Hackers Hooked: Some of Them, Anyway

" 'Lulzsec hackers' arrested in international swoop"
Technology, BBC News (March 6, 2012)

"Seven alleged hackers based in the US, UK and Republic of Ireland have been charged with crimes related to computer attacks said to have affected 'over one million victims'.

"The FBI said that five of the men were involved in the group Lulzsec, while a sixth was a 'member' of Antisec.

"It said that Lulzsec's 'leader' Hector Xavier Monsegur had pleaded guilty in August to 12 criminal charges....

"...The bureau said that Mr Monsegur - also known as Sabu - had admitted involvement in cyber attacks against the media groups Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) among others...."

How bad could this be - really? After all, it looks like the victims are Big Businesses. The Lemming will skip the usual stuff about corporate greed, oppressed classes, and the rest. You've heard it all before, anyway.

Good Morning, Information Age

A hundred years ago, hacking into networks run by large companies wouldn't have made a bit of difference in the lives of ordinary folks. Mainly because there weren't any computer networks to be hacked into.

That was then, this is now.

Large corporations use contemporary information technology to store data about folks who do business with them - which includes a whole lot of folks all across the economic spectrum. Some of the data may not be as important as, say, access codes to bank accounts. It's a little hard to imagine how lives would be disrupted as a result of X Factor contestant data getting stolen.

On the other hand, little things can add up. Particularly in a world that's increasingly interconnected. And where an increasing share of the 7,000,000,000 or so folks have Internet access - or know someone who does.

Contestant Data, a Porn Site, America's Congress, and All That

"Hackers claiming to be part of Lulzsec said they had carried out or have been linked to the following attacks:"

• May 7: US X Factor contestant database
• May 10: Fox.com user passwords
• May 15: Database listing locations of UK cash machines
• May 23: Sonymusic Japan website
• May 30: US broadcaster PBS. Staff logon information
• June 2: Sonypictures.com user information
• June 3: Infragard website (FBI affiliated organisation)
• June 3: Nintendo.com
• June 10: Pron.com pornographic website
• June 13: Senate.gov - website of US Senate
• June 13: Bethesda software website. User information
• June 14: EVE Online, League of Legends, The Escapist and others
• June 16:'Technical disruption' to the website of the CIA
• June 20: The website of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) taken offline by denial of service attack
  (Source: BBC News)

The BBC article doesn't say, but presumably these dates are all in 2011.

Customers with data on Nintendo.com probably didn't appreciate having their data fiddled with: but life would probably still go on, even if every customer of a giant like Nintendo lost data they'd entrusted to the entertainment company.

The American Congress, now: that lot is supposed to be running this country, so there might have been serious consequences.

The same goes for networks used by the FBI, CIA, and Soca. Not that they're running any countries - conspiracy buffs notwithstanding - but the Lemming thinks that data used by national law enforcement might be more important than access codes for online games. But that's just the Lemming's opinion.

But - remember that we're living in a very interconnected world, and a big one. Get enough folks spending time unscrambling entertainment accounts, instead of going about their normal routines: and you've got the potential for some fairly large-scale consequences.

Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and a 124-Year Sentence

"...According to the court papers Mr Monsegur formed Lulzsec last May. It said he acted as a 'rooter', identifying vulnerabilities in victim's computer systems.

"Alongside other recruited hackers he is also alleged to have attacked the US Senate, the cyber security firm Unveillance, Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.

"The FBI said he faced a maximum sentence of more than 124 years in prison if found guilty of all counts...."

That's 124 years, maximum, if found guilty: Mr. Monsegur will probably serve substantially less time. From his point of view, that's a sort of 'worst-case scenario.'

Is doing time for a dozen decades overkill for this sort of offense? That's a good question. It looks like Mr. Monsegur did an awful lot of damage - spread out over a whole lot of people, but still an awful lot of damage.

Whether or not the sentence is 'fair' or not: the Lemming hopes someone has the sense to make sure that Mr. Monsegur doesn't have Internet access while he's a guest of the legal system.

No Sudden Shortage of Hackers

"...Trend Micro's director of security research, Rik Ferguson, added that while this might mark the end of Lulzsec, it would be premature to say the same about Anonymous.

" 'Anonymous is a very different organisation to Lulzsec and other more closely linked groups - anyone can and does act in the name of Anonymous and their activities do not require individual hacker publicity or disclosure of personally identifiable details,' he said.

" 'The very fact that Sabu became the "celebrity" he was, illustrates the real difference between Lulzsec and Anonymous.

" 'I think the hackers we really need to worry about are those that trusted no-one and sought no glory in the first place.'..."

It would be nice if someone could wave a magic wand, and make everybody want to be nice to everybody else. Or, not.

Actually, the Lemming would be very, very, concerned if someone could do that. The situation could make Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" look like a Sunday school picnic, in comparison. And that's another topic.

It's somewhat reassuring to see another set of arrests. The Lemming's not being vindictive: it's a relief to see that law enforcement is taking 'cybercrime' seriously. It's also, in the Lemming's opinion, good that the legal codes in America and the United Kingdom now take late-20th-century information technology into account.

Will there be other hack attacks? Almost certainly. But it looks like folks are starting to take the issue seriously - and that's a good thing.

Related posts:

• Bad News
  • "Oops: pcAnywhere, Symantec's 2006 Norton Antivirus Hacked"
    (January 26, 2012)
  • "Move Over, Sony: Sega Joins 'We Were Hacked' Club"
    (June 19, 2011)
  • "Citibank Card Data Hacked!! (but keep reading)"
    (June 9, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Epsilon Breach, Spam, and Getting a Grip"
    (April 6, 2011)
  • "3,300,000 People's Student Loan Data Stolen: That's a Lot of Zeroes"
    (March 27, 2010)
• Getting a grip
  • "Lemming Tracks: 'password' As a Password?!"
    (November 21, 2011)
  • "Cloud Computing, Dropbox, and the Postcard Principle"
    (May 13, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: China, Internet Traffic, and Why It Matters"
    (November 18, 2010)
  • "International Cyber Crime Ring Busted: 'By Jove, I Think They've GOT It!' "
    (October 3, 2010)
  • "Web Cookies: About 500 Words of Common Sense and Peanut Butter"
    (August 5, 2010)

Phoebe Prince: Another Teen Hangs Herself; Cyberbullying, As Usual

"Two Massachusetts Teens Suspended in Cyber Bullying Suicide Case"
FOXNews (January 27, 2010)

"Two Mass. high school students have been suspended following the suicide of a teen girl who was allegedly bullied at school and online, the BostonHerald.com reported.

"Friends and school officials told MyFoxBoston.com that Phoebe Prince, 15, had been picked on since moving to Massachusetts from Ireland last fall. School bullies reportedly taunted the teen through text messages, Facebook and other social networking sites...."

"...South Hadley High Principal Daniel Smith sent out a letter to parents of students at the high school. In the letter, he called Prince 'smart, charming, and as is the case with many teenagers, complicated ... We will never know the specific reasons why she chose to take her life,"' Boston.com reported...."

"...Even after her death, bullies posted disparaging messages on her Facebook memorial page. The comments had to be removed from the page...."

Well! So this young woman was "smart, charming" - no wonder some of the locals hounded her to death. Competition like that can be inconvenient.

If this news item seems familiar, it should. There are strong parallels to the Jessica Logan and Megan Meier's suicides.

The news of Phoebe Prince's suicide - what I read - doesn't go into a great deal of detail. What there is: is disgusting.

"One message sent to the teenager shortly before she took her own life read: 'Go kill yourself'...." (Mail Online)

Sweet.

I don't know if what was done to Phoebe Prince came from the sort of warped values modeled by Pat "blame the Haitians" Robertson, if this attack was a simple matter of jealousy, or what was involved.

In a way, it doesn't matter. Phoebe Prince is dead.

Phoebe Prince is just the latest teen whose suicide is linked to online bullying.

I wrote about another, earlier, attack, in another blog:

"Jessica Logan and the Respectable People of Cincinnati"

"First, a bit about Jessica Logan.

"Short version: Jessica Logan was born in 1990. By the end of July 2008, she had sent young man a photo of herself, from the neck down, wearing no clothes; graduated from high school, and killed herself.

"The young man passed Jessica's photo on to four other young women. After that, Jessica was hounded by the 'good,' 'respectable' people in her peer group, and rejected from parties because she had a 'reputation.'

"Spare me from such respectability...."
(A Catholic Citizen in America (December 8, 2009))

About that photo: The jerk that Jessica Logan thought was her boyfriend pressured her to take it. Then, dumped her.

That was Jessica Logan. The current news is about Phoebe Prince.

Again: I have no details of what Phoebe Prince's attackers thought they were doing.

There Oughta be A Law!

Legislators, faced with a high-profile death like this, generally talk about legislation they'll push through. It's easy to see it as - at best - a knee-jerk reaction.

Maybe there does need to be new law code drawn up, to protect people from bullies online.

Or, maybe existing laws are applicable.

I don't know.

I do know that people think better when they're not emotionally worked up. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (December 23, 2008) And I think that it's a good idea to examine an idea, before implementing it.

Like 'outlaw cyberbullying.' Sounds good, doesn't it? The trick is to define "cyberbullying" so that reasonable freedom of expression isn't affected.

I've got a personal stake in this. I'm a writer, and maintain eleven (at last count) blogs. What if a "cyberbullying" law made it illegal to post something online, if someone reads it and feels bad later?

Does that sound silly? So did quite a few "emotional pain and suffering" lawsuits: but American courts decided against the defendant in quite a few, not all that long ago.

It's a stretch, but I can imagine someone being driven to despair by my latest Easy Griller post: "From Deep in the Heart of Darkest Minnesota: A Couple of Videos From Hawaii." Either from anguished sympathy for the poor chickens that were being grilled, or all the water in the Hawaii video. Maybe both.

I don't think this will happen - at least I hope not - but an injudiciously-written "cyberbully" law could make my writing that BBQ chicken post a felony.

Think the courts would never be that daft? Check out "Dred Scott, the Slavery Compromise, and Who to Trust," A Catholic Citizen in America (February 2, 2009).

This post doesn't sound very "apathetic," does it? I've written about this blog's name before.

Related posts:

• "Pat Robertson, the Devil, Haiti, and an Alternate Reality?"
  (January 14, 2010)
• "Jessica Logan, Sexting, Suicide, What Guys Want, and Malignant Virtue"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (December 8, 2009)
• "'MySpace Suicide,' Cyberbullying, and the Law"
  (May 16, 2008)
• "Prison Time if Your Blog Makes Somebody Feel Bad? I'm Not Making This Up"
  (May 5, 2009)
• "Emotions, the Frontal Cortex, The War on Terror, Anarchists, and the Illuminati"
  (December 23, 2008)
• "Beaten High Schooler to be Home Schooled"
  (April 9, 2008)
• "Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
  (December 6, 2007)

In the news:

• "Teenage Irish girl who emigrated to America 'hanged herself after cyber-bullying torment'"
  Mail Online(January 27, 2010)
• "Tragic death of Phoebe Prince hastens need for bullying legislation"
  Irish Central (January 26, 2010)

Fargo Evacuation and the Red River Valley of the North Flood: A Personal View

Ethnic stereotypes are just that: stereotypes.

Warning: Middle-Age Guy Rambling

Take me, for example: I'm a Norwegian-Irish-American. Make that a Norwegian Irishman who's a citizen of the United States of America.

Norwegians have a reputation for being stoic, unyielding, and lovers of lefse and lutefisk. The Irish are known, among other things, for being laid-back alcoholics. In the southern reaches of the British Isles, at least. (I know: Not everybody in England feels that way, but everybody from Swift to Punch magazine have referred to it.) Farther afield, the Irish are known as a nation of poets. Sozzled poets, but poets nonetheless.

Then, there's me. I had a very serious drinking problem - still would, if I allowed it - and love language, talking, and writing. And, I'm firm-minded. Maybe stubborn. Okay: sometimes I can be downright pig-headed.

Sound like parts of the stereotypes? Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Surrender? Never!!

My Norwegian forebears won turf disputes with dire wolves, and staring contests with glaciers. The Fargo-Moorhead part of the Red River Valley (and northwest Minnesota) is home to a lot of sons and daughters of Vikings.

It's a little hard to imagine them, as a group, walking away from a flood while there were dikes to build.

Actually, I think most people, all over the world have more determination than some suspect. But, that's another topic.

---

List of posts about this flood:

• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009"

Electronic Texts from Ireland

"CELT / Corpus of Electronic Texts"

"Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Publications are available via the School of Celtic Studies. Irish Texts Society Publications are available via their website (click on the link to the RIA shop)."

From "The Annals of Ulster" to "Mo Sinnu moccu Min."

Looks like a pretty good resource.