Thursday, April 5, 2012

Rhetoric of Hacking


              With the mass growth of computer technology in recent years, hacking has become more and more a common problem amongst all computer users. There is a negative connotation around the realm of hacking, because by its very nature it is criminal. Hacking is the stealing of information by one person from another. But when is it acceptable? Over the past few years, Sky News has been caught hacking into emails in order to get information for their news stories. Sky News Chief, John Ryley, deems this acquiring of information as “responsible journalism”. Only later they did turn in the information they had found to the authorities. Is this an instance where hacking is acceptable? If they hadn’t hacked into the emails they, including the authorities, may have never gotten the information, but on the other hand they delayed in giving the information to the authorities so that they could publish their articles first. Another very recent instance is the Wikileaks problem. Was that an acceptable hacking? In my opinion that hack was the biggest stab to the back that America has had in a long time. Of course anyone can say they were doing it for the people of America. That is the ignorant thing to say. At the end of the day some secrets need and must stay secret, for the benefit of the world not just the American people. Wikileaks screwed over a lot of hard working diplomats that already have a tough job as it is.
 It is my opinion that hacking is wrong, but in the same manner that stealing or lying is wrong. Is it bad? Yes. Is it going to happen? Of course it’s going to happen. China and the US have currently been going through their own personal hacking war. Although this war has been kept in the shadows, do not be fooled that it does not exist. Hacking is one thing that will never lose its negative connotation, no matter how much it “helps the good people of the world.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/murdochs-news-intl-challenges-sienna-miller-over-legal-costs-person-close-to-case-says/2012/04/05/gIQAaqrxwS_story.html

3 comments:

  1. I agree with you that hacking is not ever going to be considered a good thing. Just like you said it is just wrong like cheating and stealing. All three of these things will always be wrong, but unfortunately there is no way to prevent them from happening.

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  2. Not everyone needs to know everything. It is too much. People argue that the American people should know everything that their government is doing, but the American people as a whole are usually not well informed and say things and critique people without understanding the whole story. Hacking isn’t really something that is okay. I look at it like this, as a parent you teach your kids the difference between right and wrong so that you can trust them in the future to make the right decision. Kids deserve some privacy too. It isn’t that different with our government. We the people elected them to office and therefore we should trust them to make effective decisions.

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  3. Hacking has its place in the grand scheme of things. That being said I don't think that the ability to hack should excuse an invasion of privacy. But it happens. If you never want anyone to know, you probably shouldn't say it online.

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