Saturday 4 April 2009

An ex-hacker’s thoughts on the Dalai Lama and democracy

“In our world, democracy is something that powerful nations impose on the weak. Equality, law and democracy do not exist between them. Does the US deal with Yugoslavia and Iraq in a democratic way?

1 comment:

Guanyu said...

An ex-hacker’s thoughts on the Dalai Lama and democracy

Stephen Chen
4 April 2009

Lin Lin is a former hacker and founder of EvilOctal, a leading mainland hackers’ community with nearly 180,000 members. But he is hesitant to directly comment on a Canadian report that an organised hacking network on the mainland infiltrated computers around the world.

“It is a very sensitive issue, so anything I say is strictly my personal opinion. I do not represent the entire mainland hackers’ community. Irresponsible speculation and guesswork have already hurt many people,” Mr. Lin said. But hackers have political views, too.

“I dislike the Dalai Lama,” he said. “The Chinese government’s propaganda has nothing to do with it. I have climbed over the ‘wall’, read many books and documents, and tried to think critically about the history of Tibet from the very beginning.

“I have no problem with his faith. I just despise him as a person.

“Democracy is good if everyone follows its doctrine to respect others. If you have an opinion, maintain it. But at the same time, you must also defend the rights of your opponents to speak. But there is no democracy in politics. Politics is selfish.

“In our world, democracy is something that powerful nations impose on the weak. Equality, law and democracy do not exist between them. Does the US deal with Yugoslavia and Iraq in a democratic way?

“Therefore, why shouldn’t I support my country? The Japanese backed their nation’s invasion of other nations. My patriotic actions [of hacking] were child’s play compared with theirs. The United States still plays a dominant role in the world’s science and technology, including information security.

“In China, awareness of the need to defend our cyberspace is lacking. Ordinary citizens do not value their information very much. Once they get hacked, they simply reinstall the operating system. The central government has stressed the need for cyberspace security, but local authorities rarely enforce the rules and security loopholes abound.

“But it does not mean that the US is already the winner and China the loser. Warfare in cyberspace is about discovering the other’s weakness. China can employ some good strategies to defeat a seemingly powerful opponent.

“I am no longer a hacker. I run a small internet security company, doing some serious stuff. I no longer hack into other country’s websites because nobody gets paid for this. But I do miss the good old days.”