Greetings,

BBC Radio 4 2012 11 27 at 20:00 repeated BBC Radio 4 2012 12 02 17:00.

Radio 4 website for 2012 11 27 shows:
The Hackers 
Simon Cox delves into the sometimes strange world of the hacker activist, or
'hacktivist'. 

Program page shows:

Governments do it, companies do it, criminals do it. But in recent years
some of the highest profile computer hacks have come from so-called
hacktivist groups. Each week hackers target a new organisation or government
website. Many of these hacker activists claim to belong to the amorphous
group known as Anonymous or an off-shoot of it. Their aim? To wrest control
of the internet from states and big corporations and give it back to the
people. Or simply to have fun.
The FBI, the Metropolitan police, the US Senate, Sony, PayPal and Visa have
been some of the highest profile victims of the hackers. More often than not
the attacks come in the form of DOS, or denial of service, attacks -
effectively flooding websites with requests so that they crash. In some
cases the hackers have managed to steal personal and financial records from
the organisations and then post them online. Sometimes the reason given by
the hackers for these attacks is as a response to official actions taken
against Wikileaks or attempts by the authorities to close down certain
websites, such as free music download sites. 
The FBI and police have had some success in tracking down some of the
hackers - many of them just teenagers.
In "The Hackers" Simon Cox delves into the strange world of hacktivism, as
he tracks down some of these hackers and speaks to those trying to catch
them. 

Security agencies are turning to hacking to gather intelligence -but is it
legal?
. Computer Hacking
Tom Watson MP tells The Report that computer hacking could dwarf the phone
hacking scandal

Access link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p0h5v


Colin Howard, living near Southampton in Southern 
England.


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