Cartoons: the NSA online

With recent news of the NSA spying on World of Warcraft and Secondlife, you'd think online gamers would be more upset.  Maybe they're too intent on gaming.  Then there's rule no.1:  Nobody is who they say they are online.  Getting to know other players may reveal a real person, but continually fighting MOBs doesn't reveal much.  There's some humor to be found in the whole situation, too.

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Drew Sheneman, USNews

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Pauly D, Memegenerator

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"Operation Spycraft," actiontrip.com

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By the way, a n00b is "A inexperienced and/or ignorant or unskilled person. Especially used in computer games."  And what about the result of gathering all this information?

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Patrick Chappatte, "Huge Data Collection By NSA," Cagle

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While I was looking for these cartoons, I came across the NSA's site for kids.  In its Google listing it advertises, "How to make your own secret codes, games and activities from the National Security Agency for America's future codemakers and codebreakers." Looks like they're recruiting people early.

-- Marge

Hacking, cracking and just plain war

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Since hackers and hacking seem to be in the news more and more, I thought you might like a little information about the topic.

First of all, there are hackers and crackers, and an on-going controversy on which is which.  According to Wikipedia, in the computer security context, a hacker

...is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, or challenge.

On the other hand there is cracking -- modifying software

to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, usually related to protection methods: (copy protection, protection against the manipulation of software), trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.

A while back hackers were considered helpful, and functioned like ex-officio beta testers for the computer community, while crackers were considered malign.  The quote below is from a Wikipedia article discussing this continuing controversy:

Currently, "hacker" is used in two main conflicting ways

1. as someone who is able to subvert computer security; if doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker.
2. a member of the Unix or the free and open source software programming subcultures, or one who uses such a style of software or hardware development.

China and Korea have recently been fingered chief instigators in waging cyber war against the U.S. and European nations, as reported in this article in the New York Times, "Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S."  The U.S. is not entirely victim here, as reported by Foreign Policy, an online magazine, in the article "Inside the NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group."  (The reader comments on this article are most interesting.)

If you find this topic of interest, there's are detailed instructions on "How to Hack: 12 Steps" at wikiHow.  Udemy offers a number of hacking courses.
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I keep wondering if this post will qualify me for the NSA's watchlist.  No, wait...everyone is on that list.

-- Marge