6 ms·

1. Foreign hacking groups are often beyond the reach of Western law enforcement. If a domestic threat had been to blame here, there would be legal/financial rec

1. Foreign hacking groups are often beyond the reach of Western law enforcement. If a domestic threat had been to blame here, there would be legal/financial recourse for damage done. That's not the case here. Implicit in this article is the report of a new kind of warfare for which many Americans have no good defense against. 2. Standard editorial racism a la "The Oriental Threat".

greggsy 4y ago
I don’t think number 2 is at play here - the use of Indian hackers-for-hire has been topical in the cyber security industry recently.
- jstarfish 4y ago
  ...and before that, it was synonymous with tech support scams and outsourcing fraud for decades.
4oo4 4y ago
Is that also why this is a civil suit and not criminal charges under the CFAA?
- b112 4y ago
  Civil court has a lower bar for guilt, is one difference.
- Thorrez 4y ago
  Can a victim file charges under the CFAA? I think only the government can do that.
fareesh 4y ago
Indians will read this and not once think of racism Reminds me of the "voter ID is racist" argument
- cuteboy19 4y ago
  No i too was confused why indian needed mentioning
  - fareesh 4y ago
    - Because Indian in this context is not a reference to the ethnicity but of location - i.e. it's not the DNA of the people that is Indian, it's the borders in which they are physically present while hacking. Many are unaware that India has a lot of phenotype diversity in its 1 billion people. There are dark skinned people in the south, light skinned people in the north, and almond shape eyed people in the east. Merely saying "Indian" does not really paint an image of anyone since we all look different, so it's a bit strange to allege racism. - Because just mentioning it adds the following dimensions to the headline: geopolitics, outsourcing, human resources in the developing world, cybercrime & jurisdiction challenges - Because it's allegedly true
    - watwut 4y ago
      Racism does not have to focus on skin color. As a super easy example, with Nazi did not defined races and their hierarchy by color. Also notably, people that have a thong against Indians and Asians I encountered in real life have literally zero idea about internal subdivision. They could not tell sub-groups apart, not by look and not by language. If you have a thing against people from India, it is India in general and you don't care about anything else.
      - fareesh 4y ago
        The publisher here (Reuters) is well aware of everything I've mentioned. They don't need to customize their headlines to modify the reaction of the people you are referencing. Those people should not be leading the decision making process for excluding facts from headlines.
        alex_smart 4y ago
        >They don't need to customize their headlines to modify the reaction of the people you are referencing Why not? Doesn't media regularly customize their headlines to avoid stating factually true things that would propagate negative stereotypes against minorities and other protected groups? I think most responsible media organizations do avoid putting headlines like "Muslim man stabs three in church in Nice". Even if they do mention the religion, it is usually called "Islamic terrorism", and they have also invested quite some significant effort into emphasizing that most of regular Islamic people do not in fact have anything to do with Islamic terrorism. As far as I can tell, media companies certainly seem to be aware of the effect their headlines can have on propagating negative stereotypes and good editorial judgement usually involves an attempt to avoid doing that as much as possible.

greggsy 4y ago

I don’t think number 2 is at play here - the use of Indian hackers-for-hire has been topical in the cyber security industry recently.

jstarfish 4y ago
...and before that, it was synonymous with tech support scams and outsourcing fraud for decades.

4oo4 4y ago

Is that also why this is a civil suit and not criminal charges under the CFAA?

b112 4y ago
Civil court has a lower bar for guilt, is one difference.
Thorrez 4y ago
Can a victim file charges under the CFAA? I think only the government can do that.

fareesh 4y ago

Indians will read this and not once think of racism Reminds me of the "voter ID is racist" argument

cuteboy19 4y ago
No i too was confused why indian needed mentioning
- fareesh 4y ago
  - Because Indian in this context is not a reference to the ethnicity but of location - i.e. it's not the DNA of the people that is Indian, it's the borders in which they are physically present while hacking. Many are unaware that India has a lot of phenotype diversity in its 1 billion people. There are dark skinned people in the south, light skinned people in the north, and almond shape eyed people in the east. Merely saying "Indian" does not really paint an image of anyone since we all look different, so it's a bit strange to allege racism. - Because just mentioning it adds the following dimensions to the headline: geopolitics, outsourcing, human resources in the developing world, cybercrime & jurisdiction challenges - Because it's allegedly true
  - watwut 4y ago
    Racism does not have to focus on skin color. As a super easy example, with Nazi did not defined races and their hierarchy by color. Also notably, people that have a thong against Indians and Asians I encountered in real life have literally zero idea about internal subdivision. They could not tell sub-groups apart, not by look and not by language. If you have a thing against people from India, it is India in general and you don't care about anything else.
    - fareesh 4y ago
      The publisher here (Reuters) is well aware of everything I've mentioned. They don't need to customize their headlines to modify the reaction of the people you are referencing. Those people should not be leading the decision making process for excluding facts from headlines.
      - alex_smart 4y ago
        >They don't need to customize their headlines to modify the reaction of the people you are referencing Why not? Doesn't media regularly customize their headlines to avoid stating factually true things that would propagate negative stereotypes against minorities and other protected groups? I think most responsible media organizations do avoid putting headlines like "Muslim man stabs three in church in Nice". Even if they do mention the religion, it is usually called "Islamic terrorism", and they have also invested quite some significant effort into emphasizing that most of regular Islamic people do not in fact have anything to do with Islamic terrorism. As far as I can tell, media companies certainly seem to be aware of the effect their headlines can have on propagating negative stereotypes and good editorial judgement usually involves an attempt to avoid doing that as much as possible.