In the recent years, politically-motivated hackers have made sensitive information available to bloggers and mainstream media at unprecedented rates. For example, Wikileaks released leaked Afghan war logs and government diplomatic cables. Anonymous individual hacked and released emails from the computer security firm HBGary. A college student gained access to and released emails from Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account. LulzSec hacked into and publicly released confidential data belonging to Sony and others. Most recently, the Antisec movement hacked into over 70 police departments and released confidential emails and other files.
A this time, some important questions to ask ourselves would be as follows:
1. What are some applicable legal issues when publishing information obtained by hackers?
2. Is there any limit on the type of information that may or may not be published?
3. Is it necessary to revise the laws that protect sensitive information?
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