10/20/14 Book Post 1

The Cuckoo’s Egg’s most profound statement is found in the second to last page of the book, where Cliff Stoll says: “I’m saddened to find talented programmers devoting their time to breaking into computers. Instead of developing new ways to help each other, vandals make viruses and logic bombs.” It is sad, indeed, that gifted programmers find more satisfaction in stealing information than creating ways to better technology; this begs the question, how can we as a society of coders create a paradigm shift to discourage this behavior? To have talented hackers praised by social media websites and popular groups such as Anonymous (which prides itself on being a group of “hacktivists”) overshadows the fact that hacking and stealing information is illegal and that they are criminals in the eyes of the law. When examining the motivation of these hackers, I keep considering one major question; can hacking be ethical? In the example of the book, Stoll is certainly dealing with an unethical hacker; the hacker is merely stealing information to sell in order to receive money for drugs. However, in the case of the group Anonymous, is it ethical to steal information from someone who is, from a legal standpoint, a “bad guy?” If a hacker steals information to expose a bad person and others believe it is justified, this is called consequentialism—the theory that the ends justify the means. I do not believe there is a black and white answer in regards to hacking, but it has forever changed the way that people have to protect themselves from a new type of unseen enemy in this dot-com world.