Re: clear and present danger

[drch <drch@uniserve.com>]

[: hacktivism :]


>- ineluctably political in aims and motives
>- violent - or, equally important, threatens violence
>- designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions
>- conducted by an organization with an identifiable change of command
>- perpetuated by a subnational group or non-state entity

using this criteria for use of the term "terrorism", and assuming it is
fair to associate hacking with terrorism, woudln't it be fair to apply it
to journalism as a whole?

although one would almost immediatley link terrorism to violence, the
author of the article decided that it wasn't a major issue.  if we use the
same omission in journalism, it seems to fit quite nicely.


i believe this kind of uninformed article is very damaging to hacktivism.
those who are well informed will brush it off as a "stupid article by erik
heinrich".  those who are (*gasp*) even less informed than the author, will
accept it as the truth.

writing letters to the editor, author, and every other email address
possible may not seem to have much effect.  at most, a remission will be
published below an advertisement for male hair replacement.  but, in future
articles, perhaps this author will take the time to research his topic,
rather than taking the opinion  of few, and turning it into proven fact.

>Another option would be to play unfair like them. Spread rumors about
>organizations involved with "computer security." Tell all of your
>friends about how Hotmail got hacked this past weekend. This spreads
>mistrust of the corporate Utopia that they want to convert the Internet
>into.

when we see any publication which puts erroneous facts into the minds of
its readers, i feel the response should be based on fact.  we are the
minority, in the media world.  if they lie, and we rebut with fact, the
public may start to think with their own minds on the issue.  if we lie,
and they rebut with fact, we will lose any integrity that we have gained.
stooping to their level, in my humble opinion, is not the solution; only an
addition to the problem.




daryl harrison
drch@uniserve.com

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to
say it." -- Voltaire


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