Hacking is one of the leading issues in the 21st century. Perhaps the most egregious acts of hacking involve cyber warfare against large populations through attacks on their highly technology sensitive electric grids, petroleum refineries, manufacturing industry, and flight control systems, as well as agriculture.
Hacking might sound harmless to most people, but in an act of hot war between two modern nations, cyber warfare through hacking might lead to devastation and ruin of entire societies and nations.
There is no international body which has sufficient oversight and regulatory authority to control or prevent such acts of hacking where large populations are put at risk.
There is then the issue of hacking private e-mails and accounts of high profile political or media personalities which can lead to sudden changes in electoral outcomes. For example, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s e-mail was hacked by a private individual. If the act of hacking leads to revelation and dissemination of some highly incriminating or character maligning information on a prominent politician of a powerful country, it may have global consequences.
Even a failed attempt to disrupt the electric grid or flight control system of a country or region under attack can lead to catastrophic consequences on that country’s citizens’ privacy. The victim country might enact draconian measures for cyber control against its own population as well as take retaliatory measures against the infrastructure of the aggressor nation, thus amplifying the misery inflicted on civilian populations.
There might be the possibility that the middle class citizenry might be caught in a vicious cycle, so that cyber-attacks lead to more laws and regulations against privacy, and this might lead to more violation of civil rights, thereby making the country even more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, since it will run out of smart, capable and motivated citizens who might want to zealously defend their country against cyber-attacks.
It must be known that high profile hacking may be a grave threat to privacy.