Cyberspace Creates a New Breed of Criminal: A Convenient Tool For the Radical Left
Last week the news broke that Sarah Palin’s personal email had been hacked apparently as investigators are turning up by the son of a prominent democrat. Now, talk show host Bill O’Reilly who was most outspoken on that those responsible for this crime must be prosecuted has had his site hacked with personal information about his subscribers published.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1958
Just how low does it go and what does this reflect of the mentality of those who would commit such crimes against decent American people especially given it goes beyond public figures like Ms. Palin and Mr. O’Reilly to everyday people who enjoy Bill O’Reilly’s material?
Computer hacking is an extremely serious crime that all citizens must treat as such. How does it differ from “grand theft” or “breaking and entering” for instance? There is no difference between stealing electronic data from a person as ones’ physical property. Likewise, given how much of a person’s financial records are on line, the cases of identity theft, charging up a huge balance on a person’s credit, or obtaining confidential information in a person’s or company’s procession it theft, pure and simple. Why should it be seen any different because a new medium is involved.
What is so disturbing about the Sarah Palin email hacking is how casually the news media treated the case and how much more interest there seemed to be that the chance existed their might be instances where she used her personal account to do state’s business. Hardly a news report went by without dropping the hint that perhaps that was going on and when Democratic surrogates for the Obama campaign were asked to comment, they couldn’t wait to make some comment about, “Well, we’ll just have to see what’s in those emails before we pass judgment on this!”
In other words, are they suggesting that if we assumed she did use her email for state’s business to keep it out of the state record, that would justify someone taking it upon himself to hack into her account to find out? Given that the radical left has become a culture where the ends justify the means surely some notion of cyber vigilantism would be just fine with them.
Email and the Internet have afforded our culture with a wealth of new possibilities, ways to share information and communicate in ways we never could have imagined the last time baseball’s post season came around without the New York Yankees present. The problem is we have the technology before all the ethical, moral, and legal issues have been fully conceptualized.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of left-wing extremists and anarchists who have no problem with using their knowledge of technology to destroy others, their reputations, and their financial security. There are also common criminals with technology skills and the psychologically impaired cyber thrill seeker who engages in this kind of treachery as well. They are all criminals. Their crimes are VERY serious. Their punishments must be severe including time in jail, monitoring of their on-line usage, and possible probation terms that would forbid them from using technological equipment from which they could inflict their chaos as well.
Our culture has gone through an incredible technology revolution in the past decade plus. What email and internet has provided us could be every bit as revolutionary as when Guttenberg invented the printing press. Just as the printed word made reading materials available to the masses and helped create the need for universal literacy which helped transform society to where the middle class prevailed, we’re only a few years into the cyber age where the possibilities are both fascinating and horrifying.
In a world where so few seem to have firm moral grounding and adhere to a rational and moral system of values, in this world of the “Me” generation and instant gratification, the task of making sure our technology advances serve the higher purposes and we don’t continue to see what’s happened with Sarah Palin’s email or Bill O’Reilly’s website will be assured.
There is one more aspect to this subject that should have every American concerned, cyber terrorism. If just a bunch of idiotic kids can do what they did to these two public figures, imagine what the Islamic extremists could do on a much grander scale.
Last week the news broke that Sarah Palin’s personal email had been hacked apparently as investigators are turning up by the son of a prominent democrat. Now, talk show host Bill O’Reilly who was most outspoken on that those responsible for this crime must be prosecuted has had his site hacked with personal information about his subscribers published.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1958
Just how low does it go and what does this reflect of the mentality of those who would commit such crimes against decent American people especially given it goes beyond public figures like Ms. Palin and Mr. O’Reilly to everyday people who enjoy Bill O’Reilly’s material?
Computer hacking is an extremely serious crime that all citizens must treat as such. How does it differ from “grand theft” or “breaking and entering” for instance? There is no difference between stealing electronic data from a person as ones’ physical property. Likewise, given how much of a person’s financial records are on line, the cases of identity theft, charging up a huge balance on a person’s credit, or obtaining confidential information in a person’s or company’s procession it theft, pure and simple. Why should it be seen any different because a new medium is involved.
What is so disturbing about the Sarah Palin email hacking is how casually the news media treated the case and how much more interest there seemed to be that the chance existed their might be instances where she used her personal account to do state’s business. Hardly a news report went by without dropping the hint that perhaps that was going on and when Democratic surrogates for the Obama campaign were asked to comment, they couldn’t wait to make some comment about, “Well, we’ll just have to see what’s in those emails before we pass judgment on this!”
In other words, are they suggesting that if we assumed she did use her email for state’s business to keep it out of the state record, that would justify someone taking it upon himself to hack into her account to find out? Given that the radical left has become a culture where the ends justify the means surely some notion of cyber vigilantism would be just fine with them.
Email and the Internet have afforded our culture with a wealth of new possibilities, ways to share information and communicate in ways we never could have imagined the last time baseball’s post season came around without the New York Yankees present. The problem is we have the technology before all the ethical, moral, and legal issues have been fully conceptualized.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of left-wing extremists and anarchists who have no problem with using their knowledge of technology to destroy others, their reputations, and their financial security. There are also common criminals with technology skills and the psychologically impaired cyber thrill seeker who engages in this kind of treachery as well. They are all criminals. Their crimes are VERY serious. Their punishments must be severe including time in jail, monitoring of their on-line usage, and possible probation terms that would forbid them from using technological equipment from which they could inflict their chaos as well.
Our culture has gone through an incredible technology revolution in the past decade plus. What email and internet has provided us could be every bit as revolutionary as when Guttenberg invented the printing press. Just as the printed word made reading materials available to the masses and helped create the need for universal literacy which helped transform society to where the middle class prevailed, we’re only a few years into the cyber age where the possibilities are both fascinating and horrifying.
In a world where so few seem to have firm moral grounding and adhere to a rational and moral system of values, in this world of the “Me” generation and instant gratification, the task of making sure our technology advances serve the higher purposes and we don’t continue to see what’s happened with Sarah Palin’s email or Bill O’Reilly’s website will be assured.
There is one more aspect to this subject that should have every American concerned, cyber terrorism. If just a bunch of idiotic kids can do what they did to these two public figures, imagine what the Islamic extremists could do on a much grander scale.
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