Wake-up call for BARC

But shouldn8217;t we be concerned about the implications of the data theft that hasalready taken place? What if there is a Pakistani envoy with a bagful of used dollar bills clutched in his hot little hands, hurtling down the freeways in a Hertz car, desperately seeking hackers? A very unlikely scenario. Only stolen corporate data is sold on the black market. Government secrets are too hot for pimply-faced hackers who want to keep their skins whole. Nuclear material is red-hot, guaranteed to start unpleasant chain reactions. The Pentagon has been whining about a teen threat to the security of nations. It might find the BARC attack the ideal opportunity to launch a teen hacker panic attack, like the child porn panic attack of two years ago.

So, the most commonly-asked question: why does the hacker hack at all, if there are so many disincentives? Often, like the Everest climber, because it is there. And unlike him, because there is the off chance of good publicity.

This is the ugly reverse face of the Unabomber8217;s manifesto, gaining fame by using infotech tools to subvert the infotechrevolution. Fame, if you please, not notoriety, which is usually the lot of the subversive elements of this world. And fame of a very marketable quality. Days after he was arrested for leading an international hacker group into the computers of the US Department of Defence, Ehud Tenebaum alias Analyser, callow Israeli youth, landed himself a modelling contract with Israel8217;s biggest PC retailer.

So far, there has been only one case of committed adults hacking into sensitive information. In March, the Masters of Downloading, a group of professionals in ties, broke into the Defence Information Systems Agency and lifted the interface US military jets and warships use to log into the military8217;s global positioning system. MilwOrm8217;s strike on BARC is another unique case: the first anti-nuke action 8212; hacking as a virtual extension of real-world politics. The majority of hack jobs, when they8217;re not done for fame, are wake-up calls. Like the Satan virus, which was released into the Internet by a Silicon Graphicsprogrammer, they alert lazy systems administrators to security needs.

There are now 3,000 hacker groups in cyberspace, enough for governments to get worried, especially if political hacking becomes a trend. Last summer, a concerned US government launched the Manhattan Cyber Project, an outreach programme for state agencies, industry and academia, alerting them to the need to take precautions in digital life, just as people do in their sexual lives. Like Satan, just another wake-up call.

What do Indian agencies need to do, now that its klaxon has been soundly rung? Well, stop being sloppy and lazy, as MilwOrm has accused them of being. Take the basic precautions, like keeping sensitive material offline and not discussing it in email most of MilwOrm8217;s take was email about the Pokharan tests. In short, just wake up, and the nightmare will end.