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New Zealand's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 25th year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

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Political Friday: Key okays hacking?

15 August 2014

I could not believe my eyes this morning when I read a quote from John Key in the NZH.

Mr Key believes it was okay for a staff member to access Labour Party records through a security flaw on the party's website and told the media "of course it would be fine to go and do that" because they were unprotected".

My jaw is still on the floor after that statement.

In fact, this may be the most injurious thing to his reputation that JK has ever said.

I wonder how honest John would feel if there were a security flaw in a server containing his own private details and members of the public were freely accessing that data?

Would that be "fine" because, due to such a flaw, "they were unprotected"?

Once again I'm pretty sure we'd find that there would be one set of rules for Mr Key's data and another set for everyone else's.

Does Mr key believe that if he goes away on holiday and accidentally leaves the door to his house open, people ought to be free to amble in and snoop around inside?

I'm picking that if anyone tried this equivalent of what JK is endorsing with his statement to the media, they'd find themselves arrested and before the courts in no-time flat.

We all know that politicians are hypocrites of the highest order and that they see no wrong in there being two sets of rules (one for them and another for the rest of us). However, this blatant endorsement of what is surely an illegal act of cyber-trespass is the most damning nail in the coffin of his honesty and integrity we've seen to date.

It's time for the people of NZ to wake up to the way they are being disempowered by governments which indemnify themselves and their agents against unlawful acts such as this.

Firstly, we're told that if you are in government or the employ thereof, you can break the law with impunity so long as you have no "criminal intent".

Now we're told that it's okay to hack a political website, so long as there was an exploitable security hole through which you could do so.

Of course if you or I hold a family at gunpoint and take their most valuable possessions we will be banged up double-quick -- even if we had no criminal intent.

And, if we were to hack into the National Party's computers and paw over their most sensitive details you can bet that JK would not suggest for one minute that what we did was okay when we are hauled before a judge for breaches of the Crimes Act.

So, given that the data which was allegedly accessed by Mr Ede was not placed on that computer for the purpose of dissemination to those other than approved persons then, regardless of whether he was *able* to easily access that data, was Mr Ede in breach of 252. In other countries, when the leader of state endorses crimes against the people, it is considered a very serious offense and in a democracy, that leader would be removed from his position of authority.

Let's hope that voters do their job in a few weeks time.

Unfortunately, even if JK is deposed at the ballot box, there simply does not seem to be anyone with better credentials waiting to take his place.

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