Hack Attack

Hack Attack: Part 1 Complete

"You don't get to be the editor of the Mirror without being a fairly despicable human being"
                                                     - Piers Morgan

What really strikes me is how much this book reminds me of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  The only different is that was fiction and this isn't.  That is terrifying.  I have no idea how News Corp got away with it for so long considering that this started in the 1990's.  Why didn't anyone (like former employees) come forward about it?  This is a clear violation of privacy, while no there wasn't a law about it, it's not hard go "Do I want people to know that this is how I get my info?"  if the answer is no then you probably shouldn't be doing it.  As for the lone law about how assessing messages before they have been heard by the recipient is illegal, but after that it's fine.  When did this legislation get passed and how many people were aware of it, because I'm pretty sure that if people knew that was the law they wouldn't be okay with it. Also how is hacking into a voice mail box even after those messages have been listened to is okay?  You are still using private info that was either guessed, stolen, or you had to lie about to obtain.  How is that considered okay?  Furthermore, what was the police force doing?  We trust you to actually do an inquiry and you only interview 1 person?  How is that an inquiry?  It sounds like you want us to have a coup and put in place people who would (hopefully) do their job.  In terms of what this does to democracy....... I don't really know.  I know that it makes me want to advocate for anarchy.  At least then nobody is guaranteeing my safety except me.  At least then the responsibility rests with me to make sure I'm safe and not anybody else.

Hack Attack: Part 2 Complete

"There is only one thing in this world, and this is to keep acquiring money and more money, power and more power. All the rest is meaningless"
                                                     - Napoleon Bonaparte

Favorite part thus far is when Rusbridger say "I feel like I'm in a Steig Larson novel" I AM NOT ALONE!!!! Okay, now that's out of the way.  I was very unimpressed in the actions of the police until Sue Akers.  She finally seems to be handling the situation.  I wish I knew more about how they were investigating bent cops in the Yard.  Personally, if this was my government I would want a corporate restructuring to ensure that the front men were honest.  Really this to me is grave problem, and while at least it's being handled to a degree (finally!) if I were the people I would screaming for more.  I'm glad that this scandal effectively shut News International down, because quite frankly karma's a bitch.  When you loose your moral compass while holding a position of power you deserve to be brought down in the most humiliating way possible, because you violated the trust of your people.  While New International isn't in politics the power that the editors wielded is shocking.  Have some decency and have some class.  Most people would call my roots white trash and I'm not going to school to be anything special, just a designer.  I have more class than you, and I will never hold a position with that much power.  If you are supposed to have power over me, then I shouldn't be able to argue you in circles.  The News International people were only powerful, because few stood up to them.  They also failed to identify New Internationals weaknesses.  I'm sure that if they had ever told those people that I'm going to a competitor/the police about your cocaine use, they probably would have backed off.  Or if they had threatened to start dismantling the connections and power that they had build up, they would have backed off.  I will never understand people that just lay down and willingly take a beating when you don't have to.  I'm pretty sure my Texan is showing.  This book bears many similarities to The Dragon Tattoo Series.  Unfortunately, that series is made up, which is why it can be hailed as a great novel.  It is extremely terrifying just how close the 2 actually are.  I guarantee that this will never be hailed as great, because it's real.

Hack Attack: Part 3 Complete

"No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other"
                                                     - Aristotle

I think what should have happened did happen.  The Murdoches' and most of the scum that worked for them got what they deserved.  Karma's a bitch. Now we just need to set up safeguards so that it doesn't happen again.  I would be curious to see what type of laws this actually spawned and just how many bent cops they flushed out of Scottland Yard.

History of New pt. 2

I find the stipulations that make a crime story successful hilarious, and yet completely relevant, because even today they still prove true.  The book mentioned the O.J. Simpson case as an example, which is largely accepted as one of the longest running and most followed stories in history.  The rules seem ridiculous on the surface, because they reinforce a time that most people would like to think we have moved on from.  Even in the first rule having a women or child in the story already makes it more successful, because it's playing to traditional gender stereotypes that are associated with another time.  A more current example of this rule would be the hacker that realized nude photos of female celebrities, and how much media coverage it got.  Not that I did much research into whether male celebrity photos were leaked, but there was little to no coverage on their invasion of privacy if there was.  Have a female or child as the victim makes the story more sensation.  I am relieved that we have moved on from journalists giving a morality lesson while they are reporting.  At least that, for the most part is behind us, as long as you look at credible sources, which I can now say with sincerity.  Clearly this type of news even today is geared toward readers with not as much education, and looks at achieving it's financial means through circulation and a high volume of readers.  While even back then the actual written by the king articles (Time magazine for the modern age) appeal to people of a higher education class with more financial means who can pay a hefty subscription fee and don't need the content filtered for them in order for them to understand it.

Obama Posts

I felt like that he did avoid the hard the hard questions to a point.  Multiple times he whipped figures out of his pocket or talked about things he had done rather than talk about the things that still needed to be done.  This does make me mad.  He never did talk about what accepted immigration reform looked like to him and what it would involve.  This is avoiding the question.  Yes, 50 years of an embargo has happened and Cuba hasn't changed, but why now are we doing something different?  Has America changed?  He answered this to a point, with we can afford to take risks where Cuba is concerned.  That's not a very well justified answer.  In particular I felt that his answer to how to unite this country and take care of the justice department was very lacking.  He needed specific things that needed to be done rather than saying I'll take care of it, because this is like this situation I already took care of.  They are not the same thing.  This is affecting the entire judicial system from judges to prosecutors to police.  There needs to be reform everywhere.  The solution is not more training.  It's not that simple or cut and dry, and to say so is to trivialize the issue.  I think Obama was very smart, because he had to really work to not answer a question with a reporter, but he didn't have to work at all to not really answer a question with a blogger.  On top of that, he reached a part of the people who usually don't get involved.  It was genius, and upsetting.

Censorship in China

As long as people are will devote their time and energy ways around censorship can be found. I'm sure a hacker could figure out what words are blocked by keyword blocking by running a series of tests.  Encrypting is always an option.  Setting up a firewall that on a website that could potentially block the filters or one that solely runs off of verbal referral and a code are options.  People have been working to get around this type of thing for years.  As long as they have a little ingenuity it's not totally possible to stop things like Occupy Hong Kong from happening.  As long as there are people in China who don't agree with what their government is doing and is willing to fight for it, things like this won't stop happening.  In order to eliminate the possibility of these things happening you have to eliminate a certain character trait in people.  Yes, their censorship is largely successful, because their goal is to minimize these events, and there are few events like this.