Hacking.

Over the last few weeks we have gone over a lot of different topics. But something that I really enjoyed talking about in class these last four weeks was the hackivism section of our class course. Specifically I found the video The Secret History of Hacking to be very informative. I personally am a big computer geek (built computers for myself and others). So I felt very connected to the information they were discussing.
There were a few things in the video that really blew my mind. The first thing was that the original hackers didn't use computers, they used phones (The Secret History of Hacking). I have always heard stories before of people who did that from Hollywood movies ect, but never thought it was actually possible. Also I found it very interesting how the government started arresting people for having “black box” on them (The Secret History of Hacking). This was a box these hackers made that help recreate dial tone sounds. That reminded about my previous blog post were I talk about how the older generation tries to control the new generation. This was another prime example. In the video most of these original hackers were only hacking into the phone line for the lulz (The Secret History of Hacking). But the government saw it differently and thought they were being destructive (The Secret History of Hacking).
Another thing that really caught my attention was when they did start talking about computers. From my understanding, the video stated that these hackers were people who kinda help start the computer revolution (The Secret History of Hacking). So these people who the government saw as extremely dangerous, were actually helping bring one of the greatest technologies we have into every household. That outstanding. I can only imagine what could have happened if the government came down even harder on some of these hackers. We may not have had the technology to create this laptop i'm writing on right now. If so the world could have been an extremely different place.
Overall I learned a lot over these last four weeks in class. I would say the biggest thing I took out of it was, who has the right to censor and stop others from seeing certain information? Likewise, what type of information should be protected from others? The first question is kinda tough to answer depending on the type of information. So I guess my option is that the government has the right to help someone protect their personal information that has a sensitive nature to it. But if someone is trying to share/interact with that information and they don't have the right to, the government should step in and stop them. But handle the offender with a different set of standards then say someone that was caught breaking into a house. I don't think our government has anything set up yet to handle hackers in a proper manner, but hopefully something respectable will be developed soon.

"The Secret History of Hacking." Online video clip. Google. Accessed on 18 March, 2012.