Ok, so Twitter is out. Boo hoo. Is it going to bring food shortages? Is it gonna shut down our electric grid? Is it going to interrupt our defense system? Give me a fu%*&ng break and get a real life people.

Did anybody say people have flown into a panic? Or is it just that a major site has gone down unexpectedly?

you seem to be the only one worked up about it.

I wonder what all the TWITS are going to do?!

Apparently it was some sort of cyberattack. It hit FB too. Oh well, my acct is semi-working now.

But my question is, why are people so passionate about disliking Twitter. Either dislike it and dont use it, or think its cool and do. Who has time to be a passionate anti-Twitter scrooge?

I wonder what Perez Hilton is going to do now if he gets his a$$ kicked again by the black eyed peas now that twitter is down? How is he going to call for help?

Oh no! National emergency! Twitter's down!

Maybe people will have to actually talk to other people for one morning. Or use the phone.

I wish Twitter would go down permanently.

Well, while you use the phone, other people will talk online. How is online communication ANY different than communication by phone?

Seriously WHO CARES! I bet all the Z list celebs like Kim Kardashian and Drew Lachey are freaking out about now cause no one can hear what they have to say...guess what no one cares. THere are so many different outlets for communication i think twitter is the least effective one. Try using a cell phone for talking.

I would take this opportunity to say there is help out there for all of Twitters Twits. Who feel compelled to tweet abt everything and anything. LoL I understand these sites can be addictive like Myspace and Facebook. I just dont understand how people can use them knowing they are constantly playing russian roullette with their private info. Hackers can access ur computer put spyware on them cell phones are just as vulnerable to these attacks (after all they run on software that can be hacked also)

Zoya I would take this opportunity to say there is help out there for all of Twitters Twits.

There's always China's internet addiction program. They will literally beat the twitter out of you.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32313206/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Finally someone with a sense of humor where have u been!

On twitter.

See .. they don't have to blow up our buildings and kill our people .. want to really hurt us?.. shut down Twitter and FaceBook. They'll have people running around in a daze because they can't think, act, or communicate in person. American will be at their mercy. Geesh .. don't these people have jobs and real lives? Robots .. we're becoming a society of little robots.

To be quite honest, I can understand how this happened, but what I can't understand is why the attackers chose a DDoS attack. The only reason i can imagine this being chosen over so many flaws in Ajax programming, is simply the amount of effort they needed to put forth. ANYONE can google ddos applications, and start bombing sites immediately. Though, twitter, much like the facebook infrastructure programming, it is incredibly vulnerable to a wide variety of attacks from self procalimed "hackers". To me it's no surprise they indeed, were attacked. As their site is growing rapidly more and more each day, there are just many people out there who don't see a use for either facebook or twitter.

WARNING !!--WARNING!!....It was the Government installing Tweet reading software to go along with the (ILLEGAL) flag@whitehouse.gov site to collect info on anti-ObamaCare Tweeters.....Be careful what you write, Big Brother is monitoring your Tweets !!! The Snitches are EVERYWHERE !!

Maybe now your date will actually look up and see who she went out with.........

TWITTER TWATIE TAW who cares anyhow?

The site is a marketing strategy that addicts you to check in and get ads shot at you all day. Dependance on such a medium is a disease in itself, an addiction.

Look at the other companies like yahoo, used to be "big air", until google took the air away. Billions of dollars for a small application on a server array. The deal? get you on there with mass marketing and a tweeky phrase and wammo.... You are getting more commercials and spam.

I have not and never will twit any twater. twake it or tweet it.

A. Blunt - the problem was a Denial of Service - not a Trojan or worm...it was not a programming flaw but a communication exploit.

And yea people this is easy to defend from and it happens every day in the corporate world. Microsoft, Dell, Exxon-Mobile, Shell, Continental Airlines, Yahoo, Amazon have networking infrastructure people who deal with this problem on a daily basis. If they didn’t have this group in their IT department, I would not be surprised if the CIO was looking for another job. If I am not mistaken FaceBook fired their CIO recently.

They are not the same people who you speak to when you call the helpdesk, also when something like this does happen you are not only tasked to stop the attack but also find out where it is coming from. The good ones can track you down in less than 15min...but i mean these people get paid

There might be only one or two security experts in a company but just like CSI they can rip open a single IP packet and figure out the true origin no matter what you do to mask it. If twitter would have hired the right people, we probably would not be reading this story.

You get what you pay for

snake09, Zoya, There's always China's internet addiction program. They will literally beat the twitter out of you.

that would have been funny if someone did not die as a result.

If everyone just knew how fragile all of this technology really is. A minor (not major) example would be if you could not use anything that uses electricity for a week (including your car/truck/SUV, public transportation). Instead of that example, think about not having anything that uses computer codes (programing) or computer chips (all microprocessors, not just computer processors) (that includes the silcone wafers used to make photovoltaic). This would also include "fly by wire" modern aircraft falling out of the sky with complete loss of control. All of this can be knocked out permanently by a solar flare or (tuned) EMP/EMR Burst with EMP/EMR being more common than most using this technology would want to believe (example: Unshielded distributor wires on vehicle or ungrounded electric motor creating static on a tube type Television detecting this EMP/EMR). And as used as a weapon during the First Gulf War to kill Iraqis Command Control Communications and Control Systems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_bomb

note unlike the movies, this is not a extemely large weapon, with the Russians/Chinese using more expensive vaccum tube technology less susceptable to EMP/EMR, in their current Military Equipment. Prior to the fall of the USSR, it was rumored through US Intelligence that the USSR had developed a EMP/EMR, non nuclear, handgrenade, this was researched by US DARPA with no disclosed results (nor confirming or denying this research, as Top Secret SCI).

Mike in Delray. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling". Get a clue. Major Corporations have already been installed monitoring software and fired people for posts on all kinds of sites, and your point is?

All of you have been upset by US Government "Monitoring" under Bush, and yet you do not give a rats arse that the current administration made this legal, with March 2009 H.R.1955 and S.1959, to the extent of even telling youtube (prior to passage) that they must adhere to censorship or face permanent closure and prosecution (didn't you wonder why youtube changed February 2009).

As indicated by these "No Such Agency" News Reports, these are only some of their Capabilities. If you have no computer knowledge, think about computers that can process teraflops per nanosecond (actual speed is classified Top Secret SCI)(a comparison as to capabilities would be the first electric calculators versus a current generation supercomputer).
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1616513n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1609277n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1703773n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Some clarification that the Newsmedia will NEVER figure out unless they talk to us "dinosaurs" (been around forever like these guys, Bill Joy, Mitchell Kapor, Esther Dyson, David Bunnell, John Doerr, Bill Gates, Stewart Alsop, Charles House,Lawrence Tesler, Pat McGovern, Bob Frankston, Steven Paul Jobs, Stephen Gary Wozniak, Lawrence Joseph Ellison, Paul Allen, Ken Olsen, Harlan Anderson, William Foster, Edward Friedkin, Russell Planjizer, Philippe Kahn, Heidi Roizen, Ed Juge, Dave House, David Liddle, John Markoff, Pamela McCorduck, John Armstrong,James Clark, Samuel Fuller, John Warnock, John Shock, Heidi Roizen,Andy Rappaport, Bill Machrone, Bill Joy,Neil Colvin, Andy Grove, Nicholas Negroponte, Andy Herzfeld, Joseph Alsop, Seth Godin, Walt Mossberg, Ken Wasch, Mike Zisman, Robert Ziff, Marc Andreesen, Scott Cook, Bill Krause, Michael Slade, Denise Caruso, John Ratzenberger (guest host)).

"Hackers", pro technology, hate those that create problems for technology. Condons the "responsible use of technology". Knowledgeable about how technology works (enabling them to use this technology without restrictions). Majority of the time they will "hack" into a computer for bragging rights (like mountain climbing), without damaging anything requiring extraordinary skills, only proof that they did this is an "electronic calling card" (if they feel like leaving one). They are also aware of all the traps that are used to detect, or capture them (including electronic surveillance (monitoring))(they also know traces take nanoseconds, not seconds nor minutes as depicted in the movies). Hackers usually, employed by Governments if good enough (skills).

"Crackers", anti technology, perform malicious damage to any technology. Crackers are the mortal enemy of Hackers due to giving Hackers a bad reputation. Crackers usually do not take responibility for actions believing that they will "never" get caught. Usually not knowledgable about the technology that they attack, and lack the skills to do so, usually accomplish attacks using rogue programmers downloads from the internet (as Crackers usually have no computer programming knowledge). Usually if Crackers are attempting to gain information, due to a lack of skill, they will trash the source (target) to cover their tracks. Crackers usually, prosecuted by Governments, with H.R.1955 and H.R.1959 now considering US Crackers as "Homegrown Domestic Terrorist"(enabling all the resources (Intelligence Agencies, US Military, Law Enforcement) of the US to apprehend and prosecute them).

This is just like the wikipedia definition of "mouse (computing" stating that it was name mouse because of the connecting cord, and not because it was an ancronym for Movable Object User Interface and that SRI Team (17 Researcher) under contract to the US Government (ARPA (now DARPA), NASA, and USAF) actually "invented" the Mouse, not the individual Douglas Engelbart (as Douglas Engelbart did not even know why it was called a "mouse", documented (boring) video presentation to NASA):

Doug Engelbart_The Demo 1968, to NASA. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8734787622017763097 (unedited like the Stanford archives).

And that according to the ancestors (forefathers and foremothers of current computer and computer periphials) asked about what the acronym mouse meant, and the bonus question was what is the plural of "mouse" is "mouses" with Steven Jobs Team getting the answer wrong, and after laughter from the audience, stated, "We (Apple) did not invent the thing (mouse), we just bought it (rights)". And Steward Cheifet stating that "mice" is a small furry rodent, with four legged, and a tail. More laughter from audience. This is like dictionaries wrongfully defining "sushi" as raw fish versus the correct definition stated at dictionary. com and wikipedia.

The Computer Chronicles Computer Bowls I-X "Superbowl of Computer Trivia" hosted by Steward Cheifet

http://www.archive.org/details/computerchronicles

Resulting in the wrong information being put out by wikipedia due to the lack of knowledge of the poster of "mouse (computing)" and refusal to allow corrections (based on unedited documented video records). This is how easy it is to misinform or revise history based on "opinon" (don't confuse me with the documented facts) as part of that fragile technology (with misinformation). Example: I don't like your facts so I will delete them ("ommission of fact(s)", legalese term for a lie(s)).

Don't believe me go look for yourself at my references.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse

I have to agree with Snake,, like this is the end of the world,, Gesshhh,, thats why nothing is getting done anymore in the offices,, what we have now, is people showing up for work,, claiming to their friends and family that they are so-called working,, when thery are on this stupid thing called twitter,, tweeting with their friends or whoever , while at work and calling that work - - Ya, I worked today,, well actually I just went in and spent about 2 actual hours working,, the other 5 hours I was tweeting and Face fREAKING MY FRINDS AND THEN TOOK AN HOUR FOR LUNCH,, BUT i WORKED TODAY,,,,, what a joke, what these office penguins call work now days,,, now whenever you call a company,, all you get is a recorded message,, and press this button, listen to another recording, and press this number - we'll have to put you on hold , your waiting time is like 15 minutes while our employees - finish tweeting with their friendisies,, on Twitter and Face Freak,, so, please be patient and continue to hold,, feel free to Tweet or Face-Off or what ever,,, we'll be with in a few short weeks,, Thank You !!!!! Welcome to Corporate America,,, new way of doing business and actually employing whats referred to as Corporate Welfare for the College Bunch, who think thats considered actually work !!

add to the above for humor not offense.

"Hacker(s)" being predecessors, forefathers, foremothers of "geeks","nerds", "technophiles".

"Crackers" wanna be "hackers" with no skills.

________________________________________________________________

Seriously. About the mouse (computing) definition, "two wrongs do not make a right", or everyone naming you a "butt head" does not make that your real name. Frequency of wrong usage (definition) does not make something right.

Things like this are important because I believe in truth as truth. Not as perceived by Lawyers who are trained to win their arguements, orations, debates, etc. by making facts (truth) "irrelevant" and accepting "ommissions of facts (lies)" in their place by twisting the Socratic Method (used by their mortal enemy Philosophers as a teaching tool) for financial or Political gain. These are the guys you keep electing to Congress.

Get real people! I for one wish they would shut it all down. I know of so many kids, teenagers with their grades dropping in school because of all this technology crap. Kids can't even spell anymore. This stuff is ruining society and family time.

Interesting.  I didn't hear anything about My Space being attacked.  If it's only these other two, I wonder who's really behind it? 

And although I agree too much time on these sites is not good, they are valuable.  Some parents even use it to keep in contact with their kids who are away at University (and can't afford a cell phone or long distance calls).

In regards to "Sicken's" reply...  It cannot ruin family time if the parents put down the rules.  It is the parents' responsibility to tell kids how long to be on the computer period, including Facebook, etc. 

By the way, I'm in my 40's so you can't say this is a kid trying to justify herself.  I used this to keep in contact with my son, his friends, and my family.  I can't afford a cell phone or long distance calls. 

Heels, you're the kind of person who sickens me. "I'm on Twitter all the time" "I have the so many tweets I need to get out, lol"
Seriously, that is disgusting. That site is just a new fix for narcissistic burks like you! We Britt's have a word the I'm going to repurpose for wankers like you; twat. You are a twat, anyone who uses Twitter with regularity is a twat. Anyone who has to write a mini-blog about how they just took a crap for the first time in 3 days is a twat.
I for one applaud the hackers! Nothing is more just than tearing people from the pathetic excuse they brandish in place of a life, be it drugs or a computer.
And don't assume that I'm some old man with issues against technology. I'm a 23 year old critic under the employ of Guitarworld magazine.

brian, you are a 23 yr old that just thinks like a crotchety old man, which is really sad.

I don't use twitter or facebook, or any social networking sites, and would like to see the scum that attacked the sites shot and left out on permanant display for all to see.

Trust me, this hacker is the best thing thats gonna happen to the US. He is gonna bring down the obesity rate here in America. He is also going to improve childrens grades and bring down stupidness as well. He is going to save taxpayers a lot of money in obesity related health care. He is gonna make Americans a lot more productive. That is our future and it looks good.

I honestly don't know what a twitter is, but I think the point is, the country is mad and rightfully so.

AGAIN.....my comments from yesterday on this SCAM called Obamacare seem to have mysteriously disappeared.

People like to throw the word "hater" around alot these days.......

I can honestly say, NOW, I hate Obama and his entire back-asswards administration.

It's almost inconceivable to think the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES is trying to manipulate the public with these Marxist tactics. What the hell happened to the US?

snake09, on comment 1.26, you say "trust me"

on the internet, that is the same as saying"I'm gonna screw you"

But then people who have to realize that other's don't really care that much about every trivial event that happens in thier lives.

Actually, I'm keeping track of Eddie Izzard on Twitter. He's running all the way around the UK to raise money for a part of Comic Relief called Sport Relief. He tweets where he's at and posts pictures of who he meets on the way. It's actually pretty inspiring and an amazing feat. So far he's run 10 marathons (26 miles EACH) in 10 days.

Something tells me you've been had Nyx. If he was really busy running around the UK, some 26 miles day you said, I don't think he would have the time or energy to "tweet" every day.
Just think about it.
Not saying it's impossible. Just that it's incredibly unlikely. Not too mention that twitter takes all of the charm out of nearly anything in my book.

I suggest you gather your family and only things you can carry in person and head to an underground bunker or shelter. As soon as the masses cannot know what their "buddies" are up to at that exact time all hell will raise upon the world. Non perishable food items such as canned and jerky and weapons and ammunition are a must.

Can I be in ur bunker I dont eat much

Ok, but I only have doritos, twizzlers and an ipod shuffle for entertainment.

snake09, for someone who passionately condemns people who use twitter, even though you can´t appreciate the sarcasms of their posts, you do seem to spend an excessive amount of time on Newsvine.

That's because im at work. I only use the computer there. After I complete everything it gets boring. Other than that when I go home I actually "physically" go see my friends. No twitter, no myspace, none of that cr@p. I go play basketball, or hit the gym. I actually do something productive.

Maybe some people. Meanwhile, Robulator and I will be writing comments on Newsvine. ;)

Yes, Sniffle TX...lol...good point and you are correct...at least , to a certain degree, newsvine is somewhat more intellectual and productive that Twitter or Facebook.

LMAO......i totally agree....I work for a call center, and when I pass by some peoples desk...what do I see on their screens? Twitter, facebook, or myspace....you are absolutely correct!!!

Fergie1981. this is exactly what I was attempting to explain about people knowing how technology works. A "hacker" or in this case a less knowlegable "systems administrator" would have locked down their computers to prevent accessing Twitter, facebook, or myspace. A "hacker" as a systems administrator would have plugged into the network and (remotely) locked all of the "workstations" down at once. The less knowledgeable systems administrator would have gone to each "workstation" and done the lockouts.

Its funny how a lot of these people have tons of friends on tweeter or facebook yet they dont have a single friend in the real world.

Kaleli - EXACTLY!!! As someone who has had their identity stolen you won't find me putting anything about my life on these sites. Why would you??? I don't get it!

...and with the whole "friend' collecting thing snake09 is right on the money. These 'friends' you have found will not be there for you when you need them!

The whole thing is just silly!

Kaleli, maybe I have a higher standard for "friend", having been in the US Military (forever). My non textbook definitions based on experience:

Friend = someone willing to die for or in my place (usually by this definition most only have 10 or less "real friends"). Knows thought processes (usually taking decades to learn, especially as amount of knowledge/experience continually increases). Reason why in Special Warfare most on Teams become "Friends" out of necessity (after years) or are "peered out" of that Team. As a "trait" of a "Friend" knowing hates and dislikes (as not to "push the wrong button") and anticipating things like "what Friend is going to do or want".

Acquaintance = someone that I know or knows me. Might sacrifice some personal comforts only if can see some reason or personal gain. No knowledge of thought processes. Trait of "Acquaintance" "pushes the wrong buttons" without knowing.

I wish they would shut down twitter permanently! Boo hoo who freaking cares!! I never use twitter! Keep up the great work hackers!

Video killed the radio star, Twiiter/Facebook killed the "human" conversation. I guess its too much to ask that people use their brains to creat a full on thought rather than sentence fragments, though i suppose with all th anti- this and anti- that drugs out there thats how some people may think...which is regretfully unfortunate. I must say that I do agree with you DTeezy.

I agree also. Young people today have no about how to construct a sentence and spell correctly. Punctuation? What's punctuation? They are glued to their little black or purple or pink devices, fingers going a mile a minute, never looking up, totally unaware of the world around them. We've created little robots. Who started this mess anyway? I think it all started with "Pong". Remember Pong?

T. LawrenceI still have one of those Pong consoles that hooks up to a Television set. Of course to offset this I ended up in the US Military (and contrary to popular belief, we are NOT little robots in the US Military. Especially, in Special Warfare, in that we know and condone the "I"'s in Team, Imitative, Individuality, Innovation, Ingenuity, Integrity, etc.. This is how I know someone has no real knowledge of Leadership when they say, "There is no I in Team" (referring to a Sports Team (a game), that can go home after a loss, and the highest paid player is the Team. With us returning in flag drapped metal coffins if we lose (life or death, not a game)).

The real reason that we have the problems that we do, as you have mentioned.

US Education, highest paid, lowest International results (Reference International Ratings, US near bottom). This makes US Educated people non competitive worldwide. There are mitigating factors like money diverted to teach mandatory English as a Second Language (ESL)(before anyone criticizes this, look at the USDs spent, that should have been used elsewhere). Lack of authority for US Educators to handle disciplinary problems, like before we dropped down the International Ratings; and US Schools being used as "babysitters" and those non conformist students being "doped up" for things that did not exist prior to the invention of those Pharmaceuticals (cha ching $$$$ as a motive)(some Doctors, less scruples, receive incentives, and free "samples" for diagnosis and prescription).

You have and use your computer/internet but you don't have a cell phone. Even my dad has a cell phone and he is completely computer illiterate. Do you use your e-mail???

I have a cell phone, but I don't use it much. Most of my cell phone conversations are just things like letting my wife know when to expect me, check if there is anything that was needed at the store. We didn't even bother with cell phones much until she got pregnant, then I really wanted us to be able to get ahold of each other at a moments notice.

But cell phones do have a downside. They allow us to talk to people at any time, and that's not always a good thing. It can detract from the activities you're doing. It's annoying when you get together with some friends to play board games, and you sit around waiting because someone has to keep taking every call. Pay attention to the people you're with.

I noticed that too. Perhaps now I can get some reading done.

What makes you think Twitter users dont have real lives?

#121 They twitter.

OH!!! So talking to your friends online about your life = you have no friends and no life.

And finding out the news LONG before the MSM picks it up means you are totally disconnected to the real world.

Interesting train of thought...

I would make bet that you wear a tinfoil hat to.

Tinfoil hat? Naw... It would mess up my pretty curls I work so hard to maintain.

Have you ever been to Twitter? Do you have ANY idea what goes on there? Im willing to bet that people on Twitter find out about breaking news LONG before you hear about it. How does it feel to know that your supposed "tinfoil hat wearing dorky acne ridden teens" knew about major US and world news hours before you did?

That's great heelsnhair, but who the hell has time to check Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or anything else that's out there? Sorry, but I have way much more important S**t to do than spend all day talking to my "friends". Has this really messed up anybody's day that much?

Uhhh... mostly students or people who sit in offices all day and watch the clock tick by. Its not really a place for the older population. People who have time to talk to their friends on Twitter talk to their friends on Twitter. If you dont, then you dont.

Do you you really need and want to know when I am going to take a s--t

No, no I do not. But I would be interested in hearing about a party, the latest news as it occurs, some funny story that happened last night, the latest sports scores, or if the movie I plan to see later is any good.

Only LAMES follow people they dont know. Most people just add their friends and carry on conversations JUST like you would on AIM or on the phone.

Oh no, to be called a lame. I detect a certain amount of insecurity with the whole twit/face thing....

At least you use it for legitimate, useful, and productive purposes. Unlike those losers that spend all day on twitter to let their friends know they just ran out of sh#* paper. Remember Perez Hilton? He got whooped and the first thing he did is run to tweeter to call for help. Now apart from what you use it for, I dont see another purpose for it.

snake09,

Unlike those losers that spend all day on twitter.

just like you on Newsvine heh snaek ole boy.

thats not good... we might not be superior in education anymore! (sarcasm)

The criminals responsible for this are probably 13. While I agree with you on hurting businesses and such, I don't think anyone has been effected financially here.

Got that right, what a lonely skank

And yet you post on a message board.

But I don't feel the need to try to make myself feel or look superior by mocking it and those who use it.

Mr Hacker can you do it on a permanent basis ?

You want that done (illegal activity) do it yourself. Google Search "Denial of Service Software".

See post number 1.19 as to the consequences (beyond "criminal prosecution") if you are caught and are a US Citizen.

It just brought down our missile defense system.

snake09 That is based on UNIX, AIX.

I can see a use for twitter. However, there would have to be a personal interpretation of "important" (with responsibility, the "R" word, tonnes of sarcasm).

Say someone twits that they got food poisoning at a specific location. And many others twitt the same information. (Not used by a rival to discredit nor shut down that specific location). And the flock (see symbol for twitter) of twits knows to stay away. Leading to an investigation. Finding out that there is a nationwide food contamination.

This would be asking too much, asking for people to take responsibility. And filter out that when they took a crap is not important (unless there was something seriously wrong like hemorrhaging from hemorragic fever).

errata to above: tweets, not twits nor twitts. As not to be a hypocrite to my posts at 1.19 or 1.21.

Yea, because hackers are the biggest problem facing the world. Maybe if people would wake up and stop wasting time (their own and usually their employer's) and think a little, stupid crap like the recession wouldn't have happened in the first place. Oops, nope can't do that, we are too busy tweeting or whathaveyou.

Hackers are a big problem. How do you think identity theft happens? People hack into these big company servers and steal personal information, which can ruin someone's life.

Hackers aren't to be praised, and they are a big problem.

GT ACE, JeffWK, MagnoliaSimms, etc. see definition of "Hackers" versus "Crackers" at post 1.19.

And just like the misuse of these terms. Are your names "butt head". see post 1.19 (bottom) and 1.21 about frequency of misuse does not make this right.

GT ACEI agree with you about International Laws, pertaining to the destructive "Crackers"; however, the US set an International Legal Precedent by not requiring (Politically demanding, with sanctions) the prosecution of the young Filipino that shut down the entire world with the W32. Blaster Worm variant (actually crashed and trashed Hard Drives becoming non formattable). And yes, the southern Philippines is Muslim, yet, nothing happened to him and was even praised by "Crackers" (not "Hackers").