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WHEN Marshall McLuhan came up with the idea that the world is a global village, popularised in his books The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) and Understanding The Media (1964), no one would have imagined the role hackers could play in an interconnected world through the internet. Nor could anyone have imagined the kind of havoc the hackers could cause. McLuhan described how the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology and the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time. In bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion, electric speed heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree. McLuhan predicted the internet as an “extension of consciousness” 30 years before its commercialisation. His prediction has come to pass.

Over the years, many people have been hooked onto the internet through the social media seeking one information or the other. A lot of confidential information be it personal, institutional, military software and other professional matters are stored via the internet in computers. This vital information, which could make and unmake governments, institutions and people have become the target of hackers. The truth is that no one who uses the internet is safe from hackers. Consequently, hacking through the internet technology has become a source of worry for the global community. Governments and institutions like banks are vulnerable to hackers some of who can blackmail them with the confidential information obtained on their activities. All over the world, people have had to think about how to keep their software safe from hackers who could wreck havoc without warning and break into high security coded software.  Some government institutions also carry out cyber warfare against perceived enemy countries by sending virus or worm to attack their computers through the internet. The interesting thing about the internet war is that mostly no lives are lost but the damage to programmes or projects could be egregious. Unfortunately, most people who are hooked onto the internet do not know how to protect their computer systems from hackers. As part of our function to inform and educate our readers, the editorial team decided to devote this week’s cover story to the evolving internet warfare and how people can protect their computer systems from harm. The story entitled: Hacking: The Ugly Side of the Internet was ably written by Olu Ojewale, general editor. Enjoy it.

Maureen Chigbo
Editor

— Apr. 22, 2013 @01:00 GMT