Hi Tuppence,
You ask 'why?', well all i can offer by way of explanation
is my own thoughts on it.
The recording of details and information is nowadays very cheap, and very highly densely packagable.
Every mobile telephone call is monitored. The time and the
source and destination are recorded. The conversation is recorded. The same may be true of land lines, i suspect it
is but i dont know. If it is later required, the police or
government agencies can scrutinise the calls to use them in
their 'fight against crime'
So back to your question ... "Why would the police do that
in the case of innocent people? I don't understand."
Answer: They do it to all people, they cant tell in advance
who may commit a crime.
As to your other comment: ...
"If I had manufactured a piece of software or hardware and
didn't want it known yet, I would be very unhappy that a
hacker took that information without permission."
Of course you would.
But if you had come up with something worth protecting,
you would hopefully make sure that the details were not on
an internet using computer, or you might lose them.
I'm always fiddling aound with bits and pieces, i keep
anything 'sensitive' in notebooks, or if its very involved
on floppies, and wipe the 'recent' after using the puter.
At present im trying to make a 'lamp tester', i often have
to check small filament lamps to see if they light up
properly. That might sound like no big deal, but they come
in voltages ranging from 1 volt to sixty or more. i want to
just poke them onto the legs, and they will light up if
they're ok. That means the unit has to figure out the
voltage to apply. That would be more reliable than me, as
i have already blown quite a few. I intend to do it with a
light sensitive cell positioned close to the place i poke
the lamp to check it, the cell should register when its
lit and hold at that voltage for the check.
Ok, thats no big deal, and probably of no interest to any
one else, but other stuff might be, so i keep it separate.
(and no i havent finished my lamp tester yet!)
These hackers that get lots of bad publicity are (usually)
freelance types or maybe younger computer freaks, but i
think the ones working for larger companies or agencies
are much more insidious because they have large resources
to back them up, and organisations to hide behind. They
are the more dangerous variety in my opinion.
You also say: ... "It is surely a matter of privacy. This
man should not invade someone else's privacy, even for
practise and to gain information about computers."
I agree, in fact i would go further, i would say not only
that this man should not do it, i would say that no person
or agency should do it.
Except officers acting lawfully after the event, and with
the appropriate warrant.
And i do not believe that servers should be forced to make
details available to any persons or agencies, unless it be
officers acting lawfully and after the event, and with the
appropriate warrant.
Unfortunately we are way past that now.
You just have to cover your back as best you can.
John.
