New York Times – DECISION STATS

Hackers or Criminals

In response to the most excellent writer Nick Bilton of NY Times and his splendid though cautious article here

Please consider these points

jail breaking phones was once illegal , then became legal, and now is questionable again. Rooting your Android tablet is now frowned upon. The question is how do you teach the next generation of hackers to explore hardware and software and yet respect laws in their own self interest. Exploring means pushing the boundaries of what can be done and what can not be done. Inter racial marriage was illegal too, once.

what damage have hackers caused to society in past 5 years (lost revenues in Digital content) versus what benefits have they brought about ( Arab Spring catalyst)

Consider the past history of hackers who turned entrepreneurs because they didn’t go to jail and were mentored into diverting their energy to startups that created jobs.

No hackers, bam, no Apple, no Microsoft, no Google, and yes no Facebook because the founders would be too busy in a court of law.Probably not much NASA, DARPA or NSA given that almost everyone tests the limits of exploration in young age.

Consider the historic legality of protests as done by Gandhi, Martin Luther King , and the legal treatment of hacker activists recently. Civic rights in 60s and cyber rights in the 2010s. Do they have something in common?

Is law enforcement adequately trained to understand hacking , and what steps are being done for enhancing cyber law training and jurisprudence. I don’t think the cyber law enforcement is adequately manned with resources. When law enforcement is denied resources, it takes short cuts and questionable tactics including intimidation and making examples of people.

My father , a decorated police officer , always said that , if you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem.As a technical writer , I sometimes know how to solve technical problems but these laws create fear in the minds of future problem solvers.

Who is a hacker. Who is a criminal .Is a hacker ~= a criminal or Is a hacker == a criminal ?

Lets get some common sense back in the game before we turn more kids int rebels without a cause, or without a case.

(continued from the series)

Update!

I have been busy-

1) Finally my divorce came through. My advice – dont do it without a pre-nup ! Alimony means all the money.

2) Spending time on Quora after getting bored from LinkedIn, Twitter,Facebook,Google Plus,Tumblr, WordPress

See this answer to-

What are common misconceptions about startups?

1) we will change the world
2) if we get 1% of a billion people market, we will be rich
3) if we have got funding, most of the job is done
4) lets pay ourselves high salaries since we got funded
5) our idea is awesome and cant be copied, improvised, stolen, replicated
6) startups are painless
7) it is a better life than a corporate career
8) long term vision is important than short term cash burn
9) we will never sell out or exit. never
10) its a great idea to make startups with friend

Say hello to me – http://www.quora.com/Ajay-Ohri/answers

3) Writing freelance articles on APIs for Programmable Web

Why write pro? See point 1)

Stuxnet DeMystified

A fascinating article in New York Times details the fascinating details of the Stuxnet virus, apparently the most successful cyber weapon in recent times.

Given that Industrial Controllers are a part of a everything from factories to missile launch configurations, I believe this is a fascinating area of study for the world’s research scientists including creating variants and defenses for this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/16stuxnet.html

Also a 2008 presentation by Siemens that the NYT was kind enough to link to- (whither Wikileaks ??)

New York Times Reports US and Israel Behind Stuxnet (tech.slashdot.org)
Iran Shows the Downside of Using Proprietary Software (techrights.org)
Report: U.S., Israel Tested Iranian Worm (foxnews.com)
Report: Israel tested Iran-bound Stuxnet worm in Dimona nuclear plant – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News (aboriginalpress.blogspot.com)
Must read Stuxnet article (imperva.com)
Stuxnet Could Cripple America: Report (newser.com)
Israel tested worm linked to Iran atom woes – report – Reuters Africa (news.google.com)
NYT: Israel’s Stuxnet test led to Iran nuke delay (msnbc.msn.com)
Did Israel test Stuxnet in Dimona? (elderofziyon.blogspot.com)
Evidence builds that Stuxnet worm was aimed at averting war over Iran’s nuclear weapons (venturebeat.com)

EU files anti trust against Google to reduce budget deficit

From the Old Lady-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/technology/01google.html?_r=1&hpw

Google’s dominance on the Internet has been a sore point in Europe, where it controls more than 80 percent of the online search market, compared with about 66 percent in the United States, according to comScore, a research firm.

and

If Google is found in violation of European competition law, the commission has the power to fine it up to 10 percent of its annual revenue, which totaled more than $23 billion last year.

Before settling last year, Microsoft had paid fines of about $2.4 billion over the past decade in a long-running antitrust case in Brussels that focused on the Windows operating system.

In another case, the commission fined Intel about $1.45 billion for abusing its dominance in the computer chip market.

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