Snooty and malicious hacking is calling into question the trustworthiness of online communication, identity privacy, and e-commerce. Governments, corporations, the military, NGOs and citizens are concerned, as they should. Sometimes it seems that there is no secure computing system anywhere in the world, even as the world moves to more secure cloud data centers. As the authorities hunt down hackers and catch a few, it appears that there are many more to take their place and many ISPs to hide or use in their tricks.

So far, looking at the scoreboard, it appears that hackers, cyber terrorists, and rogue nation cyber commandos are winning, while users, IT departments, corporations, and governments are losing. Yes, hackers have laid eggs in the face of some of the major computer security companies and made them look dumb, incompetent, and unable to protect their systems. There was an interesting article in the mainstream media and on MSNBC about how the Lulz Sec Hacker Group left it and disbanded.

The article on the MSNBC website titled; “Hacker group LulzSec says it’s done: 50 days of cyberattacks included breaches from PBS, Arizona, Sony, FBI partners,” was quite illuminating and discusses this important turn of events saying;

“The group has stolen mountains of personal data in a dozen attacks, shaming law enforcement agencies around the world while bragging about online stunts. The group’s disbandment comes unexpectedly and is a sign that the Police investigations are closing in. Rival hackers have joined the Hunt, releasing information that could target the six-member group. One of the group’s six members was interviewed by The AP on Friday and gave no indication that his work was ending “.

Can the hacker groups just quit like this, and the problem is over? Yes, maybe, and why not, they have won and it is obvious that they have their bragging rights. But can a hacker who does it for the sport, loves it and enjoys the adrenaline rush, quit smoking and never hack again? That, I wonder, would say probably not. But, they could go into computer security and teach the authorities a thing or two. It would be nice if they joined the other side, rather than breaking trust on the internet.

Of course, then someone else would come and replace them if they weren’t hacking. Well, I suppose we need a more secure and reliable Internet and until we do that we will not have the level or confidence in the system that we need to maintain the flow of information and electronic commerce. Please consider all of this and think about it.