So, hackers stealing and playing around with our personal information is so likely that there is now a way for said hackers to actually break into a corporation’s computer system and get rewarded for doing so? All they have to do is fess up to their crime and promise to be a good little hacker from now on and that they’re going to destroy the fruits of all their labor? Does anyone examining the computer make sure that there were no copies made? Or print outs? How can that be done?

Making known a glitch in a system that allows intruders to cherry pick through a customer’s or citizen’s persinal and financial infotmation is all well and good. If that is really the intention of the hack. But that is NOT how these things usually work. And can they REALLY be trusted to ‘delete’ all the info they gathered in their breaking-and-entry spree? And should hackers be rewarded for taking something of value that doesn't belong to them, just like any common thief? I’ll bet this hacker wasn’t motivated by any concern for his fellow man, but cincern for his own financual situation.

Exclusive: Uber paid 20-year-old Florida man to keep data breach secret - sources

By Joseph Menn and Dustin Volz | SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON

A 20-year-old Florida man was responsible for the large data breach at Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] last year and was paid by Uber to destroy the data through a so-called "bug bounty" program normally used to identify small code vulnerabilities, three people familiar with the events have told Reuters.

Uber announced on Nov. 21 that the personal data of 57 million users, including 600,000 drivers in the United States, were stolen in a breach that occurred in October 2016, and that it paid the hacker $100,000 to destroy the information. But the company did not reveal any information about the hacker or how it paid him the money.

Uber made the payment last year through a program designed to reward security researchers who report flaws in a company's software, these people said. Uber's bug bounty service - as such a program is known in the industry - is hosted by a company called HackerOne, which offers its platform to a number of tech companies.

Reuters was unable to establish the identity of the hacker or another person who sources said helped him. Uber spokesman Matt Kallman declined to comment on the matter.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-cyber-payment-exclusive/exclusive...

And I HAVE to throw this paragraph in just because it describes the events in such a TOTALLY STEREOTYPICAL manner that’s this whole situation comes off as really bad comedy:

One source described the hacker as "living with his mom in a small home trying to help pay the bills," adding that members of Uber's security team did not want to pursue prosecution of an individual who did not appear to pose a further threat.

There’s one remark from a teacher that I remember from decades ago in the first computer class I ever took. He said “the biggest flaw with the internet is that it was designed to let people to get INTO whatever they want , NOT to keep anyone OUT. It’s a communications device and that was its original purpose and its original flaw.”

Hell, our medical records info, our tax teturns, and practically every other bit of personal data is out there somewhere. Nothing is secret amymore. All it takes is for someone to figure out how to write the right routine and insert it in an existing program to get it all to spit out. I’m starting envy third world country mud-hut dwellers . They’re lucky not knowing how the ‘best and the brightest’ are screwing everything up. And they still have sonething we’ve voluntarily given up. A reasonable expectation to a ‘semblance’ of privacy.

EDIT: edited last sentence of first paragraph because it made no sense. (twice)