Hackers Attack

So I am beginning to get pretty fed up with hackers these days, those online miscreants who seek to penetrate walls of security and wreak havoc in people's lives online.  In the past few weeks alone, I know four people who have had to completely change email addresses because of hacking.  Two involved accounts being hacked and the hacker trying to play the game of "I'm stuck in London and need money" and the other two involved the hacker using the hacked mailing lists to attempt selling Viagra or some other male enhancement drug.  Now, when it comes to hacking, I am of two minds.  If these hackers had gotten into the servers of Bank of America and screwed up their operating system and wreaked some havoc on the corporate level, I would not have as big of a problem.  But when these people decide to seek out the every day working person and through hacking their accounts create one more headache they have to deal with, I start to have a problem.  Its probably because normal people's email accounts are fairly easy prey compared to the servers of perhaps the most villainous bank in America.  This is not to say that I endorse hackers breaking the law either on the corporate level or personal, I would just have less of a problem if they took out some corporate Goliath.  But perhaps these wizards of online savagery could be put to better use.  Is it too far out of the realm of possibility for our government to hire these hackers and put them to use against foreign regimes currently being ruled with an iron fist?

What if we took these brilliant minds and had them wreak havoc in the Assad regime of Syria or perhaps create a little more tumult in Iran?  Governments have tried repeatedly to persuade regimes such as these to ease up on their harsh tactics or to cease attempting to make nuclear weapons.  I guarantee that if we set hackers on them, we could probably get a lot farther.  Its not as if they don't already hate the United States and Western Europe for our perceived actions and stances when it comes to what they do, so why not inflame them a little more.  We already created Stuxnet, the computer virus that destroyed numerous centrifuges in Iran attempting to purify Uranium.  Why can't we go a step further and completely shut down their computer systems?  Its not outside the realm of possibility, it would just take a lot of effort.  And what about the Great Firewall of China?  They currently have perhaps the most policed Internet in the world, yet we don't make any subversive attempts to take down their firewall.  We just act diplomatically and suggest they do differently.  Obviously any attempt by hackers to take down a foreign countries' servers or Internet service can not be fully endorsed by any government, but perhaps it would start the breakdown of those countries. 

So obviously any attempt by hackers could go tragically wrong and instead of creating a new era of Internet freedom could cause those countries to crack down even harder, but isn't it worth a shot?  I would much rather see an attempt made at Iran or Syria than a continued attempt by hackers to infiltrate the average citizen's online life.  It seems a much more worthy cause to me than to say, "Look at me, I'm using 10,000 email addresses to sell illegal Viagra, I've made the big time!"  Really, is that what hacking has come down to?  But maybe I was never really in touch with what hacking was all about and am just now trying to persuade alternatives upon them.  Hopefully if a hacker is reading this, they understand where I am coming from and can see the headaches they cause for the average online user when they hack those accounts.  (Which I am guessing is part of their agenda)  I am sure that they are not targeting individuals, but rather massive servers containing the info of thousands of users, but hopefully they can see our point of view and perhaps change who they are targeting.  I will probably never know if they do, but I am personally fed up with having people around me deal with changing their email because someone decided to hack in and use it for their own personal agenda.