Being a Cyberpunk: The Thin Line between Life and Cyberspace

In the early days of computing, a hacker was primarily referred to as a computer guru, someone who is extremely technical with a high expertise in computer also known as “Expert Programmers”. Nevertheless, as technology is advancing at a face pace, hacking has adopted a completely different definition. The modern definition is someone who access a computer system primarily to steal or destroy information. Hacking has caused major harm in the realm of technology. Over the years, hackers have become much more lethal in their craft. They manage to break into complex information systems from entities such as banks, government agencies, and private businesses. Furthermore, they often manipulate their victims through social engineering in order to obtain financial benefits. Hackers hold different label such as: black hat hacker and white hat hacker in which all have their own motives.

The second criterion of cyberpunk literature is integration of culture and technology. These aspects relate to how people join together and make technology and computers part of their culture and lifestyle. People have become more united because of cyber communities that have developed. The idea of using computers to communicate with one another is a great example of cyberpunk literature. People are able to connect in a

In 1983, America’s FBI busted a group of hackers. The young hackers targeted United States government networks. Interestingly, some of these hackers used modems with Apple II+ computers. During the same year, Fred Cohen coined the term computer virus. Cohen’s research on virus was quite significant in the development of antivirus. Cohen described computer virus as a program that affected other programs (computer programs) by altering them. The following year (1984), William Gibson thought of an ultramodern world of interconnected computers, which he called cyberspace. In 1986, the brain was created in Pakistan as

The word hacking, usually associated with information technology, is a term used for the development of creative solutions for a problem by someone in a non-professional environment. With the introduction of personal computers and the internet, anyone could create solutions to problems in computer science. This led to the emergence of “hacker culture”, leading to the decentralization of computer industry (Hicks, 2014).

Once, there was a boy named Tom Tapia. He was about 10, almost 11. He loved to play games like Stare_Woofs, or really any hacking game. When he grew up… he was a hacker, a black hat one. He started out as just a script kiddy, in high school, changing his grades and charging other students to change theirs. Then he grew more and more intelligent. He learned how to hack in C++, then all forms of Java, then Lua, and eventually every programming language. By the time he was 25, he was a very skilled hacker, even attempted the white house once, almost made it when the daily system reboot threw ‘em out.

The Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter social media sites with passwords that can be hacked no matter the “strength” of the password. Peter Ludlow effectively persuades using ethos,logos and pathos in the reading What is a ‘Hacktivist’? By talking about events that have happened to “Hacktivist” in the recent years due to “Lexical Warfare.” Lexical Warfare irs a phrase that I like to use for battles over a term is to be understood. When people think of hackers, the first thing to mind is people who sit on computers all day and steal information from everyone possible. The previous sentence provides an example of how people think of the word “hacker” because of what media tells people. It either gives them a good thought if you think “hacktivist” are doing right or unpleasing thought because it makes people feel unsafe since hackers can hack into whatever they please.

Civility and expertise are concepts that imply a historical significance which is valuable to understand when discussing civic hackers. A connection between the three ideas is made evident through Kenneth Cmiel’s Politics of Civility, Andrew Schrock’s Civic Hacking as Data Activism and Advocacy, Sebastian Kubitschko’s Hackers’ Media Practices and the article When the Government Approves of Hacking by Natasha Lennard. From the civil rights movement and counterculture of the 1960’s, to well perceived antics of the Chaos Computer Club, civic hacking garners a larger social implication than the act itself.

Adam Segal’s “The Hacked World Order” reveals many prevalent issues in today’s technologically centered society. Starting at Year Zero, June 2012 to June 2013, the battle over cyberspace witnessed world-changing cyberattacks. This was accomplished due to the fact that nearly 75% of the world’s population has easy access to a mobile phone, and the Internet connects nearly 40% of the total human population, which is nearly 2.7 billion people. With that being said, cyberattacks are becoming a more realistic form of terror.

One day, there was a guy named Blake. He was at his school; just playing video games on the computer until he suddenly found an interesting website related to nuclear warfare. Blake goes to Metropolis highschool. He is 17 years old; he lives in Washington D.C. His favorite hobbies are playing video games, watching TV, hacking random websites, putting computer components together and seeing what will happen and creating hacker technology. Blake has studied technology for 5 years; when he was a little kid he always enjoyed hacking; he discovered his talent for hacking when he was at his preschool just surfing the internet; he noticed something strange about a certain website; there was an advertisement referring to a scientific advancement

The Most Dangerous Cyber Criminals Of All Time is a article by Luis Fran. This article uses the story of three hacker to describe why cybercrime is a dangerous social issues. Fran repeatedly use the term “hackers”

The article “Digital Subcultures” mentions how geeks online are not geeks in society. Although some people might think they are geeks, they do not actually admit that they are. They pretend that they are average people that do regular day to day things as any other person. In actuality, they are proud to be geeks but society does not allow them to be themselves. Because of this, the internet gives them a window to escape the boundaries of society. “The Internet is an accessible and user-friendly arena in which subcultures can form, meet, and interact,” says J. A. McArthur (McArthur 70). When they are in to society they can’t really meet and socialize with people of their geek culture, so they find chat rooms with people that are geeks also.

In seventh grade, my computer teacher was absent and our substitute teacher played a movie titled “Hackers.” As an impressionable computer geek trying to amaze my friend, I tried to show him a trick on the computer. However, the outcome of what I had typed, “MSG * hey,” was still indiscernible to me. As I hit enter, I proudly looked around and noticed that every computer had a message box that said “hey.” I warned my peers of the possible consequences, but my classmates did not heed my warnings,

Specifically, hacking is the manipulation of computer codes to combat a technical glitch through a maze of ciphers and unknown scientific territory. Recently, a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, consisted of a mass shooting and attempted bombing. Syed Rizwan Farookand and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, ruthlessly killed fourteen people and seriously injured twenty-two people at the San Bernardino Health Department holiday party. A joyous holiday scene with co- workers turned into a cold- blooded, heartless murder scene. After the mass shooting, the police caught the two suspects and confiscated their belongings for further investigation. Particularly, the police obtained the suspect’s iPhone, but could not access the phone without a code. After trial and error, the FBI decided to hire hackers to unlock the iPhone. The programmers were able to decipher the code successfully, so consequently the FBI gained access to new information about the suspect’s motive and connections. As a result, the FBI learned that the shooters had no contact with the merciless terrorist group, ISIS. Ultimately, hackers are able to learn significant information from technology that could possibly save countless lives from future terrorist

The film Killswitch was about the government trying to monopolize and control user traffic on the internet. Whether it is for security purposes or financial gain, our system of democracy is being compromised at a technological level. Several speakers including Tim Wu, expressed how “hacktivism” was a revolutionary tool used to take a stand against government interference.

As the world becomes more and more reliant on computers the computer hacking industry is greatly rising. With people such as Kevin Mitnick, who is known as a "computer terrorist" (Kjochaiche 1), computerized information isn't safe any more. Kevin is known as "the most high-profiled computer criminal and responsible for more havoc in the computer world today."(1) He considered this a fun and easy task. He got caught and thrown into prison, but once he got out nothing changed. Kevin stated that as long as the technology is there it just calls to people to break into it. Computer hackers usually start off young, thinking that it is nothing but a little harmless fun. But as they get older, they realize it has turned into