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Since my last thread got locked for asking the community if they knew of evidence of criminals being hacked to steal their money (vigilante hackers), we'll tone it down a bit and talk about the ethics of it all.

If you possessed the ability to hack just about anything you wanted to, what would you use it for? What would you do? Why?

I would use it for money because then I can buy things with it.

So you'd really do nothing but be a thief among thieves?

Yup.

If I could get very large sums of money with ease by hacking, I would not care in the slightest that I was another thief.

A big if though, I don't much care to try my hands at hacking whatsoever.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
So you'd really do nothing but be a thief among thieves?

I have no ambitions of being a vigilante superhero or even learning how to hack.

Well you can.... the trick is getting away with it...

Would it matter to you if it was against other criminals, banks, or some other establishment or money, money no matter where it comes from?

I'd force the desktop of anyone who even googles the word hacking to be troll face. And then I would overheat their computers.

In more realistic scenarios, I would laugh at people, make sarcastic comments, sigh a lot, help no one and do nothing at all, all while being a smart donkey.

Also, I'm expecting this thread to end poorly.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 DemetriDominov wrote:
So you'd really do nothing but be a thief among thieves?

I have no ambitions of being a vigilante superhero or even learning how to hack.

All for one then?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 xole wrote:
I'd force the desktop of anyone who even googles the word hacking to be troll face. And then I would overheat their computers.

In more realistic scenarios, I would laugh at people, make sarcastic comments, sigh a lot, help no one and do nothing at all, all while being a smart donkey.

Also, I'm expecting this thread to end poorly.

Sounds like the mantra and expectations of the internet.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
Well you can.... the trick is getting away with it...

Would it matter to you if it was against other criminals, banks, or some other establishment or money, money no matter where it comes from?

If I was hacker I guess I would take it from rich criminals, but otherwise I try to avoid dangerous things.

Seems reasonable. Criminal activity is in itself a risky business.

I would continue to work at a legitimate job to earn the things I need and/or want. Why would I want to hide behind a computer for personal gain or making lives miserable when I can stand up like a man and support and entertain myself legitimately?

How is this even an issue? Hacking is in its very essence a violation of privacy. There's a very limited area where violating privacy is generally considered to be ethical conduct so unless any of us happen to be nationally elected governments with the power to enforce law and defend the state it isn't really ethical for any of us to hack a computer system.

But I'd totally plant pictures of cats asking for cheezeburgerz on everyone desktop.

I guess it just depends, as Cheesecat said, most people have no intentions on being a superhero vigilante hacker. Then again, those are interesting words considering that it may be the only avenue one could pursue a superhero life without having to be Bruce Wayne.

Makes one wonder why or if anyone has tried it yet.

Because they turn out to be Anonymous? Aka a bunch of self-righteous douche bags who haven't really helped anyone?

 d3m01iti0n wrote:
I would continue to work at a legitimate job to earn the things I need and/or want. Why would I want to hide behind a computer for personal gain or making lives miserable when I can stand up like a man and support and entertain myself legitimately?

You're the real superhero of this thread, I hope you come in a sexy tight purple spandex suit and rescue me from my boring life and save my heart.

So why then is this idea not supported? Edited due to confusion: Why can't there be hackers who aren't self centered and have a sense of morality? Is that a misconception? Do they exist? If they do, what evidence is there of their existence? If not, then why isn't there more emphasis on fighting hackers if they are all self centered debased jerks intent on humiliation and personal gratification?

Edit 2: Dear lord I fail at English today.

I think there is already is emphasis on fighting hackers in fact I think it's illegal.

This depends upon your definition of "hacking".

Most of the time when people talk about hacking, they're talking about guessing voicemail passwords, running a program someone else wrote to effectively ping a website a lot to take down the site, or downloading a bunch of free documents from JSTOR using a perl script that calls wget a lot.

With the exception of the latter of those things, they're not really ethical. I would also argue that they're not hacking per the non-mainstream news definition of the word.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
So why then is this idea not supported?

The idea of people hacking other criminals in some sort of strange act of computer geek vigilante justice? If you want to fight crime like that, go to school, get a degree in computer something and then work for the FBI. Much better than fantasizing about being some sort of internet batman.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I think there is already is emphasis on fighting hackers in fact I think it's illegal.

And yet it's O.K. for the government and police to use hackers in order to protect its interests and find other hackers?

 DemetriDominov wrote:
So why then is this idea not supported? Edited for confusion: Why aren't there hackers who are self centered and have a sense of morality? Is that a misconception? Do they exist? If they do, what evidence is there of their existence? If not, then why isn't there more emphasis on fighting hackers if they are all self centered debased jerks intent on humiliation and personal gratification?

I'm there are hackers who are. But the problem is their idiots. There are hackers who hack systems for fun and don't really cause any harm. Unfortunately this is a waste of their talent, time and still illegal and unethical.

The problem with fighting hackers is that you can't. It's like trying to fight drug dealers. Even if you get 1, there's a dozen more around the corner.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DemetriDominov wrote:

 Cheesecat wrote:
I think there is already is emphasis on fighting hackers in fact I think it's illegal.

And yet it's O.K. for the government and police to use hackers in order to protect its interests and find other hackers?

Yeah. Because they're the state. Just like how they're allowed to break and enter, kill, and steal, so long as they have a very good reason for it.

 rubiksnoob wrote:

The idea of people hacking other criminals in some sort of strange act of computer geek vigilante justice? If you want to fight crime like that, go to school, get a degree in computer something and then work for the FBI. Much better than fantasizing about being some sort of internet batman.

Mmm Internet Batman... lol.

Mmm government sponsored Internet Batman.

So how can I be Iron Man on top of it?

 rubiksnoob wrote:

 DemetriDominov wrote:
So why then is this idea not supported?

The idea of people hacking other criminals in some sort of strange act of computer geek vigilante justice? If you want to fight crime like that, go to school, get a degree in computer something and then work for the FBI. Much better than fantasizing about being some sort of internet batman.

He could also workout and become a cop.

 LordofHats wrote:

The problem with fighting hackers is that you can't. It's like trying to fight drug dealers. Even if you get 1, there's a dozen more around the corner.

Which brings us to our next segment: the inefficiencies of the Judicial System, the failure of the War on Drugs, and emphasis that crime revolves around Drugs (not around money.).

 Cheesecat wrote:
I think there is already is emphasis on fighting hackers in fact I think it's illegal.

Yeah. Because they're the state. Just like how they're allowed to break and enter, kill, and steal, so long as they have a very good reason for it.

Stealing is a stretch - borrowing with intent to return or using as evidence is more accurate.

I have a good reason to sponsor state hacking of criminals: steal their money, halt crime.

The problem is that the state can't afford to hire hackers due to the PR nightmare and finical quandary or litterally stealing from citizen's they can't prove as guilty without admitting that they used illegal activity to find them.

I'd hack people I hate's computers to do a variety of things. Ranging from Pedobear to the Trololol guy. maybe both.