More than 25% of all computers and Internet hackers
a startling number of “bad guys” on the taxpayer-funded payroll or getting leniency in the American justice system in return for their cooperation. The technique appears to be undermining one of the most important components to a computer hacking attack: trust. If hackers suspect each other as being informants, they may be less likely to attempt new attacks.
Hackergate?
Although most of the hackers working for the government are presumably working as informants, it is unclear how many hackers are actually hacking at the behest of the US Government.
A stunning report published by the UK Guardian shows that 1 of every 4 hackers is a spy, opening new questions about intimidation, entrapment and potentially illegal activity being perpetrated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Wikileaks
One of the most famous examples of a hacker on the government payroll is Adrian Lamo, the noted hacker whom Bradley Manning trusted enough to turn to as he shopped his cache of illicit US Government documents. It was Manning’s conversations with Lamo that led to the case against him as the Wikileaks informant.
How far can you go?
The unanswered question about hackers and their work for the government is how far they are allowed to go to reel in other hackers or users of hacked information, programming and files. Are FBI hackers attacking US citizens’ computers? Is the federal government using its huge network of hackers to attack China?
The ethical questions posed by the government’s use of hackers continues along the same lines of traditional law enforcement. How far should the government be allowed to go to catch a hacker and how much hacking under government auspices should be allowed before a sting is called off?
Some citizens may even object to government money going to the very hackers the government is charged with stopping; and who is liable for the damage caused by hackers that the government supports? The cyber ethics concern is self-evident.
Anonymous
Although the exact behavior of FBI supported hackers is unclear, some of their results are quite visible. Besides Wikileaks, the US Government is aggressively pursuing the hacker consortium known as Anonymous which is responsible for several high profile cyber attacks including the compromise of AT&T iPad user data and recent attacks against the Sony PlayStation Network.
According to the Guardian, more than 30 homes were raided earlier this year as a result of information gained from hacker informants.
No trust
Trust is one of the most important components computer hackers need to be able to mount large attacks against computer systems and networks. The FBI efforts are not entirely successful, however: hackers managed to launch a concerted attack against one of the FBI’s own computer systems.
