The critical component “corporatized” pen testers may be missing is an understanding of the psychology of the people we’re all calling “hackers.” Actually, that term is not correct, since hackers are in fact everyday people with a passion for gadgets or code or both. Crackers, on the other hand, are in the same family as safe-crackers, whom none of us would call hobbyists.
So, why are so many of these people so angry? Well, Anonymous is targeting Malaysia’s repressive government, particularly its attempts at censorship. The people who targetted the IMF are arguably idealists. The people who stole info from Citi and Nintendo, on the other hand, are likely seeking opportunities for crime.
Then next, why are the idealists or activists so angry? “It’s the economy, stupid.” Hard times and increasing austerity (for the masses, at least) are spreading over every part of the globe not housing the super-rich. And the complaints of the middle class, in particular, are not invalid.
Consider, for instance, the Wall Street Journal column Al’s Emporium, and its article “Job Cremation Council”
(http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110620-704573.html).
The head honchos of GE and American Express laid out their lame suggestions to improve the economy: Send people to vocational schools. Cut red tape. Ease the visa process (that will for SURE help American workers, right?). Put construction workers back to work – doing what, we must ask?
“No single idea, however well-conceived, will solve our nation’s employment challenge,” Messrs. Immelt and Chenault wrote.
Oh, yeah? Well, how come so many average Americans, who’ve never sat on a presidential council, have one?
Stop shipping jobs overseas.
From 1999 to 2009, multinational companies cut 2.9 million jobs in the U.S. while adding 2.4 million jobs abroad, according to recent data from the U.S. Commerce Department. And this doesn’t even begin to count the work increasingly outsourced to overseas companies over the years.
Big, brand-name enterprises that still employ about one-fifth of all working Americans are to blame. You know, companies like American Express and GE (We bring good things to India).
In May 2004, retired GE chief Jack Welch ridiculed warnings that moving jobs abroad was weakening the U.S. labor market. “It is the dumbest argument ever put out,” he said.
He then put forth what he apparently thought was a much smarter argument: “Don’t stop two jobs from going abroad. You will kill 20 here.”
Back then the unemployment rate was just an annoying 5.6%. Today, it’s 9.1%. So if Mr. Welch was indeed correct, someone must have prevented a lot more than two jobs from going offshore.