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I noticed a couple of articles on the BBC website that relate to hacking and find myself amused at one of the stories and fascinated by the other. The first concerns human rights of a hacker that broke into US military computers and the second talks about deciphering information down a power socket. Hacking and the people that do it are a fascination for non-hackers, as seen by films such as Hackers and The Net and one of the first fiction works: Neuromancer.

In my mind a hacker opens something that is locked. Whether opening that 'something' is good (white hat) or bad (black hat) is a keen subject of debate. From every hack attempt something good can come from it: how to patch a hole in the security. Much like short selling is supposed to keep stock market (shares/commodities/futures) prices low, hacking should keep security systems being updated. However, naive question might be: If hackers didn't exist then security wouldn't need to be tight? That is a utopian dream if anything but it says nothing about 'accidental' hackings or natural weaknesses in a system that 'open' over time. An example of that might be where careless security measures lead to the accidental transfer of all the money in your bank account into another bank account; however, if a system is tight and well-controlled then such occurrences should be rare and perhaps non-existent. The challenges from hackers will help to improve security in the long run.

Gary McKinnon

The first article from the BBC (Hacker's human rights 'ignored') concerns a Scottish hacker facing extradition to the US to face charges of perpetrating what has been described by one prosecutor as the "biggest military computer hack of all time."

Shouldn't he be given a job with leading security experts to toughen up their security? Rather than 60 years in jail. He claims to have accessed unsecured computers, which isn't outwith the realm of possibility. Even with military-grade software some users just don't know how to secure their computers. For Gary, if he is tried in the UK there is a chance the charges will be less than that in the US. I can only see the US convicting him as completely guilty of all charges before he even steps into a courtroom.

From wikipedia:

"Gutheinz ( American criminal defense attorney) opined that Gary McKinnon could not find justice if extradited to America from England, because of America’s poor track record in choosing to aggressively prosecute offenders with mental impairments."

I was thinking that mental impairment isn't as big of an issue as, say, doing anything against the US military/ homeland security. The fact that he managed to get access means he will receive punishment regardless of whether he got any information / caused damage / has mental illness. He could have have accessed the information by accident and he will still get punished, at least that's my opinion.

Also from wikipedia:

"McKinnon who characterises himself as a "bumbling computer nerd" who undestructively accessed open, unsecured machines while under the influence of cannabis and beer."

Sounds believable. He was apparently looking for info on UFOs according to one source. I have to admit, I'm pretty curious about those UFOs too. I have to admit a curiosity with hacking but it isn't something I've dabbled in. I'm quite computer and net savvy but I don't have the time or motivation to learn more about network security and hacking. There should be future topics on hacking in the future. Unfortunately an interview with Gary might be out of the picture but an interview with a hacker (Weev) that was featured in the NY Times could be very possible.

Other interesting stories about recent hacking:

A group of Chinese hackers claim that can hack anything. It wouldn't surprise me if they could, as the group state in the article 'every website has its weakness'.

Interesting from a technology point of view:

Snooping through the power socket