U.S. Government Hacking

The identity of the hacker who targeted me is of course unknown; hence the reason for this blog. But the possibility that it could have been the U.S. government itself is truly disturbing. It's hard to believe we are living in an Orwellian police state in this country, but the evidence is all around us: the government's use of spyware or "fedware" that can bypass a computer's security software altogether; the Bush Administration's program of wiretapping without obtaining a warrant; the FBI's use of trojan horses to get information on would-be drug dealers and other criminals (not just terrorists); and the Patriot Act, which has let all the above occur unchecked. I thought the Patriot Act was supposed to help in finding and fighting terrorists, not in prosecuting America's own citizens without due process. I never really thought movies such as Enemy of the State and Minority Report were realistic. Certainly they were pessimistic views of the future. But it seems the future is here, and it's more V for Vendetta than even Alan Moore would have predicted when he based the idea on Thatcher-era England in the '80s.

All may not be lost, however. The Courts seem to be striking down the above provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional with more regularity. Big Brother is here, but perhaps with enough light on this issue, he'll become a bit smaller.