Although the documentary provides a chilling realization of the seer ability some people have with technology, I am almost willing to say they may in fact be doing some good for the community. Their hacking forces the companies that are in possession of hundreds of thousands of peoples personal information to increase their security. A company must continually be challenged in order to continually improve. These hackers in particular appear to be not so cynical as to intentionally hurt a person using their personal information, then I think their hacking seems somewhat harmless.
The problem with hackers is you have no idea who they could be. The anonymity associated with those who are protected through not only a physical screen but a convoluted encrypted code adds such uncertainty which thus results in fear. I have little to no ability when it comes to technological skill and my reliance is on social media and the ability to navigate simple websites. Due to the relatively recent introduction of internet technology, there is still so much to be discovered, and there are still so many people unaware of the extent to which the internet can be manipulated. This uncertainty leads to a general unease with will resinate with the majority of the population. The media plays off this and thus produces a sort of villain out of hackers. When I picture the depiction of these villains I imagine a white male that lives in his parents basement, either extremely skinny or very large, with little to no friends. These images may not have any accuracy at all, I doubt a who community of hacker will look the same and it is likely that the majority of them are not in fact caucasian, but of varying race.
Do we trust the ability of hackers to balance out the good and the harm that may result from their disclosures?
The term ethical hacker seems entirely contradictory. A hacker is someone who invades the privacy of someone else. If this individual claims to be ethical they cannot, at the same time, be considered a hacker. That being said, those who are clearly doing something wrong on the internet to began with should have some form of justice system to govern them. It seems a perfect solution to implement a justice system of ethical hackers to protect those who are not computer savvy from being taken advantage of. But who is to say that the ‘ethical’ hackers should be allowed to decide what is ethical and what is not if they themselves seem unethical?
Are hackers pushing individuals, corporations, and governments to become more virtuous users of the Internet—or are they mostly tearing down what others have built, and ultimately limiting the usefulness of the Internet?
Hackers cannot be so easily categorized into such a generalized category as all bad or all good. There is no ‘mostly’ in terms of hackers and their interactions with individuals, corporations or government. I believe there are hackers that look to make a positive change and there are hackers that look to make a negative change, and more than ever there are those that do not have such a direct focus, and their choices to do good or bad are likely often changing. The anonymity that these people posses allows them to not feel any pressure whatsoever to continue on one path or another, after all, it is likely that none they know with every find out what they do.
Is there any information that should really be kept secret? How do we balance the need for transparency with the need to protect ourselves, for example, from groups who do not believe in transparency and other democratic values?
When it comes to the internet I don’t believe there is anything that can be considered private or secret. The sheer number of loopholes that exist in this form of communication means that one can trust that their information will be protected. There will always be bad people in the world, and the internet is another communication method where people can lie and cheat. The balance between personal security and digital transparency lies between personal shopping and social media stupidity. Social media is a forum to share a carefully selected version of yourself, if you make the choice to put online yourself doing incriminating things or at the very least unprofessional things then it is your fault if that information is leaked or used against you. On the flip side if you are looking to purchase a rare faberge egg that is unavailable in Canada and must be purchased through an online platform your credit card information should be protected. Your financial situation should not be threatened because of greedy hackers, but if you choose to put negative qualitative information about yourself online then there is none else to blame but yourself.
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