Originally posted here by secure_lockdown
... bottom line! the goverments are employing some pretty *extreme* security obsessed individuals - who are not playing games. these guys also have access to ISP's and law enforcement and they are itching to make examples of people to better their careers and increase their income --> all in the name of national security.
Could be those extreme folks are trying to protect the rest of us from some of these costs. This points out the most expensive part of malicious hacking -- the cost to society as a whole in terms of loss of privacy and limits on freedom. For example, I think ISPs would have been more sucessful in resisting Government access to their data if there were not so many compromised computers, etc. to overcome concerns about privacy. The more a free and open system is abused, the greater chance that someone will limit the freedom and openness to protect the innocent, even if they are innocent and stupid.