This is straight up crime. I hope they convict these criminals with the same vigor as they do some poor script kiddie.
Well, they wouldn’t be very good spies if they didn’t have direct access to foreign telecoms, would they? I always kinda assumed that British Intelligence has front door access to most of this stuff, that’s what I find strange.
Outside of their own borders they are just common criminals.
How can we defend Snowden, now that his leaks allow Terrorist Belgians to roam the streets freely, terrorizing the innocent?
@xeni
Please, if you mean “cracked”, use that word. As a member in good standing of my local Hackerspace, I do mind that the word “hacked” is used in the context of criminal activity. With most ignorant journalists and wikipedia I have no recourse. Within the Boingboing community I am glad I do, and I am sure others share the sentiment. Thank you.
…conducted under the codename “Operation Socialist,” …
The intel community is really running out of ideas for operation codenames, aren’t they? What’s next; “Operation Anarchy”?
Ok, I admit it, I don’t understand the distinction you’re making. Is it a legal/illegal issue? A matter of the intentions of the one doing it? Please explain, if you can. Some history or links would be helpful too.
Sorry, anthonyC. You may compare “Hacker Ethic” and “Hacker” in Wikipedia. If you dig the history of the latter, you will find my attempt to fix it, the response, including a peculiar “Wikipedia’s policies cannot be changed” response by the reverter - which made me quite disheartened with Wikipedia. I know it’s just somebody’s opinion, but it felt like a very sad thing, if any WP policy ever is writ in stone.
See also Jargon File “hacker” entry. And, of minor import maybe, see http://atxinventor.com/2012/03/hacker-or-cracker.html
During the summer I volunteered with a kid’s robotics camp. I wanted to tell them about our Hackerspace here. So I asked if they knew what a “hacker” is. Yes! Yes! “a hacker is someone who gets into your email”. Sad. Most of us do understand the difference, why it matters to use the right one especially in publication, and I hope you will support that too
Thanks! That’s helpful, actually. I’ll try my best to remember in conversation and writing. It’s funny, I now realize I get them write as verbs, but not nouns.
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