

Lulzsec Hack's PBS in Response to Frontline Documentary - tyrewebdesign
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/technology/31pbs.html?_r=1&hp

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grovulent
I've supported anonymous like groups in their defence of wikileaks and other
such causes. But I'm struggling to understand the rationale of this attack.

If you're a person who wants to defend wikileaks - don't you believe that one
should be able to express one's views online without being harassed by thugs,
whether they be government, corporate or hacker groups?

While I'm a big supporter of wikileaks and have donated money to them in the
past, they are not, nor should not be immune to criticism or negative press.

These people are becoming exactly what they seem to hate. Leave PBS alone.

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pstack
Meh. While I don't support this behavior without some sort of an
understandable cause to compel them, I view the overall activities of "oh
noes; posted something on your website!" and "oh noes; got yer emailz!" as an
important part of boosting the immune system. Imagine what kind of shitty
police department you would have if they never had any crime to pursue and
just ate donuts all day? These small fries keep people on their toes just
enough to almost justify security specialists and keep funding security
efforts in corporations from being automatically crossed off the list to save
a few bucks.

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mattdeboard
So, in your opinion, crime is a net positive because it reinforces the need
for police?

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pstack
No, in my opinion a system thrives when it is challenged. An immune system, a
legal system, an enforcement system, or a security system. The challenges
provoke adaptation. Evolution. I'm not a fan of illness, but some degree of
exposure is necessary to build up the human immune system on both local and
global scopes. Likewise, I'm not a fan of network penetration and security
breaches, but they reinforce the re-focus that which they attack as a whole.

And note that we're talking about screwing with a couple articles on a web
page and getting some passwords. Sure, that's bad, but it's not shutting down
the power grid that feeds a hospital or stealing social security from elderly
women. Likewise, I tolerate colds and cold season as part of reinforcing the
immune system while I would probably not be so tolerant of small-pox
unleashing itself across the population.

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aaronbrethorst
This, in and of itself, isn't particularly interesting. What is, and what
doesn't bode well, on the other hand, is the possibility for groups like this
to cause another flash crash or some sort of international incident.

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pstack
I'm more shocked that John Markoff still has a career, when he hasn't had
anything sensationalistic to tie his opportunistic bylines to since Mitnick.

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StudyAnimal
The documentary appears to be "WikiSecrets", which the article neglected to
mention. I would link to it, but cannot find an official one that works.

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bcn
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/wikileaks/>

