I don't know exactly how important this is in terms of the story that was in the news today but here goes.
It was reported today that a fan of the band Linkin Park hacked into singer Chester Bennington cell phone company's website and accessed cell data and then:
obtained copies of Bennington's cell phone bill, the phone numbers he called and digital pictures taken with the phone.
Investigators said she also hacked into the e-mail of Bennington's wife, Talinda Bennington, and at one point called her and threatened her.
These breaches of security happen all the time. Throughout 2006, we've seen various breaches of data involving the VA, troops overseas, and credit card customers, as well as many reports of missing and stolen computers with sensitive data on them, just to name a few.
Reading over this article myself, it was headed towards the "Eh..." category. Let's face it. Nothing is being done really to get a handle on safeguarding our digital and confidential information and really, when it comes down to it, under the aims of the President, all that information is fair game and within easy reach of government officials for assumingly legit (I'll leave that up to debate) operations of intelligence.
So what does some crazed fan have to do with this diary? Like I said, the article really was on it's way to being GIGO when I caught this part of the article;
Sandia National Laboratories develop technology to support national security, according to its Web site.
As I wrote on my blog:
Employees of companies that are involved with national security misusing their equipment and abilities to perform illegal activity. In this case, this person was caught. Who knows what else they did that they weren't caught for but furthermore, who knows what other things are being done to unsuspecting citizens of this country every day for purposes unknown?
I haven't been blogging that much since the election but started posting a couple things just in the last couple days, including today when I posted about the Sandia National Laboratories story.
On a whim, I decided to check my Sitemeter just to see how low my traffic had fallen and who and where people were coming to my site from. That's when I saw this.
Now perhaps it's just other curious employees of Sandia Nat'l. Labs looking to see what kind of coverage this story is getting but if they wanted information, there's plenty of information available on your traditional media outlets.
Why are they looking onto blogs now? Are people asking more of the questions that ought to be asked? What role exacty does Sandia play in the whole 'National Security' field? What types of access do they have and/or what type of equipment do they have to poke and prod at citizens of this country in an attempt to gather intelligence, all in the name of national security?
How big a role do they play in this field? What's their reach? Etc, etc, etc.
Perhaps it's nothing and I'm just being paranoid. I think a little paranoia is at times healthy and the fact that this broke this way has certainly caught my interest. Are these guys big players in the gathering of intelligence both domestically and overseas? Are they invovled with spying on Americans through backdoor methods? Is this story of an employee who happened to have a stalker mentality proof of the capabilities and resources our government has at their disposal to keep tabs on us?
I don't know. Like I said...it was headed to the "ehh..." category. I think I'll keep this one in my mind a little longer now, though and see what I can find.