MikePadgett.com

Cynical hacking

— A 21st century irritation: the have-a-go hackers who prey upon bloggers.”

I’ve tended to take an ambivalent view towards hackers in the past.

Hackers can sometimes provide a beneficial service to organisations that need to constantly review and improve security. The better behaved ones don’t even steal your data.

I held to that view until this very afternoon, when I was showing my blog to a relative and bang, I found it had been hacked. For somebody who is non-technical, who does not work in the web business, this is proof of all those headlines writ large.

If certain individuals or groups have a particular axe to grind, then possessing and using the knowledge to grind it can be a powerful expedient to getting a message across. Hacking the work of a blogger who has no real beef with anyone strikes me as rather cynical.

Now I appreciate that hacking can be a hobby, done for its own sake, but targeting individuals who are peacefully making their way through the world with a bit of commentary is senseless.

I’ve read a lot of comments made recently about pointless blogs, how the timewasters should be rooted out and systematically ignored, and to some extent I agree with that, if you’re sifting through noise for a clear voice on some particular content. I had a think a while ago about whether my blog was redundant, but it seemed to me that if I enjoyed putting down thoughts about life and work, then I wasn’t doing anyone any harm.

And that’s the thing. I’m not doing anyone harm. There are items I’ve written about that others have told me they hadn’t heard about, just as I’ve come across some crucial answers to some of my crucial questions. It’s give and take, and that’s what communication is about.

So I find it disagreeable that I come online and find something very personal to me has been screwed around with by someone far away who doesn’t care for what I have to say. Ignore me, don’t hack me. And certainly don’t hack me just because you can.