walk off free as a bird.
Its a bit like drug arrests. Its a lot harder to arrest the guy making millions of pounds of the stuff, than the guy selling a baggy of it. So, the vast majority of the people in jail are the guys with a few ounces, and the people that are *not* in jail, are the ones manufacturing the stuff in large amounts. Same problem. The guy with $100 in non-legit software, who bought it off an illegal OEM site gets nailed, but the guy running the largest bot net on the planet isn't probably even nameable, never mind arrested. Both, stupidly, get called hackers, when neither deserve to even be associated with the term.
And, just to add insult to injury, people like George Hotz get lumped in with them, for doing what? Letting you mod your own, personally bought, hardware. Not for showing someone how to run a bot net, hacking into a corporate DB, or building a doomsday weapon, or something, but showing people how to unlock their own property. Idiocy.
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Sony and the Rise of the Hacker Hordes
Posted by: Richard Adhikari June 4, 2011 05:00 AMSony’s security nightmare just won’t end. Earlier this week, malicious hackers released a bundle of personal information on thousands of Sony customers that was stolen — quite easily, according to the infiltrators — from Sony’s IT systems. That was only the latest in a long series of cyberattacks the company’s been suffering since mid-April, which forced Sony to shut down its PlayStation Network for several weeks. There’s speculation that these attacks are being launched in retaliation for Sony’s actions against hacker George Hotz.
Its like the gun argument. If no one was allowed guns, only criminals would have guns. The solution in that case is, don't let *anyone* have guns. So, what is the solution here? Obviously, don't let anyone at all have computers, which is a damn stupider concept, but only slightly stupider than, "Only arrest the people figuring it out, or using it to unlock their cell phone, or Playstation.", while all the actual criminals keep using the tools. Its just can't work.
But, because everyone insists on calling everyone from the guy running a pre-made bot net, who can't otherwise even install Linux properly with an instruction manual (hint, its easier to do that Windows), but **can** follow careful, step by step directions on installing a bot net application, to the guy that just figured out the latest security hole, and published it, so people could find and fix it, a hacker... Seriously, there is a *major* difference. So, you either make sure to be clear what it is, or just criminalize owning a computer. Otherwise.. anyone could be, and have been, arrested, often for some of the stupidest things imaginable, while the real threats walk off free as a bird.
Its a bit like drug arrests. Its a lot harder to arrest the guy making millions of pounds of the stuff, than the guy selling a baggy of it. So, the vast majority of the people in jail are the guys with a few ounces, and the people that are *not* in jail, are the ones manufacturing the stuff in large amounts. Same problem. The guy with $100 in non-legit software, who bought it off an illegal OEM site gets nailed, but the guy running the largest bot net on the planet isn't probably even nameable, never mind arrested. Both, stupidly, get called hackers, when neither deserve to even be associated with the term.
And, just to add insult to injury, people like George Hotz get lumped in with them, for doing what? Letting you mod your own, personally bought, hardware. Not for showing someone how to run a bot net, hacking into a corporate DB, or building a doomsday weapon, or something, but showing people how to unlock their own property. Idiocy.