The History And Background Of Hackers

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Hackers

Have you ever wondered what makes a person want to become a hacker? One thing for sure is that they all have a deep understanding of computers and are able to manipulate them for their own various interests. They are able to gain access to others’ personal information online by breaking into a password protected area or site. Hackers have sparked people’s interest since 1983 when the movie WarGames came out which was about a teenage boy that mastered computer games. He accidently hacked into the government computer network not realizing the game he was playing was real. He had complete control over the United States nuclear arsenal and was actually starting World War III between Russia and America. Later that year, six teenagers were arrested for hacking into and shutting down several computers some of which were government owned leaking top secret information. This event made people realize the potential of hacking for good and bad. Shortly after the government increased online security by creating a team of good hackers to prevent hacking and implemented the "Computer Fraud and Abuse ACT". This act made it a crime to hack into a computer that is not yours, or to view/edit something online that you are unauthorized to open. This also made it

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illegal to destroy data without user’s consent, or to steal computer software. Even though many people misconstrue "online hacking" as an exclusively criminal action, there are several different types of hackers whose objectives vary immensely from malicious and monetary agendas to protect the freedoms and wellbeing of the people.

Today there are varying degrees of hackers such as white hat, grey hat, black hat, and red hat hackers. The color of the hat indicates the varying degree of illegal actions of the hacker: white hat hackers are primarily IT technicians who test websites and other secure programs security.

Red hat hackers get into the government sites to make havoc. For instance red hat hackers represent the worst type of hacker: they break into government computer mainframes and websites to disable them for publicity and money. Robert Tappan Morris was considered a red hat hacker and was the first to be convicted of the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" and was the world’s most prestigious hacker that caused serious damage to thousands of computers. " In 1988, while still an undergraduate at Cornell, Morris released into the wild which may have been the first computer "worm", a virus that went on to infect 6,000 Unix-based computers. "(http://dsc.discovery.com) Another well-known red hat hacker is "Kevin Poulsen"(dsc.discovery.com) who was the first hacker charged with espionage since he took classified information from the Air Force.

The next degree of hacker is the black hat hacker who mainly hacks into other company owned computers remotely to crash their network for money or to cause major damage.

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"Jonathon James" "(http://dsc.discovery.com) is an example who was the brain behind the 2008 largest identity theft case in history, he stole ID’s and lots of peoples credit through hacking and made millions of dollars along the way.

Then there is the grey hat hacker who is a hybrid between white and black hat hackers. Just like any black hat or white hat hacker, grey hats do hack for a reason, and even though they don't automatically hack for destructive or cruel intentions, they do prefer leaving their motives ambiguous, if not altogether unknown. They may or may not notify a webmaster of a particular vulnerability, or they may even demonstrate the potency of the security hole by action instead of words. Moreover, a grey hat will live or die by his anonymity, and he'll basically do whatever he wants to any computer system he fancies regardless if it's harmful or beneficial (or even both) to the aforesaid network. (http://www.secpoint.com)

Therefore, the prime example of a grey hacker is Anonymous which is an idealism that can change the internet by doing online protest, and helping out to maintain the internet from complete control from the government.

Finally, the extreme hacker on the other side of the spectrum and that is most legal is the white hat hackers whose main objective is to find insecure parts of business’ websites and firewalls and protect them. An example of a white hat hacker is "Adrian Lamo" (dsc.discovery.com), who has hacked and notified many target company’s website administrators about flaws in their security. This makes companies aware of their vulnerabilities

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to hackers and are greatly appreciated and many times paid for their services.

Hackers are also categorized by their objectives or missions that they want to accomplish. For example, some people hack just to be malicious, others do it for the sport or competition, and then there are ethical hackers. For instance Individual computer systems may be hacked with a purpose to stealing personal and financial information stored on the system.

Online banking or e-commerce accounts are also targeted for identity theft. If an email account is linked with other sites -- for example PayPal or eBay -- it can be used to steal passwords for them. An email account can be used to set up accounts in someone else's name. Email and social networking sites can be used to generate revenue through scams; a common scam targets friends of the victim, sending out emails from the victim's account claiming that he or she is in need of emergency funds. (www.ehow.com/info_8763601_objectives-hackers.htm)

The money is directed to an account set up by the hackers.

Hackers also can hack for free advertising some companies pay website owners to host their advertisements. The site owner gets paid a small amount of money for every page viewed. Hackers often target websites with the objective of inserting their own ads onto someone else's pages so that they generate income from their page traffic.

The bad thing with hackers if they gain too much control they lose the sense of morals. Activist groups may use hacking to undermine organizations they see as immoral or to spread their message more widely. They may use hacking to uncover incriminating evidence or to deface a target organization's website. This kind of conduct is often illegal and can tip over into terrorism if armed groups are involved.

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Hacker can get anything for free as well; Hackers who access someone else's web space can upload whatever they want without paying hosting fees or having to abide by terms of service. They may upload pornography or pirated games, movies or software for download; or set up phishing pages that steal users' login information for other sites. Hacked websites can also be used to host malicious scripts that attack other users systems on behalf of the hackers -- making it look as if the hacked site is the culprit.

The one type that is considered the most admirable is the group that call themselves Anonymous because they want to remain anonymous as they stand up to protect people’s freedoms and rights. For example Operation Gaza in Israel; Anonymous created hope to keep the Palestinian people online from their oppressed government by sending them care packages with software. In Syria, President Basher Assad caused nationwide internet outage to stifle the regime forces that opposed him. "BEIRUT (Reuters) - Global hacking network Anonymous said it will shut down Syrian government websites around the world in response to a countrywide Internet blackout believed to be aimed at silencing the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad." (Holmes, Oliver. Rueters online, Anonymous Declares Internet War on Syria http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp) In addition, the United Nations who want a global control of the economy and people, as well as the internet. "Now they want to run the Internet. That’s not the bad news for Americans; it’s a disaster for the 2 billion-plus users who depend on access to the Internet for messages for freedom and hope in a world where both are vanishing fast."( Http://www.foxnews .com/opinion/2012/12/04/warning-un-is-coming-for-your-

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internet/print). Anonymous is considered the grey hat hackers or "Hactavist" since they represent the people in protest that have been mistreated and become their political voice.

http://cdn.ndtv.com/tech/images/Anonymous-banner-635.jpg

Image at: (http://gadgets.ndtv.com)

Some people disagree with anonymous and their beliefs. However, their primary concern is to maintain individual’s freedoms around the world, not monetary gain. Last year in fact, anonymous launched operation watchtower to raise awareness to pedophiles, anonymous members spread out in search for adults acting like teens online, and shut down their internet and block communications to their victim. All anonymous does is purely for the wellbeing of the people, and hack only for the purpose of cleaning the internet.

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Anonymous is standing up for Aaron Swartz that killed himself after knowing his fate for hacking online classified material from his school. The 26-year-old had a history of depression but family, friends and supporters said it was the threat of a prison sentence for an act he saw as a political statement that pushed him to suicide. Since his death, Swartz has become a powerful symbol for hackers and activists fighting internet controls.

The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch involved in sentencing, as a reaction to Swartz’s Suicide, Anonymous has warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."(http://www.rawstory.com) In a message posted on the website and in an accompanying YouTube video, the hackers said they had infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information they threatened to make public. Saying the information was like a nuclear weapon, the group said it had "enough fissile material for multiple warheads" (http://www.dailydot.com) which it would launch against the justice department and organizations linked to it.

On the bright side of this epidemic of people learning hacking techniques, there are new jobs created for people with skill to counter hacker’s attempts and improve the security of everyday businesses. These people are IT technicians A.K.A white hat hackers, there main goal is to research new ways that hackers are getting passed the security of businesses and countering them by creating new security designs to make it hard for their security to be breached. These jobs will be around forever since a system will never be completely secure, since the vast amount of hacking methods is nearly infinite.

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In spite of what the good hackers can accomplish, hacking also opens the door to the evils that some may do with the knowledge and skills. For example, a red hat is an aggressive version of a white hat hacker whose main purpose is to hack into the computer mainframes of the governments with the main goal of disabling or crippling them. These are mainly the reason hackers got such a bad reputation in the recent years.

Grey hat hackers hack online business, government websites, and other online resources in order to make a protest, this type of hacker is considered by many to be called a "Hacktavist" these groups are portrayed to be bad but in reality they are looking out for the people and standing up were others have no voice. Black hat hackers crack programs and don’t intend harm, and even though many people misconstrue "online hacking "as an exclusively criminal action, there are several different types of hackers whose objectives vary immensely from malicious and monetary agendas to protect the freedoms and wellbeing of the people.

World without hackers, means that the world would be silenced by the people with the most power since there would be no one to speak. In a world like today we need hackers to advance in technology and research, not to steal credit cards and ruin lives. Good and bad hackers even out in the long run, without the need to advance in security systems we would have primitive computers dating back to 1986, which would in return limit research on diseases and other things that require high powered machines.

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