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By Root 499 0

had been thinking similar thoughts. He had further noticed that a paper was delivered every day to the elevator hallway long before work hours. He imagined, and he actually had the gonads to test his imaginings when he had to come in really early one day before anyone else, that the paper could be used to open the door. Inserted fold down between the doors, the paper would fall open on the inner side of the door and trip the motion detector. Not only was the door locking system insecure, but also our firm provided the very object needed to circumvent it. Every morning.

This got me to the main point of this article, the idea that bugged me the most about all of this. Both my coworker and I had curiosity about the world around us, how things worked. Both of us examined our environment to see how the security doors functioned, how they might be circumvented, and how they could be made better. Further, we both - as our first gut reflex - automatically assumed that things would go badly for us if anyone found out. Neither of us, completely independently, was willing to make a peep in order that the doors could be made secure.

To me, this is the truly horrible thing about the whole situation. We did not even need to be punished for curiosity in order to understand that we needed to hide it. Instinctively, we understood. We knew what would happen and we knew it would not be good. No one even needed to tell us.

How could censorship of thought possibly function any better? Our firm, our corporate society, our government needed to do absolutely nothing. They did not have to act to crush resistance, because no resistance would be offered. We oppressed ourselves. As much of an individual as I like to consider myself, my own mind imprisoned me without any involvement of anyone in charge.

I think this is one of the most dangerous aspects of where our society has gone. We have been trained to punish ourselves, to keep ourselves in line. How much longer before our brains check those curiosity impulses before they even reach the level of conscious thought? The idea is frightening. The trend is frightening. And, worse, I'm not sure after seeing how I behaved in this circumstance that I will be brave enough to do anything about the situation. Hopefully, there are others braver than me.

* * *

Starting a Path to Modern Database Privacy

by Barrett Brown | 2461 words

Privacy has always been of interest to hackers. Firstly because back in the day all the coolest/funniest/most-interesting information was kept private and getting a hold of it was often an “Elite Hack.” It didn’t matter whether one social engineered the information or rooted a server from halfway around the world to get it: Excitement came from the fact that one had access to something that very few others did, something special, as well as the fact that “something” often directed the hacker to even more secret information that they could play with and which could potentially lead them to even more.

The second reason privacy was so important was due to the fact that the “first” so-labeled computer/phone/network hackers (I still consider Alan Turing a computer/network hacker for example, but in this article I’m referring mainly to the period from 1970 to the present) were engaging in activities that existed in a gray area of law. No precedents had yet been made by the Supreme Court about information theft by way of computer. So it was vital to many of those engaged in such activities to keep their “true identity” as secret as possible, the better to fight off any court cases should they one day occur, and thus came the origin of using a hacker “nick” or “handle.”

Besides such logical purposes, privacy was (and is) a fundamental part of hacker culture specifically and Internet culture in general. Some sociologists think that this “privacy” is one of the biggest attractions to using the Internet for personal use. Instead of showing your face at the liquor store and blushing to the clerk because of the porn you just bought - well, presto, go to a web page! No one will