More and more frequently, there have been reports about hacked websites, cell phones, and security systems.
For example, the infamous phone scandal of July 2011 exposed Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World to a criminal investigation and public outcry. The British tabloid hired people to hack into the cell phone of a 13-year-old murder victim in order to intercept voicemail and text messages and get a leg up on the story of this girl’s kidnapping. The News of the World also hacked into the phones of those related to fallen soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A more locally resonant example is the recent hacking of the NBC Twitter account by a group who calls themselves The Script Kiddies. This group posted three tweets concerning a new terrorist attack on Ground Zero just before 6pm on Friday.
These examples of hacking make people wonder: who is to blame? Have the security systems on the thousands of websites that have been hacked thus far been inadequate and simple, or have the geniuses behind said hacks gotten exponentially smarter?
There is a group of serial hackers known as “Anonymous” who have become the vigilantes of the cyber world, swearing to take revenge on companies and organizations that withhold the truth or disagree with their opinions.
One of their most recent victims is the BART train system in San Francisco, California. According to recent reports, BART temporarily shut down cell phone service in its tunnels in order to prevent a protest against police violence. In retaliation, “Anonymous” hacked BART’s website and leaked the names, phone numbers, and passwords of all of its users. In a comment posted during the aftermath of this attack, “Anonymous” blamed BART for the hacking, claiming that its poor security system made it all too easy to sneak in and steal their files.
“Anonymous”‘s attacks do not end at the train station. The group publicly announced that they would hack any website that stood up against WikiLeaks (a non-profit organization that publishes secret and classified information) or its founder, Julian Assange (currently being investigated for the rape and molestation of two Swedish women).
Unfortunately, “Anonymous” is not bluffing. They single-handedly attacked the websites of MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa–to name a few– for reasons like not processing donations to WikiLeaks. In addition, “Anonymous” also hacked the personal website of the Swedish prosecutor in charge of Mr. Assange’s case and the lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
With all of these hackings occurring one after the other, the public wants to assume that the hackers are simply tech wizards that can crack the hardest codes. However, using BART as an example, maybe the people programming these websites are underestimating these techies, lazily keeping their security blocks lower because higher precautions seem tedious.
In any event, hackers are and will always be lingering in our society. That being the case, isn’t it in our best interest to take ever-increasing precautions to keep secret information secret?