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Letter: Reasons to hack

Published 17 August 2011

From Matt Black

Alan Hewer’s letter suggests that unlike hackers targeting big companies, no one would be sympathetic to a “burglar claiming to have only broken into your house to point out the inadequacy of your locks” (30 July, p 29).

This stands to reason only if one also accepts the inadequacy of Hewer’s analogy. To remedy this, the owner of the house would have to be charged with looking after the address details and house keys of millions of others around the world. What’s more, instead of using those keys to burgle others, the burglar should reveal his actions to embarrass the house owner into improving their security.

The house owner may not be happy, but their customers certainly should be.

Reading, Berkshire, UK

Issue no. 2826 published 20 August 2011

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