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| Health and Safety NewsWire |
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By: Robert Labossiere
The e-mail flood that led to the shut down of Yahoo!, E Trade and other commercial Web sites last week was characterized in my article as 'stupid and vicious'. That was the editor's opinion, not my own. My point was to show that no matter what the intention of the people behind the e-mail flood, there are useful lessons to be learned about the power of networked computers.
Describing the people who unleashed the flood the way the mainstream Media has, as cyber-terrorists intent on destroying legitimate businesses or even the Internet itself, or as some hackers have done, as irresponsible attention-seekers, is not helpful.
They may or may not fit the definition of "hacker" but they are clearly not stupid: breaching security at remote computers, directing attacks over several days and leaving little or no trace. And it is questionable whether they are vicious: no hardware or software damage has been reported.
It is less than clear what crime may have been committed. The situation is different from the cases of Canadian Jason Mewhiney of Sudbury who recently pleaded guilty to "mischief" and "fraudulent use of a computer" for altering a NASA Web page in 1997, or U.S. hacker Kevin Mitnick, recently released after serving five years for "fraud". Mitnick hacked corporate sites and copied computer programs in development but never profitted.
While IBM figures lost business due to the e-mail flood at as much as $10,000 a minute, e-commerce sites operate at unprecedented levels: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ethic of such "business without pause" has never been questioned.
It is difficult to sympathize with the companies targeted by the e-mail flood. They are commercializing the Web, transforming it into a vast shopping mall. And they are increasingly calling the shots about what you and I can and cannot do on the Web. Crippling iCraveTV.com with lawsuits is just one example.
Security has at least two meanings. One is about policing. Another is about protection. We need to find ways to strengthen alternative uses of the Net.
That's less about policing and more about securing our right to the free flow of information and resources against the tide of commercialization.
Perhaps the most difficult question raised by last week's events is whether you can have one without the other?
Copyright 2000 Robert Labossiere. Reproduction of this article in electronic or other media is strictly prohibited without express permission of the author.
Robert Labossiere has been involved in alternative publishing and independent presses since 1982 when he helped co-found the Winnipeg culture-crit magazine Midcontinental. He has also written for Fuse and others. In the mid-eighties he succumbed to an uncontrollable urge to impale himself on the status quo and went to law school. His law practice since 1992 has focussed in part on the creative community. He is presently the Executive Director of The Electronic Rights Licensing Agency (TERLA) a copyright collective that represents Canadian freelance writers, photographers and illustrators.
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