Hackers are... good?

[T-Rok]

Read this article. Apparently group of hackers screwed over a couple important websites just to prove a point.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-wikileaks-20101208,0,7419495.story

[ARTgames]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_hat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hat

[Scotty]

The general consensus is 4chan, this is the first article I've read that didn't state it

They really didn't care about proving a point though, they did it to counter-protest the companies that are cutting off Wikileaks and Assange's funding and assets.  Quite frankly, I find this all humorous.  For anyone that tries to argue the whole point of fair treatment and equal opportunity on the internet, I didn't see anyone complain when the Quran burning church's shared hosting site was discontinued for "violation of the terms of service" (yeah right).

[Yankyal]

The general consensus is 4chan, this is the first article I've read that didn't state it

They really didn't care about proving a point though, they did it to counter-protest the companies that are cutting off Wikileaks and Assange's funding and assets.  Quite frankly, I find this all humorous.  For anyone that tries to argue the whole point of fair treatment and equal opportunity on the internet, I didn't see anyone complain when the Quran burning church's shared hosting site was discontinued for "violation of the terms of service" (yeah right).

The Quran burning church's site was insulting an entire religion over the acts of a few, and was not dealing out any justice and was morally bankrup. Wikileaks is just getting the truth out there, and although some things must be kept in confidence to run a nation, have you seen the kind of shit that has been leaked? These are things we should have known a long time ago.

[tbarr]

The general consensus is 4chan, this is the first article I've read that didn't state it

They really didn't care about proving a point though, they did it to counter-protest the companies that are cutting off Wikileaks and Assange's funding and assets.  Quite frankly, I find this all humorous.  For anyone that tries to argue the whole point of fair treatment and equal opportunity on the internet, I didn't see anyone complain when the Quran burning church's shared hosting site was discontinued for "violation of the terms of service" (yeah right).

The Quran burning church's site was insulting an entire religion over the acts of a few, and was not dealing out any justice and was morally bankrup. Wikileaks is just getting the truth out there, and although some things must be kept in confidence to run a nation, have you seen the kind of shit that has been leaked? These are things we should have known a long time ago.

Assange is a retard. He only gets the truth out about the USA and its allies if it hurts them. If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[Draxx]

The general consensus is 4chan, this is the first article I've read that didn't state it

They really didn't care about proving a point though, they did it to counter-protest the companies that are cutting off Wikileaks and Assange's funding and assets.  Quite frankly, I find this all humorous.  For anyone that tries to argue the whole point of fair treatment and equal opportunity on the internet, I didn't see anyone complain when the Quran burning church's shared hosting site was discontinued for "violation of the terms of service" (yeah right).

The Quran burning church's site was insulting an entire religion over the acts of a few, and was not dealing out any justice and was morally bankrup. Wikileaks is just getting the truth out there, and although some things must be kept in confidence to run a nation, have you seen the kind of shit that has been leaked? These are things we should have known a long time ago.

Assange is a retard. He only gets the truth out about the USA and its allies if it hurts them. If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

How can you say Assange is "a retard" for only getting the truth out about the USA and it's allies if it hurts them and then turn around and say he should be doing that to our communist fellows in the east?  Seriously?  ???

Should you say he's a retard because he only leaks out the truth that hurts the US and allies instead of leaking the truth that hurts everyone.  Would make more sense.

[Lingus]

Should you say he's a retard because he only leaks out the truth that hurts the US and allies instead of leaking the truth that hurts everyone.  Would make more sense.

Seems like that's what he meant. He probably omitted the "also" here:

If he was doing it right he would also do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[Scotty]

... If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

He shows America's dirty laundry because he can.  He has his sources that work within the states that will provide him with info so he posts it.  Who knows what would happen if he received sources from China/DPRK/Russia/Iran/ect...

Think about it though.  If the American sources were caught, they would be imprisoned for a length dependent upon the severity of the leak.  I GUARANTEE that if anyone from North Korea of China were caught, the methods of punishment would be nothing short of death, but only after severe torture, in an effort to intimidate the rest of the population from following in their foot steps, regardless of the severity of the information.  Such are the differences between tyranny and democracy.  America would not sentence a man to death for leaking classified material, less it were during a time of war, and caused a substantial amount of damage with the intent to overthrow the government (which defines the term treason), in which case, death is a distinct possibility, but there hasn't been a true conviction of treason for MANY years.  Even those such as Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen who's leaks resulted in the deaths of numerous vital government agents were not defined as acts of treason.

I won't debate the ethical implications of the leaks, because frankly, I don't care.  The information harms the government and major political figures across the globe, but it's an inconvenience at best, and should not result in any deaths.  They claim they haven't received access to any TS information, which would be a VERY dire problem if they did.  All of the stuff they've shown I have had access to for many years, and it bores me to be quite frank, when compared to what could be leaked.  Should they ever get their hands on TS documents and release those, well then I guarantee the situation would be much more dire and more drastic actions would be taken, I just hope and pray for my sake, that never happens, because my job would become Hell on earth.  I would hope that a man like Assange would realize this and decline to release any of that information, because he and his crew would quickly have to grow eyes in the back of their heads.

[Lingus]

All I know, he's going to jail on rape charges? Or, "surprise sex" charges!? Apparently, the difference is, it was consentual but the condom broke...

Of course, this from the Daily Show...

[Draxx]

... If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[...]  They claim they haven't received access to any TS information, which would be a VERY dire problem if they did.  [...]  Should they ever get their hands on TS documents and release those, well then I guarantee the situation would be much more dire and more drastic actions would be taken, I just hope and pray for my sake, that never happens, because my job would become Hell on earth.  I would hope that a man like Assange would realize this and decline to release any of that information, because he and his crew would quickly have to grow eyes in the back of their heads.

Call me ignorant but what exactly is "TS information" or "TS documents"?

[Chaos]

... If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[...]  They claim they haven't received access to any TS information, which would be a VERY dire problem if they did.  [...]  Should they ever get their hands on TS documents and release those, well then I guarantee the situation would be much more dire and more drastic actions would be taken, I just hope and pray for my sake, that never happens, because my job would become Hell on earth.  I would hope that a man like Assange would realize this and decline to release any of that information, because he and his crew would quickly have to grow eyes in the back of their heads.

Call me ignorant but what exactly is "TS information" or "TS documents"?

IGNORANT!

jk.  Top Secret.

[T-Rok]

... If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[...]  They claim they haven't received access to any TS information, which would be a VERY dire problem if they did.  [...]  Should they ever get their hands on TS documents and release those, well then I guarantee the situation would be much more dire and more drastic actions would be taken, I just hope and pray for my sake, that never happens, because my job would become Hell on earth.  I would hope that a man like Assange would realize this and decline to release any of that information, because he and his crew would quickly have to grow eyes in the back of their heads.

Call me ignorant but what exactly is "TS information" or "TS documents"?

IGNORANT!

jk.  Top Secret.

By law whether secret or not, all documents of the government are required to be publicly available after a certain time period. Thats why when you look at a document after its been released to the public everything has been super blacked out except for maybe a single name or a date. If they have access to TS information which has passed this date, technically its 100% legal. <- My father is telling me this as I write it, so blame him if its wrong, but I highly doubt it is.

[EpicPhailure]

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/12/23/video-how-poor-security-helped-a-geek-get-his-stolen-computer-back-two-years-later-nsfw/

I'm not sure if this is exactly hacking, but yeah. Like the URL says, it's how a guy managed his way into his own computer two years after it gets stolen, and uses some basic tools to find out a name, location, birthday, email, etc.

[Draxx]

... If he was doing it right he would do China, North Korea, -insert other country here-.

[...]  They claim they haven't received access to any TS information, which would be a VERY dire problem if they did.  [...]  Should they ever get their hands on TS documents and release those, well then I guarantee the situation would be much more dire and more drastic actions would be taken, I just hope and pray for my sake, that never happens, because my job would become Hell on earth.  I would hope that a man like Assange would realize this and decline to release any of that information, because he and his crew would quickly have to grow eyes in the back of their heads.

Call me ignorant but what exactly is "TS information" or "TS documents"?

IGNORANT!

jk.  Top Secret.

By law whether secret or not, all documents of the government are required to be publicly available after a certain time period. Thats why when you look at a document after its been released to the public everything has been super blacked out except for maybe a single name or a date. If they have access to TS information which has passed this date, technically its 100% legal. <- My father is telling me this as I write it, so blame him if its wrong, but I highly doubt it is.

Oh yeah that's called "redacting" a document to black out any privileged information.  Happens everyday in every court case.  I work at an eDiscovery company that does litigation support so it's quite legal and very common.