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Since the downfall of LulzSec, hackers have been busy coming up with wild ideas to outdo their many attention-grabbing stunts from 2011. Then, we wrote about the difference between hacks that simply snatch headlines and hacks that actually affected positive change. But this year, some of the ideas for new modes of disruption are approaching downright insanity -- if not fear-mongering and national security-threatening -- and we doubt most hacking veterans would approve of the approach.
Let's start with the quasi-possible. Tuesday morning, The Wall Street Journal offered up details of a super secret meeting of the National Security Agency. "Gen. Keith Alexander, the director, provided his assessment in meetings at the White House and in other private sessions, according to people familiar with the gatherings," explained The Journal's Siobhan Gorman. "While he hasn't publicly expressed his concerns about the potential for Anonymous to disrupt power supplies, he has warned publicly about an emerging ability by cyberattackers to disable or even damage computer networks." Yikes. A Nor'easter that brings down branches and knocks out the power lines is one thing, but a bunch of geeks crashing your local power company's servers just for fun? That's sorta scary.