Internet, Hacking And World Politics.

Hi,

I am just wondering, how the present state-de-affairs of international politics and bilateral warfare is going to be affected by the internet. Hacking into government agencies, defacing their websites, displaying anti-national propaganda; are these the right means to show resentment and disgust. The sheer prowess, that the frustrated lot want to display, will it help them in their meanness. What about the strike back? Does a little bit of knowledge and experienced wizardry, make a person so insane as to attempt to hack into national property without worrying about the more hazardous effects, that his acts can propel against his own government or nation for that matter.

We used to hear that the wars were the personal whims of a government, or more so of a singular person, viz. a prime minister or a president of a particular warring nation. But now, the things have become more dangerous. A single mind with a little bit of mischief and insanity, can lead to the destruction of a whole nation. What with damaging enemy property and getting more damage in retaliation.

The present stand off between the Indo-Pak hackers is a mere highlight of the present global politics. The fight is on, with aggressive attempts to strike back against each other. It does not matter how many sites are hacked, but the attempt and act itself matters. What are we achieving by this? Nothing, just fuelling more hatred and paving the way for more destruction. A group hacks, but it does not know that there might be mightier, bigger force which can retaliate much more strongly and effectively. Why wake up a sleeping lion? The message does not seem to go across.

Will anyone achieve anything with this hatred online?? I doubt it. And so will many others on this forum. I would love to know how you feel about this.



Check out the following news item posted today on a leading Indian newspaper site:

***************************************************************************
Internet war on as Pak hackers deface 10 sites in a day
HT Correspondent
Bangalore, May 30

Continuing their attacks on Indian websites, a Pakistani hacker group on Wednesday hacked as many as 10 Indian sites including two of the Punjab government's department of information technology.

As a result, www.doitpunjab.gov.in and www.punjabsewa.gov.in have become inaccessible after they were defaced by the group which calls itself FBH and which has been most active this year.

Calling Indians unprintable names, the hacker who calls himself Abunasar of FBH left a slogan 'Pakistan zindabad' on the two sites.

The Pakistanis stepped up their hacking to retaliate against the yaha virus unleashed against their government sites by the Indian Snakes group earlier this year.

So far this year, as many as 494 Indian sites have been hacked. Of these, 270 sites were attacked last month alone, against the 288 hacked during the whole of 2002.

But only a handful of the Indian sites hacked belong to the state or central governments. The Wednesday attack was the first major attack on official Indian sites in recent months.

Web sites related to IT are favourite targets for hackers in both the countries. The hacker’s purpose is to score a propaganda point that even these (IT sites) are unsafe and can be tinkered with.

It is not clear whether the government of Punjab is aware that two of its sites have been defaced.

***************************************************************************