So what's it going to take to end this escalating war between protesters/hackers and BART??
Hackers post BART cops' personal info; another protest planned for Monday.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/17/BA101KOI7G.DTL
are hackers/anarchists considered left wing?
in this case, I would say yes, as this dustup started over BART police shooting a transient and then the protesters threw Oscar Grant and "free speech" into the mix. Personally, I think the case can be made that cel-phone service in a subway tunnel is not a "right".
I don't really see this as left-wing stuff, more like libertarian.
At about 5 PM on Monday I was out near Market and Powell and I did notice an increase of young kids, less that 18 YO, milling about. My opinion is these kids are doing this pseudo-anarcho thing just b/c they think f***ing s*** up is cool. They have no formed beliefs yet, and when they think long enough to figure it out, they'll be Democrats before they become anything else. They're kids right now.
There is a segment of self-styled, black bandana sportin' anarchists out there, too (You saw a few during Iraq war protests), but when push comes to shove, they'll also back down and not want to commit fully to Anarchy with a capital A. They've got lots of energy, though, but many aren't thinking things through -- hey, just like many Tea Party folks!
What Anonymous did had a direct effect on my life: a friend was one of the folks whose info was hacked from the MyBart site and spread about. They received quite a few calls soon after the info was leaked by (what they think were ) scammers trying to get more personal info from her.
Anonymous did point out that Bart's IT security sucks, that's for sure, but unfortunately that's not unexpected with a government agency whose bloated carcass floats down the river of bureau-mediocrity. It certainly made me take another look at offering my info to other parties. I mean, that's always a concern, but it's in the forefront again because of their shenanigans.
So kudos for pointing out BART's failings in the IT department -- as if we needed that -- but BOO for hurting innocent folks. One wonders what they would have done if they had successfully hacked into more private sensitive info... perhaps this un-encrypted file was all they could find? And maybe that's b/c BART didn't think it worthy of encryption/protection?
I watched a movie called Trumbo last night, about Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted writer. Now THAT guy thought through his beliefs and was committed.
Nice summation Tinka.
I was something of an anarchist when I was young too. Or maybe I was a nihilist. Hard to say. I knew things were f*cked up, at any rate. I thought we were doomed. But here I am, still relatively prosperous, still relatively happy, and still on the right side of the lawn. I may never be able to retire, but, you know, nobody ever promised me a rose garden (okay, the people who were selling 401ks did, but "buyer beware").
As for liberals and conservatives -- I'm fed up with them both. Making fun of Michelle Bachman because she was eating a corn dog at a fair is not only unfair, but also lowers the bar for what is acceptable in political debate. Politicians don't want us to think about the real issues, they want us to focus on the side issues and manufactured scandal. If everything is about personality and image, then they can do anything in the back rooms once they get elected. Slight of hand.
Anyway, to Geoff's query -- no, the hackers/anarchists are not left wing liberals. They are just kids howling against the void. Hackers suck and anarchists are grasping at chaos. But they aren't wrong.
And one last word about IT security -- effective security is at best very expensive. At worst, it's impossible. BART does not have the resources for sophisticated security, and even that can be breached. It's not just public agencies that have this problem -- any private or public software company weighs the cost/profit equation. It's not surprising that profit usually wins out. Nothing is safe. Nothing.
"Between grief and nothing, I will choose grief." (Just a random quote that popped into my head -- frink points to anyone who can identify the author. Hint: He is part of the reason I had such a bleak view of the world when I was a English Lit major at SF State).
"Pues Nada" (That's Hemingway.)
ETA: And, BTW, I am awfully fond of Obama. But then, I was awfully fond of Jimmy Carter too.
