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The seven young men sitting before some of Capitol Hill's most powerful lawmakers weren't graduate students or junior analysts from some think tank. No, Space Rogue, Kingpin, Mudge and the others were hackers who had come from the mysterious environs of cyberspace to deliver a terrifying warning to the world.
Your computers, they told the panel of senators [YouTube] in May 1998, are not safe — not the software, not the hardware, not the networks that link them together. The companies that build these things don't care, the hackers continued, and they have no reason to care because failure costs them nothing. And the federal government has neither the skill nor the will to do anything about it.
"If you're looking for computer security, then the Internet is not the place to be," said Mudge, then 27 and looking like a biblical prophet with long brown hair flowing past his shoulders. The Internet itself, he added, could be taken down "by any of the seven individuals seated before you" with 30 minutes of well-choreographed keystrokes.
The senators — a bipartisan group including John Glenn, Joseph I. Lieberman and Fred D. Thompson — nodded gravely, making clear that they understood the gravity of the situation. "We're going to have to do something about it," Thompson said.
What happened instead was a tragedy of missed opportunity, and 17 years later the world is still paying the price in rampant insecurity.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Taibhsear on Wednesday June 24 2015, @08:04PM
"The Internet itself, he added, could be taken down "by any of the seven individuals seated before you" with 30 minutes of well-choreographed keystrokes."
If they said that exact thing in 2015 they'd be thrown into Guantanamo faster than you can say "Snowden."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @08:22PM
Actually, I think it would be a great idea if they were to assemble another hearing on Capitol Hill and do precisely that sort of a demonstration. It's one thing to boast about having the ability to do it to a bunch of grey beard Congresscritters. It's quite another to actually do it. That kind of demonstration has a way of focusing people's attention like nothing else can.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @09:31PM
You really have no idea what Guantanamo is, what it is for, and who was sent there, do you?
Or if you do, you sure hide it well in what you say.
(Score: 3, Touché) by KilroySmith on Wednesday June 24 2015, @11:12PM
I'm pretty sure I know what it is, and what it was for. I think we might disagree on the "who was sent there" part. Sure, there were a few like Kahlid Sheik Mohammed who should have been tried, and if convicted, shot. But there were over 700 taken there, many tortured there or perhaps prior to their arrival. 600 of them have been released without trial. Most of the rest have been cleared for release, but are unlikely to ever actually be released.
Three have been convicted of something. 44 will be detained until they die, without trial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @08:37PM
Yes, all nice Wiki numbers, but when and until they pick up Snowden, Assange, etc. as a nationless enemy combatant on a battlefield (particularly one where the nation they hail from refuses to take them back), then MAYBE they'll be sent there. "Gitmo" isn't some magical land where political dissidents get sent, much to the misunderstanding of idiots. To invoke it in every topic, especially in Snowden-related topics, is simply plain ignorance.
So if you are one of those holding that mindset, then no, you don't understand what it is or who gets sent there.
And for the truly ignorant, Manning had a military trial because he was active military, Snowden would get a civilian trial because he is a civilian (though there would be issues to work out regarding how much of it would be closed to the public because it involves classified material), and Assange would get no trial because he didn't break any US laws (for publishing the secrets, that is, the rape thing is between him and Sweden). There is no "Gitmo" anywhere to be found here.