Most people imagine a hacker as some socially awkward kid, usually male, isolated in his parent’s basement. They are also often described as criminals, thieves, or cyber-terrorist. You would be wrong if you also thought the majority of hackers only used their skills to cause harm. That they use their skills to exploit peoples confidential to steal other people’s information. I belief not all hackers should be labeled with the infamous reputation of their namesake. Just like cheaters at a casino, casinos will often times hire the culprits. Having changed sides, the cheaters then use their skills to identify other alleged cheaters. Major corporations worldwide use this same tactic when it comes to hackers. Hackers are constantly monitoring their companies’ network, checking for any vulnerabilities. So, is there such a thing as ethical hacking? Do the ends justify the means? Hacktivism is the the practice of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system and carrying out various disruptive actions as a means of achieving political or social goals (Dictionary.com).
Anonymous, as a group, is best described as a loosely knit group of hackers. “They are kind of the rude boys of hacktivism,” says Gabriela Coleman, Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University (We Are Legion Wiki). The group traces their origins to an online website called “4Chan.” This website is a discussion forum broken down into numerous categories. The “/b/” board, or random board, is a place where users can post comments and pictures anonymously with no restrictions or censors. Hence the name Anonymous, as if all the post on that specific board were posted by one person. Anonymous began as a collective group of pranksters. Their most n...
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...panies, or institutions that revealed their unlawful acts could only be obtained by a hacker. In the case of Hal Turner, lives were probably saved because he was hacked. Taking up the banner of freedom of speech and protesting, like in Project Chanology, should be considered a benevolent act. Exposing the corrupt individuals in power and exposing their abusive plans before they are implemented ultimately serves to better society.
Works Cited
hacktivism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacktivism
We Are Legion (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2014 from the We Are Legion Wiki: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/We_Are_Legion
Know Your Meme. (n.d). Trolling. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from the You’re your Meme website: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/trolling
Catherine Bracy a former Director of Community Organizing for Code for America, whose job was to organize people who had technology knowledge to work together. The title of the Ted Talk presented by Catherine Bracy is “Why good hackers make good citizens.” In the video Bracy talks about a different definition of who a hacker is, she tries to shift focus from a bad person behind a computer to any citizen acting on change. When talking about a citizen acting on change she uses various examples from many instances where they used their definition of a hacker and helped their government. Hackers when using Bracy’s definition can be helpful citizens to their government but this also can apply to jobs, or even businesses.
In chapter six of the text it explained the hacker code of ethics and the issues associated with it. An ethical hacker is defined as a computer and networking expert who systematically attempts to penetrate a computer system or network on behalf of its owners for finding security vulnerabilities that malicious hackers could infiltrate. American journalist Steven Levy established six principals for hacker code of ethics. The six principal are limited computer access, free use of information, mistrusted- authority, examination of hacker, creation, and support in life for advancement. These principal has been controversial to many based on personal moral. As for creating appropriate set of guidelines for non-malicious hackers without becoming
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:
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.
Historically, the Anonymous has been engaging in activities that qualifies the group as hacker group as opposed to troll organisation. The group began its operation on December 2010 by attacking the MasterCard for blocking the Wiki Leaks website donations (Coleman 1). In January 2011, the Anonymous group attack the Tunisian government website for using illegal means against protesters. In February...
While it is wrong to stereotype hackers as evil people with malicious criminal intentions, they cannot be stereotyped as compassionate freedom fighters as the hackers like to see themselves. Hackers must also realize that the actions of criminals will always reflect poorly on the hacker community as a whole, until the hacker community tries to police itself, which will never happen. Their actions are by definition, criminal. They can suffer consequences, which include being criminally prosecuted and hated by the information security community.
All in all Cyber-security has become a major issue in our generation. Whether it is the ethics behind it or the personal gain. The formal ethical systems that could justify the actions reported in the article were clearly not good enough for a person to preform cyber-hacking. The actions provided in the article went against both the ACM and IEEE codes of ethics. Also the issues of privacy and intellectual property were clearly a damage for many businesses. New technologies should be developed to help prevent cyber-hacking. A better cyber-security should be set in businesses worldwide. This will benefit both the users and the owners. As well as help people understand ethics better.
I believe that Anonymous is best defined as being “vigilante heroes”. In today’s modern society, individuals have laptops or cellphones that they use for banking or storing personal information on a regular basis (de Ruiter, 2018, “Introducing”, para. 1) and they believe that their information is safe and secure. They are naive to the potential corrupt individuals or systems (16x9onglobal, 2012, 01:29) that could easily access their data and destroy them financially or professionally (de Ruiter, 2018, “Introducing”, para. 1). Anonymous understands this and is taking action to expose corrupt systems and individuals by turning the art of hacking into force that cannot be ignored (16x9onglobal, 2012, 07:40).
Hacker only has 50 years history, computer hacker crime is one of the mots dangerous crime threat at 21th century. Hacktivism is a new class of hacker has emerged, “the so-called hacktivist, who engages in hacking of computer networks and systems as a form of protest”(Hargrave,2012). Hacker crimes have use computer programming skill to make errors on your computer that control your computer to get information and change your computer system. Since in 1970s, computer hackers are called “phreaks”, which mean by phone hacker. Computer hacker is becoming form phone hacker. In the early 1970, Computer hacker is positive to the society, many of computer programmers were “began looking for ways to get the most out of the machines. “(Deivtt,2001) And then, they are created applications called hacks, which are “applications and allow more tasks to be completed in a shorter time.” (Deivtt,2001).In the early 1980.Hackers using computers and the internet for their own questionable gains. The first computer hacker crime is in the 1983.” six teenagers from
Many people through out the world use the internet in way you can’t imagine. Hacktivism being a virtual way to make a statement for the world to see is only the beginning. A recent demonstration of hacktivism followed the death of a Chinese airman when his jet fighter collided with a U.S. surveillance plane in April 2001. Chinese and American hacktivist from both countries hacked Web sites and used them as "blackboards" for their statements. This is only an example of what hacktivist are capable of. This in my opinion is not ethical. I do understand they are making a point but the way to make the point is all wrong.
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,
With the way the world is shaping technology and the cyber world are becoming larger each day. Things started to change around the year 2003 when the (would be) leading role in the cyber security world would form. Anonymous has been shaping itself more each day to the get the brand of being internet anarchists and wearing the signature Guy Fawkes masks. Some even dub the group as the protectors of the internet fighting crime where they believe is morally right. The anarchist view of Anon was that no one had any sort of control over it and anyone and everyone could claim to be a part of Anon. There are no written rules when it comes to Anonymous but the idea is to collectively promote freedom of speech, try and combat government control where they deem
whose main claim is that mass surveillance makes the surveilled feel afraid and unsafe to express themselves and their beliefs. As opposed to Greenwald and Gutting who focus on mass surveillance connection with the Panopticon, Starr et al. focus on interviewing those involved in social justice organizations that have been surveilled. Through these multiple interviews, people seem to be “paralyzed” under surveillance, afraid to speak out or express their First Amendment rights (Starr et. al 260). Many interviewees in the text claim feeling scared, suspicious, or cautious, not only affecting the way they interact with the group, but also their motivation to be involved with such organizations in the face of mass surveillance. This fear also permeates into many facets of the protestors lives, with interviewees being cautious of attending protests, being associated with certain organizations, and even communicating with other members of the group to avoid the threat of undercover agents. Starr et al. claim that “strategic and ideological dialogue has been both reduced and self-censored” as a result of this created “security culture” (Starr et al. 262, 267). Now, “organizations do not feel safe even undertaking [the] most pacific type of action”, in fear of just being under surveillance (Starr et al. 267). Starr et al., similar to Greenwald and Gutting, agrees that a lack of privacy psychologically affects
The issue with tackling the ethical hacker scenario is that the event is almost entirely action based. There is no end to give meaning to the action and there is no finalized result or indication that it impacted happiness, which many ethical theories depend on. Namely consequentialism, utilitarianism and ethical egotism require an end result in one form or another. There is also no purpose in committing the hackings which makes applying moral theories that deal with motivation and intent, ethical egotism and aspects of virtue ethics, increasingly more difficult to do effectively. Therefore moral theories that apply almost exclusively to the action itself will be utilized in this argument.
An ethical hacker is usually employed by an organization who trusts him or her to attempt to penetrate networks and/or computer systems, using the same methods as a hacker, for the purpose of finding and fixing computer security vulnerabilities. Unauthorized hacking (i.e., gaining access to computer systems without prior authorization from the owner) is a crime in most countries, but penetration testing done by request of the owner of the victim system(s) or network(s) is not.