Myth of the Hacker
The 1960s hacker, a term that was originally a referent to a good person with computer wizardry, has come full circle into the 1990s. Through media representations and the formation of hacker icons, modern hackers are mythologized as the good hacker.
The original hackers of MIT belonged to a group of privileged individuals; they operated during a time when computers were not a household item. Hacking, for this generation, began as an intellectual pursuit as well as a way to pull elaborate pranks. The progression of hacking was limited because computer networking had not been completely implemented into society.
In the 1980s, hackers reidentified and renamed themselves rebels; computer bandits who worked to infiltrate the network. With the advent of 80s hacking, cult icons were created in this seemingly underground group of renegades. Such names as Condor and Pengo became worldwide gurus to aspiring hackers.
Such icons have also found their way into mainstream media, namely television and film. The very popular film War Games (1983) became a beacon for many modern day hackers; it considered the inventiveness and connectedness of humans and computers, but also went as far as to show how unsecure the government could be. In War Games it is youth that devours computer knowledge and obtains infiltrating power. This new generation of hackers, who seek to know that which is hidden, is portrayed as a boy. The limits become unbounded; it is not just those who are taught at MIT who can hack. What of those who continue to seek access?
The 1990s saw a great consumer demand for hacker narratives. Television shows such as The X-Files position hackers fighting against a well-informed government. The X-Files perpetuates the media myth that hackers are a subculture. These are intelligent men who are outcasts of mainstream society. They form an underground culture hidden from view, continuously weary of government plots. The X-Files series also plays up the role of the hacker as humanitarian. They work to find the truth buried in the network by the government. This role of hacker as humanitarian searching for truth becomes a recurring theme in other films.
The 1992 film Sneakers is one example of this hacker narrative. The lead role, played by Robert Redford, has a history as a student when his hacking lands his friend in jail and himself into a new life where he has to change his name. He starts a business which hires itself out and attempts to infiltrate/hack security systems of its client(s).
What may have started as a seemingly boring and meaningless computer check up and accounting problem, turned into an investigation and search for a military spy for the KGB. It seems that the more that the technical revolution grows and gets relied on more, the level of security becomes necessary to grow past it. It seems to be an ongoing battle to protect and monitor information from possible threats and hackers.
In reality, most hackers are ordinary people with a great deal of curiosity, above-average skills with a computer, a good understanding of human nature, and plenty of time to kill. Hackers have no distinguishing characteristics. Your next-door neighbor could be a hacker, as could your niece or nephew, one of your co-workers, or even the kid who serves you coffee in the morning. Not all hackers are dangerous and out to destroy business or damage lives. The view of the general public toward hackers is mixed. A recent CNN-poll shows 33% of respondents labeling hackers as "useful," 17% seeing them "as a menace," and the majority (45%) seeing hackers as "both" useful and a menace (CNN, 1999).
Our generation is the first to travel within cyberspace, a virtual world that exists with all the computers that form the global network. For most people today, cyberspace is still a bewildering and alien place. How computers work and how they affect our lives is still a mystery to all but the experts, but expertise doesn't necessarily guarantee morality. Originally the word hacker meant computer enthusiasts but now that the internet has revealed its potential for destruction and profit the hacker has become the outlaw of cyberspace. Not only do hackers commit crimes that cost millions of dollars, they also publicize their illegal techniques on the net where innocent minds can find them and be seduced by the allure of power and money.
When you think of hackers, you probably think of someone who is a little older, someone who's profession is working with computers.
The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling is a book that focuses on the events that occurred on and led up to the AT&T long-distance telephone switching system crashing on January 15, 1990. Not only was this event rare and unheard of it took place in a time when few people knew what was exactly going on and how to fix the problem. There were a lot of controversies about the events that led up to this event and the events that followed because not only did it happen on Martin Luther King Day, but few knew what the situation truly entailed. There was fear, skepticism, disbelief and worry surrounding the people that were involved and all of the issues that it incorporated. After these events took place the police began to crackdown on the law enforcement on hackers and other computer based law breakers. The story of the Hacker Crackdown is technological, sub cultural, criminal, and legal. There were many raids that took place and it became a symbolic debate between fighting serious computer crime and protecting the civil liberties of those involved.
It is difficult to define cyberculture because its boundaries are uncertain and applications to certain circumstances can often be disputed. The common threads of defining cyberculture is a culture which has evolved and continues to evolve from the use of computer networks and the internet and is guided by social and cultural movements reflective of advancements in scientific and technological information. It is not a unified culture but rather a culture that exists in cyberspace and is a compilation of numerous new technologies and capabilities, used by diverse people in diverse real – world locations. Cyberculture, a twentieth century phenomena, has brought challenges unlike any other that the United States has seen in the areas of cyber security and its impact on our most critical institutions. This presentation will focus on the aforementioned three entities where national security is in jeopardy in part due to cyberculture and its intentional use for disruptive and destructive purposes. Breaches of security to the United States Department of Defense, the national power grid and the Chamber of Commerce are very real and omnipresent.
The documentary Rise of the Hackers, focuses on the rising criminal use of hacking and how it is effecting multiple areas of technology. The documentary describes simple and complicated situations concerning hacking, but there still questions that must be answered when it comes to hacking and crime. The main question is in trying to determine why a person would choose to commit computer hacking. There are various theories already present within the criminal justice system that may explain at a micro-level and macro-level. These theories would explain why offenders would commit the crimes, but it may not answer the full scope of the question. The Routine Activities Theory would help to explain why offenders offend, why victims are victimized,
Hacking has two primary definitions; the first refers to the enthusiastic and skilful use of computers to solve problems (Techterms, 2013); the second, to “gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). In the context of this essay the second definition is more appropriate and will be the meaning inferred throughout. This definition also more closely aligns with legal terminology used in the UK when describing the hacking of computers. The Computer Misuse Act (1990) introduced three criminal offenses:
In The Hacker Wars documentary, the author Vivien Lesnik Weisman introduced Andrew Auernheimer, also known as “Wee. People in this documentary described as the Internet troll because he will do anything to troll people who are using the Internet. Andrew Auernheimer hacked AT&T server and revealed the weakness in its security structure of AT&T server. He was sentenced three and half years in prison by broke into AT&T website and stole more than 100,000 of iPad users’ data. He explained that he added one number to the end of AT&T’s web server URL and it exploded the login information of the iPad’s users.
The Ted Talk presented by Catherine Bracy took the word hacking to another level. A new way of looking at a hacker. A hacker meaning much more than a teen behind a computer trying to steal information. The points she brought out is that reaching out to the people can get things done and strengthen relationships between people and an organization and through that relationship both parties are more stable and content. Bracy expressed her experiences with hackers in a government and citizen view, but this can also be applied to personal and
Technology has undergone a revolution which made humans lives simpler and added many benefits to the world. Everyday, technology is constantly being improved and there are new inventions developed to run million-dollar businesses. However, technology can be considered a two-sided blade as it can be used for legitimate purposes as well as for wrongdoing. Almost everyday, countless computers and databases are hacked by cyber criminals who are scattered around the globe. Unknown hackers can range from petty thieves to high level government forces. Aliases are used to keep confidentiality, similar to Henry Dorset from Neuromancer (Gibson), known by the name ‘Case’, who is a cyber space cowboy who steals from many companies and private organizations around the world. Stealing information is considered a crime, which may cause international and sometimes personal disputes. Large-scale disputes can be considered very dangerous, which is why violence is a main factor when technology is used in the wrong form. Similar to Case, Jake Sully in Avatar (Cameron) uses a high performance matrix machine, in this case to control the body of an avatar to retrieve and adapt to the avatar race Na’vi race while sacrificing his real-world life, forgetting his own physical and mental awareness. This ultimately causes a large war between the human and Na’vi race. In both fictional sources technology promotes hacking and cyber-warfare, which not only turns into targeting the opposing side in terms of data, but also physical threats. The modern day article “How Does Cyber Warfare Work” shows that these negative aspects of technology also exist in the real world.
Hacking has been around since the birth of computers. When the term hacking was first used, its meaning was not that of how we think of it today. At the origins of computing, a hacker was considered to be just a "creative programmer (Baase, 2003)." Early forms of computer games as well as the beginnings of operating systems were discovered and created by these original hackers. These hackers plunged into systems as a way of an intellectual challenge and to aspire to gain knowledge (Baase, 2003). Kevin Mitnick believes he falls into this realm of hackers. Hackers in today's era are now looked upon as criminals who invade the privacy rights of individuals and have the ability to deliver worms/viruses. The differences are that hackers today have full intentions of delivering terrible viruses and worms. Mitnick was one of the most infamous hackers during the 1980's. He molded his hacking style around the stupidity of humans and his quest for intellectual knowledge. The ways in which he wiggled his way into computer systems extenuates many of the issues surrounding computer security and privacy.
The term “hacker” has been in use since the early 1980’s due to mass media usage to describe computer criminals. The use of this term is vastly used by the general population and most are not aware that there are different meanings to the word. People within the computing community especially within the programming subculture emphasize the use of the term “crackers” for computer security intruders (cyber criminals). Early hackers rarely used their skills for financial gain as a motivation for their criminal behavior in that time cybercrime was infantile and largely seen as a practical joke or game by those who committed it. Bob Thomas created the first credited computer worm n...
In Computer security terminology Hacker is a person or group of persons, who exploit, modify and identify weakness in a computer system or network. Hacker may be motivates of reasons such as profit, protest and challenge. based on attitude, belief, and goals hacker groups are categories such as
The Art of exploring various security breaches is termed as Hacking.Computer Hackers have been around for so many years. Since the Internet became widely used in the World, We have started to hear more and more about hacking. Only a few Hackers, such as Kevin Mitnick, are well known.In a world of Black and White, it’s easy to describe the typical Hacker. A general outline of a typical Hacker is an Antisocial, Pimple-faced Teenage boy. But the Digital world has many types of Hackers.Hackers are human like the rest of us and are, therefore, unique individuals, so an exact profile is hard to outline.The best broad description of Hackers is that all Hackers aren’t equal. Each Hacker has Motives, Methods and Skills. But some general characteristics can help you understand them. Not all Hackers are Antisocial, PimplefacedTeenagers. Regardless, Hackers are curious about Knowing new things, Brave to take steps and they areoften very Sharp Minded..