Cybercrime: Where Is The Outrage?

Then theres “Bypassing Corporate Restrictions from the Inside,” which deals with “potential security implications and measures that should be considered whenever you compromise your own companys infrastructure.” In other words, here are ways to cover your tracks when you commit this crime. This class is taught by “barbwire” (no, not the buxom blonde heroine of comic and cinema fame, but supposedly a male IT worker from Australia. Gday, mate!).

Not criminal enough for you? How about the session on “Lockpicking”? Picking locks, says the conference program, “is becoming popular as a sport/hobby among hackers throughout the world. In a special two-hour session, the joy of lockpicking will be explained and demonstrated, from basic techniques to the state of the art.” And thats not alltheres also a lockpicking workshop ongoing throughout the conference and the staging of a lock picking championship. And you thought you had to go to one of those TV technical schools to learn a good-paying trade.

Outraged yet? Listen to the description of the session on “Terrorism and Hackers”: “This presentation will put forth a full range of activities in which hackers can apply their skills to achieve goals related to the systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective (britannica.com).” This schizoid session includes “specific ways for hackers to combat terrorism” and “how hackers might actually participate in terrorism,” the session blurb adds. I think this one is probably required for al Qaeda members.

Incredibly, the session description asks, “What can we do to protect against hackers being misperceived as threats and terrorists?” Heres a hint. Stop teaching hackers how to be terrorists (and teaching terrorists how to be hackers). Duh.

America and the rest of the world were rightly outraged when they heard news of terrorist training camps in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, yet there is barely a peep from anyone when criminal and terrorist tactics are taught within our own borders. Are we to believe that home grown burglars, cyber-criminals and terrorists are somehow less harmful?

How can we justify the training of lawbreakers and terrorists in our own country? Is this to be labeled as “free speech,” or is it the educational equivalent of yelling “fire!” in a crowded movie theater where no fire exists?

What is happening is wrong. Where is the outrage?

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, August 12, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.