For those who may be unaware, there’s a group that calls itself LulzSec that has been hacking up a storm lately (most famously targeting PBS) for, well, the LULZ.

Here at the Big Bad Blog, we have been scratching our heads trying to figure out what to make of them. After reading this article by Patrick Gray, we think that we will just co-opt his position:

So for the last ten years I’ve been working in media, trying to raise awareness of the idea that maybe, just maybe, using insecure computers to hold your secrets, conduct your commerce and run your infrastructure is a shitty idea.

No one who mattered listened.

…

So why do we like LulzSec?

“I told you so.”

That’s why.

We aren’t security professionals here at the Big Bad Blog, but that resonates. Because we are sufficiently technically literate to say — at least now that LulzSec has turned on the light — well, yeah, obviously.

Furthermore, this reflects the truth about how we treat our society’s insecurities beyond the computer: The security theatre that we witness at airports, for example. We all know that it does nothing to keep us safe, but governments just keep making more grand, visible gestures, rather than taking any steps to make flight more secure.

Photographers being harassed for taking photos in public places, as a “counter-terrorism measure”. The Patriot Act in the USA.

All these things smell the same. It’s a shame that LulzSec-style graffiti about Tupac in New Zealand doesn’t exist in these contexts, and there is no similar loud, visible way to demonstrate what is masquerading as security all around us every day.

Image by Frankie Eiknarf.
Webcomic is Invisible Bread, by Justin Boyd.