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Anytime I see John Markoff's name, I think of the ethical issues in Kevin Mitnick capture, case and book. Has that air been cleared? Time for me also to move on

by lloydde 11y ago

Anytime I see John Markoff's name, I think of the ethical issues in Kevin Mitnick capture, case and book. Has that air been cleared? Time for me also to move on as Mr Markoff work since then has cleared that shadow?

morcheeba 11y ago
I don't think it will ever clear.
kyledrake 11y ago
John Markoff exploited his privilege as a New York Times tech reporter and the general public's ignorance of computer hacking for personal gain, creating the infrastructure that tortured another human being for what ended up being not much more than e-graffiti tagging, trolling a few people, and having access to code that ended up being open sourced anyways. He laid the framework for the ridiculous idea that Kevin Mitnick could "launch nuclear missiles by whistling into a phone", and as a result Kevin was thrown into solitary confinement for 8 months, and then after that he spent the remainder of 5 years in a prison cell without being given the due process of a fair trial: `Mitnick served five years in prison—four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement—because, according to Mitnick, law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone"` As this process unfolded, John Markoff did nothing to attempt to correct for the consequences of his actions, unpollute the public's understanding of hackers, apologize, or do anything. Instead, he continued to defend what he had wrote, knowing full-well that it was completely false information, and signed a book deal that ended up further polluting the public's knowledge of the situation (and being a terrible book, 2.5 stars on Amazon and I'm amazed it's even that high). The shadow is still very much there, and it will continue to stain journalistic ethics for many years to come.

by lloydde 11y ago

morcheeba 11y ago

I don't think it will ever clear.

kyledrake 11y ago

John Markoff exploited his privilege as a New York Times tech reporter and the general public's ignorance of computer hacking for personal gain, creating the infrastructure that tortured another human being for what ended up being not much more than e-graffiti tagging, trolling a few people, and having access to code that ended up being open sourced anyways. He laid the framework for the ridiculous idea that Kevin Mitnick could "launch nuclear missiles by whistling into a phone", and as a result Kevin was thrown into solitary confinement for 8 months, and then after that he spent the remainder of 5 years in a prison cell without being given the due process of a fair trial: `Mitnick served five years in prison—four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement—because, according to Mitnick, law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone"` As this process unfolded, John Markoff did nothing to attempt to correct for the consequences of his actions, unpollute the public's understanding of hackers, apologize, or do anything. Instead, he continued to defend what he had wrote, knowing full-well that it was completely false information, and signed a book deal that ended up further polluting the public's knowledge of the situation (and being a terrible book, 2.5 stars on Amazon and I'm amazed it's even that high). The shadow is still very much there, and it will continue to stain journalistic ethics for many years to come.