• GoofyGuy (10/30/2014)


    Imagine having 100 former "script kiddies" all tethered together along a stretch of highway in the New Mexico desert, digging ditches for fibre optic cable. Let them do that every day, from sun-up to sun-down, for five years. When they're finally released from that ordeal, you won't see them back at a hacker convention bragging about their exploits.

    Another modest proposal might be to cut off their hands. It's more challenging to hack using a pencil set between one's teeth.

    Sorry, I'm letting my sense of irony slip out again.

    No, cutting off their hands would be cruel and unnecessary. I consider myself a fair and practical person.

    But I was serious when I suggested the idea of sentencing hackers to a forced labor program. Even if it were my own kid (just hypothetically speaking because she's only nine), and assuming the state could prove to my satisfaction that she was actually involved in stealing financial data, I'd consider a few years hard labor to be more rehabilitating than time spent in prison where she'd still be hanging out with the same crowd. It would give her time to think, and maybe even teach her some marketable skills besides hacking. I don't know if the idea would get broad support, because folks in the age of social media are so uptight, but I think it's a practical solution.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho