My workstation has a big assed red banner when I log on saying "DO NOT STICK A USB IN ME YOU FUCKING MORON"*. So if this study was conducted at my site, or was malicious, I'd wager they'd have a few things to say to me.

"Just look at how people have reacted to this spring's exploits of web sites and services...they don't blame themselves for choosing idiot passwords or not cancelling services they no longer use."

Really, do people believe that the ends justify the means as long as we're showing vulnerabilities lulzsec style? I mean even following that logic doesn't give you props. Exploiting stupid, or simply thoughtless, behavior just means you aren't clever enough to crack effective solutions and are targeting low hanging fruit like a gimped monkey.

*Color is correct, but the wording might be paraphrased

"In the UK we managed to get rid of slavery without a war, as did most other places...ex-colony countries that became independent without war."

I apologize for being harsh, but that's because your broke-ass empire couldn't afford to keep the repression game going and slavery was never profitable for you. I'm not quite sure where Britain, Kings and Queens of the White Man's Burden, can really get all high and mighty on the United States. Civil rights in the UK evolved almost by accident as one group with power tried to take it from another group. Do you think the Magna Carta was all about the poor? F'sck no.

And I believe starting a war with Napoleon DID work out for you as did wiping out the Spanish Armada. Until then you were the bitch of any seafaring nation that wanted your little island (Romans, Dutch, French, etc).

Yes Virginia, the companies generally know when they've been compromised. Really, it's only lack of integrity when you don't hear about it on the news.

Now if only they could have highlighted incompetent security with courage and integrity. Instead, I consider the good outcomes of their actions a beneficial side-effect of criminal actions. And not the kind of Robin Hood or Jean Val Jean criminal...more the Joker dickhead criminal that few will mourn.

It's been obvious from the beginning that Lulzsec might be fickle in their targeting like anons, but that they are a coordinated group. That lends them a bit more power, but also means that despite their bravado they are connected. And since they're not thinking like terrorists, I doubt they have formed "cells" like any organization which doesn't want to fall quickly to a coordinated assault.

Maybe I don't give them enough credit and the IRC operator was careful to shield everyone and knows no one by name. But despite the publicity, and the fact that they have more skill than I, somehow I doubt they are true black hat masters. Braggarts are the most likely criminals to land in jail.

It takes years to take down a ring of any type; I'm sure when they go after the heavies they want plenty of evidence to nail them to the wall with. I'm pretty sure the governments of the world are not going to advertise when they find people of more importance.

Meanwhile you take down some piddly low hanging fruit to keep the public happy and keep the important people secure in the knowledge that 7 proxies have shielded them.

I'm going to have to remember that excuse when I start having online sexy chats with ladies.

"But darling, this one dude on the internet said it's just moving bits around!"

And if my wife doesn't understand, I'm sure her divorce attorney will.

"Frankly, with the latest series of indiscriminate attacks it's starting to look less like griefers run amok and more like false-flag psyops run to reduce support for hacktivism through guilt-by-association and create fertile grounds for some new draconian legislation."

Actually, your post is more of a false-flag psyops designed to discredit the fact that they are petty dickhead hackers with too much time and lulz. Jeebus, the government does some pretty bad shit, but pissing off gamers and hitting a few minor govt sites isn't going to have the same effect as say...hitting the stock market servers.

So if you're going to engage in paranoid delusion, at least ramp it up 9/11 truther style to something that causes FEAR. Take it to an 11 man.

"Rail against it if you like, but you'll have to shout: Nintendo are way down there at the deep end of their Olympic sized pool full of cash, blow and hookers."

Actually, the pool has sprung a leak and they're trying to desperately have the Wii U fill the pool again before the hookers get bored and they have no more money for blow.

The most drastic change occurs by revolution, but I'd say the best change occurs by evolution. And good outcomes certainly don't come from idealists without a real plan for replacing the establishment. Crap, that's just asking for the guillotine.

You underestimate the laziness of the public. How many logged back onto the PSN and saw the requirement to change their password as a chore? And if they somehow miraculously stop trusting the company, then how many will assume that the lax PSN security was just a fluke? Nah, if anything the benefit is to prod companies into bolstering their defenses to shield their own asses -- for a time at least.

As for releasing the data publicly I think that would have been as well received as the RIAA lawsuits. Besides, if you want to think evil then realize that *not* knowing what criminals have their hands on is far worse mentally.

Such bland classifications are only useful in fantasy where you can pigeonhole intentions so clearly. Or if you're just doing that for the lulz.

I'm pretty sure that Lulzsec qualifies for Chaotic Neutral at this point.

Actually let us consider the Lord of the Rings and fiction in general. They also involve both the psychology of the reader and writer. I remember reading a short story by Terry Brooks in the Shanarra universe and remembering why I dislike it. For his stories with magic or technology, it matters not which, is only useful when used to oppose a great evil and then it's best never used again because, y'know, moderation is impossible in life. For all the books he's written that world has not improved much -- that might be an equally valuable lesson to observe.

The problem with paranoia either real, or written into fiction, is that quite often the methods of mass killing aren't that new or exotic. Death, like electricity, usually chooses the path of least resistance. And that doesn't usually involve an expensive version of a known virus when ordinary bullets will do. And if that's thinking too small then bombs, and then bigger bombs with chemical or nuclear payloads (more hardy then biological vectors and nominally controllable). Anyway the point is that the smallpox stockpile story comes up like a weed, and the paranoid theories follow. It's possible that we're going to all die via Stephen King's super-flu (pox?), but it's highly unlikely unless you can stop by the 7-11 and purchase a strain.

I ran Google Latitude for several months. Most of the time it reported me several states away in the default location it stores. We'll probably get to the level of accuracy required for 1984 level monitoring, but for now all these paranoid cases generally are best case implementations of common GPS/Cellphone tech. So join me in the countryside if you want to be safer from monitoring.