How would it be possible to protect citizens from being hacked on websites, when political figures would be involved in such illegal activities themselves? The New Jersey mayor and his son were arrested recently on the charges of hacking a website that was about an effort to put him out of his position. According to the FBI, Felix Roque, who was the mayor of West New York, New Jersey, and his 22-year-old son, Joseph tried to illegally cancel the domain name of Recallroque.com.
Some experts are terming this act as a political hacking and there could come about other such cases in the near future. The hacking was done mainly by his son, but both are criminally liable for this act. By searching instructions on the web, he learnt how to penetrate email accounts and GoDaddy.com, the host of the site concerned. What is even more concerning is what he did after taking down the site.
He threatened people who were behind the site and pretended that the government is on his side and will punish those against Roque. Now, these are some high counts of offences that can be put to trial with tough consequences. According to the U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman:
“In this case, the elected leader of West New York and his son allegedly hacked into computers to intimidate constituents who were simply using the Internet to exercise their Constitutional rights to criticize the government.”
However, this freedom and practice of democracy was broken by one political figure. It is an irony to see what goes on officially by the government to trample on these very constitutional rights in the name of national security and defence and not seen in the same interpretation.