Gives examples of ethical issues from the Anonymous hacktivist group taking action on several social issues. Provide your insights and thoughts, backing them up with references to biblical principles.
300 word minimum for discussion post. 2 Responses to classmates discussion. 150 per response. 1 source cited minumum for discussion and 1 source cited for each response.
Classmate repsonse 1: (RESPOND TO THIS) One of the ethical issues presented in the Reading & Study presentation was about the Anonymous hacktivist group taking action on several social issues. The presentation highlighted their main tactic of conducting Distributed Denial of Services attacks as well as the impact it has on the companies and groups involved in court cases. After further research on this group, I learned that not all of their attacks are unethical although the majority fall under that category which bring great concern in our country's country state. Other sources define this group as self-ruled cyber thugs that "enforce their vision of social justice on the rest of the world (Ulsch, 2014)."
A hacking news website noted 8 of the "Most Awesome Hacks" conducted by this group (Raza, 2016). Some of the hacks that I wrestled with ethically involved the attack named "Dark Discovery" executed in 2011 where attacked child pornography sites which currently lack proper persecution by our legal system. In 2015, they conducted an attack on a website that promoted and shared propaganda for ISIS. The majority of the sites supporting ISIS are found in the dark web where authorities have no jurisdiction but groups like Anonymous can disrupt their activities.
However, the bad outweighs the good with this hacktivist group. Other attacks mentioned on that list included the rebuttal of cellular censorship by releasing personal information as achieved in the 2011 "BART attack"; informing the public of the Church of Scientology's internet censorship by using Googling bombing; and retaliation against the FBIs site shutdown for copyright infringement.
The most alarming in my opinion was their 2015 attack on Donald's Trump's website following Trump's comments to barre all Muslims from entering the United States. As we are all aware, our country is facing some challenges and grave division following the nomination of our Presidential nominee. Groups such as the Anonymous Hackers have demonstrated their ability to disrupt various organizations. What will happen when they want to disrupt our government or worse our infrastructure because they disagree with a group's support for a political party? Therefore, in times like this we should focus on the many instances in the bible we are reminded to love thy neighbors and Mark also states that "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand (Mark 3:24, New International Version)."
References:
Raza, A. (2016, January 13). 8 Most Awesome Hacks Conducted By Anonymous Hackers. Retrieved from Hack Read:
https://www.hackread.com/8-most-awesome-hacks-conducted-by-anonymous-hackers/
Ulsch, M. (2014). Cyber Threat!: How to Manage the Growing Risk of Cyber Attacks. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Classmate response 2: (RESPOND TO THIS)
This week's discussions ought to be interesting. I thought I'd delve into the Edward Snowden case. So, who is he and what did he do? "Snowden worked as a Booz Allen Hamilton systems analyst doing contract work for the NSA." (Courage Foundation) He had government top security clearance and leaked classified documents that "revealed detailed secret NSA programs and capabilities that have been and continue to be used to collect and store personal communications both within the US and abroad." (Courage Foundation) He claimed that he was doing this as a whistleblower and that he first worked through internal channels. According to his interview with the Washington Post, "he brought his misgivings to two superiors in the NSA's Technology Directorate and two more in the NSA Threat Operations Center's regional base in Hawaii." (Gellman) Snowden also claimed that he couldn't go through more normal whistleblower channels because as a government contractor, as opposed to being a government employee, he was not protected by the whistleblower laws, nor would he have been protected against retaliation and legal sanction for revealing classified information. (Kessler) The Washington Post agrees for the most part that this assertion is correct.
So, did he act ethically? Yes and no. His intentions, I believe, were ethical. You could think of his actions as being similar to a white hat hacker discovering a zero day exploit, giving that information to the service owner to fix, and then publicly releasing that information after the vendor has failed to act and remediate the issue. Snowden tried to work internally first. However, as a person that has worked on classified programs for a defense contractor, I have a very hard time condoning him releasing that information. I have to believe there would have been a better way to get the results he desired without publishing classified documents. He achieved some good, positive results - investigation, increased transparency, legislative reform, and informed public debate (Courage Foundation), but what unintended consequences also occurred?
As I thought about this biblically, I came up with Romans 13:1-7
Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. For government is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God's servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience. And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God's public servants, continually attending to these tasks. Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.
Clearly, however, with man's sin nature, man's law does not always align with God's law. We can see evidence of this in the book of Daniel. Daniel 14-18 describes how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the furnace of blazing fire for not bowing down to king Nebuchadnezzar's gods per his law. Daniel 6 also describes how Daniel righteously defied the king's law. In both instances, God saved these men for putting faith in God and keeping God's laws above man's.
While I think some of the NSA's actions may have been unconstitutional, I don't think they rise to the same level that Daniel and his friends faced. For me, I think I would have either tried to work more within the whistleblower framework or just walked away. Having given my oath to protect the secrets entrusted with me, I would be hard pressed to come up with a scenario that was so morally wrong where I would break that oath.
Sources
Free Snowden Frequently Asked Questions (2016). The Courage Foundation. Retrieved from
https://edwardsnowden.com/frequently-asked-questions/
Gellman B. (2013, December 23). Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html
Kessler G. (2014, March 12). Edward Snowden's claim that he had ‘no proper channels' for protection as a whistleblower. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/12/edward-snowdens-claim-that-as-a-contractor-he-had-no-proper-channels-for-protection-as-