ENEMY OF THE STATE PART FOUR: AMERICAN HACKING

Hacking also has a fruitful existence is the United States alone as it has a multifaceted hacking scene, with not only domestic hacking but also international hacking, predominantly facilitated by none other than the NSA. There has been recent activity in the realm of domestic hacking in America, according to recent reports from the Department of Homeland Security. In light of a recent report given by DHS of yet another attack by, according to Reuters, “A sophisticated hacking group” that “recently attacked a U.S. public utility and compromised its control system network”, DHS came to the conclusion devices that interface with the Internet have been a source of concern for them lately. In fact, according to Reuters, “Last year ICS-CERT [DHS’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team] responded to 256 cyber incident reports, more than half of them in the energy sector…that is nearly double the agency's 2012 case load…” Evidently, hacking does not only happen country to country – it happens domestically in America quite frequently. The much deeper story with the much deeper corresponding questions is located rather within the concept of international hacking. For example, in David E. Sanger of The New York Times’ article “Fine Line Seen in U.S. Spying on Companies”, the global controversy raised by the NSA’s international hacking and spying. Though U.S. officials argue in favor of the NSA’s international hacking and spying, claiming that “it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security.” However, this also helps fuel the China’s argument that the U.S. had no right to indict the five Chinese hackers, for the U.S. is acting quite hypocritical in that sense. “Now, every one of the examples of N.S.A. spying on corporations around the world is becoming Exhibit A in China’s argument that by indicting five members of the People’s Liberation Army, the Obama administration is giving new meaning to capitalistic hypocrisy. In the Chinese view, the United States has designed its own system of rules about what constitutes ‘legal’ spying and what is illegal.” A recent RAND report entitled “Markets for Cybercrime Tools and Stolen Data”, the question of the legitimacy of businesses is a consistent topic. One method of determining legitimacy is suggested when they say, “As with most things, intent is what can make something criminal or legitimate, and there are cases where goods or services can be used for altruistic or malicious purposes…” This, however, may also be applied to hacking. Thus, the U.S. government must ask itself these questions and analyze their national relations with this concept from the RAND report in mind. The integrity of the land of the free and the home of the brave is at stake.