Friday 16 November 2007

The Internet is the Prankster's A-Bomb

We're now living in a veritable age of the Information Sensation. 93% of all information in the World is currently situated on the World Wide Web.
Besides being a constantly changing technological feat, the Internet is also a major player in the political game; freedom of information reigns here. The government can't stop it, as much as they try.
One prime example has been the latest riots and civil unrest in Burma; where the Internet became an incredibly useful tool in penetrating the media blackouts that the Burmese goverment implemented. The problem is, that the government were able to arrest citizens for supplying information about the situation in Burma, but they weren't able to intercept the information and stop it from getting to the rest of the world. Therefore, we were all able to learn about the atrocities and blatant abuse of human rights perpetuated by the Burmese government.
One thing that you must never do with the information you find, is settle for just one source. Don't be satisfied with just one news site telling you what's going on; search all over the place, talk to people. You'll often find that each source has a conflicting account of just what is going on. This is evidenced especially by the major news corporations (funny, how even information is controlled by money-hungry suits) such as CNN, BBC, NBC and the like. Become the media by talking to people; this is your most powerful weapon: the power of curiosity.
So just how could this technological sensation be useful to the political prankster? The answer is simple, all you have to do is take a look at the latest hacking sensations out there, where a young man broke into the government's computers and found out a bunch of information. The government is practically pissing themselves over hackers, and the new approaches they are taking daily to gain access to confidential files and folders located on computers. They say that a new way of gaining access to someone's computer is found weekly. Some of this is too much for the government to keep track of.
So just what can the hacker do, once they're in the government's computer? First of all, we need to differentiate between "malicious" and "benevolent" hacking. A selfless hacker is a rare thing to find these days. Most people that try and gain access to government computers seek to destroy the economy and cause general disorder. What they fail to realize is the fact that they're trying to destroy the very system that they themselves are dependent on: electricity grids, banks, the like. No, benevolent hacking merely entails finding dirty little secrets that your government doesn't want you to see and exposing it to the world. Remember: they can arrest you, but what about the hundreds of people that you send the information to?
And we need more of that, these days. Instead of phishing myspace accounts and creating viruses for personal gain, why not truely embody and ennact the freedom of information act the governments are so fond of waving about? The majority of classified information that you find on the net is the sort that could take down a president if it was made public. So think about that next time you decide to rummage around in the FBI's drawers...

Stay safe,

Jay