Hacking sweeps the nation Essay

The goal is to inform the public of the facts about hackers and the influences from pop culture and mainstream media that have changed society’s perception of hackers over time. I will also discuss statistical data about society’s fear of hackers and how it has changed the perception of hackers. If I can convince the readers that hackers are responsible for many of the technological innovations over the last 50 years, it will help me argue my point and hopefully persuade people to reconsider their opinions of hackers. The ultimate goal is to persuade people to redefine their definition of hackers and hope that society will use the correct classifications when reporting about them or describing their character in pop culture, but I would be satisfied if I could just create a platform for the next step on the road to change. One thing that absolutely amazed me was the amount of new information that is created and distributed every year. I learned that it is important to make sure that the message is strong and loud so it will not be lost amongst all the other information. An argument must be clear and maintain focus so that the audience will not become disinterested or

Computers are one of the world’s greatest inventions, and sadly, one of the worst. Thanks to computers, there are so many things we can do from the comfort of our own home. We can do our banking online, pay our bills, go to school, look for jobs, and so on. Computers have made us all lazy. They have also made us unconcerned, at least up until recently, with our privacy. We all know there are bad people in this world, but it seems to be that we have forgotten that there are some very, very smart people in this world as well. It took a very smart person to invent the computer, to figure out the inner workings. But if one person can do this many can do this. Enter the computer hacker.

18. Instead of being motivated by a desire to prove their art, hackers today are motivated by ____ and political ends.

With the dramatic development in the technology of computers and communications, the entire world has certainly benefited a great deal, but the purchase price of computers might also be very expensive. Computer crimes are now becoming very serious problems that are costing as much as billions of dollars. Also, computer crimes are threatening the continuing future of communication, confidentiality, and even the integrity of businesses and organizations.

Ellen Nakashima and Ashkan Soltani (2014), in “ The ethics of Hacking 101” article focus on how ethics is related to teaching hacking. Famous university professors teach their student the principle of hacking but expect from them in return to be ethical in what they do. For example professor Sujeet Shenoi at the university of Tulsa teaches his students on how to hack into oil pipeline and electric power electric plants but won’t accept students into his program unless they promise to work , if hired for the National Security Agency, the Energy Department or another U.S. government agency. David Brumley at Carnegie Mellon University instructs students on how to write software that enable user to hack into networks. George Hotz who made

Interconnected computer information systems have become essential aspects of today’s society. All forms of communication, from education, personal brand identity, to commerce and finance, use these systems creating a permanent personal presence for all of us within this digital world. Individuals, who reveal or threaten to reveal these personal identities for various reasons, are sometimes referred to as hackers who can also form hacker activist groups; also known as hacktivists. One of the most recent and visible of these groups calls itself Anonymous. Anonymous has evolved into a worldwide meticulously calculated social and political movement concerned with the freedom and access of information. It uses a variety of means to promote free information, sometimes legal protest, sometimes illegal hacking. There are any numbers of splinter groups that claim affiliation with Anonymous but its decentralized structure makes it difficult to know who is working with or for the goals of the collective. Anonymous has transformed from a physical entity to that of an idea and persona that can be claimed by anyone at any time and that idea is what will ensure its continued presence for years to come.

VII. Hackers have a bad reputation because a select few decide to engage in illegal activities and destroy systems, but the majority of hackers work with the government and corporations to secure critical infrastructure and they also use their talents to invent and advance technology.

Hacking is a relatively new technique to describe gaining unauthorized access to a network or computing device. A negative connotation has always been associated with the term. However, in order to catch hackers law enforcement will often reverse engineer the same methods that they use. Hacking has proven to become a major challenge for law enforcement. Device and network intrusions are not easily accomplished. The skills needed to perform a hack requires a succinct knowledge of computers and networking which can take years to fully understand. Society tends to ignore the intricacies of computers and often leave themselves exposed to potential invasions. Since a majority of the public are unaware of protecting themselves, illegal hackers can thrive knowing most people are possible targets.

Computer hackers became prominent in the 1980’s when the FBI investigates breach of security at the National CSS. When an employee of the National CSS revealed his password cracker, the company chastised him not for writing the software but by no telling them sooner of the security weakness and vulnerability.

Etymologically speaking, hacking began in the 1960’s with MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club. Due to the exceptionally slow speeds of mainframe computers at that time, (personal computers were not invented yet), software programmers came up with ‘hacks’ to improve the processing time of their programs. These hackers became the core of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab). Their talents pushed a program beyond its intended capabilities, at the same time expanding their personal programming talents and the professional reputation of the AI Lab. These individuals believed the educational bureaucracy at MIT should not come into direct conflict with being able to accomplish any productive task. The hackers picked door locks, climbed ducts, or came up through the floorboards all in an effort to have access to computers to test their software code. “Even now, there is a big wrench at the AI Lab titled, “the seventh-floor master key” to be used in case anyone dares to lock up one of the more fancy terminals” (Schell, “The Hacking of America: Who’s Doing It, Why, and How” 44).

A third positive example of hacking is hacktivism. Though hacktivists have a more subtle positive effect, they consistently bring controversial decisions and topics to light. Hacktivists are hackers that use their talent to be activists that support a certain cause. Most are politically motivated and believe that a person or organization has committed a wrongdoing. Their strong beliefs drive them to commit hacks that seek revenge and wreak havoc upon daily lives; numerous amounts of these attacks are on government agencies. This fact alone makes many people dislike the act. However, despite being malicious in nature, it is not malicious to individual citizens and often stimulates positive discussion and much-needed change. Hacktivism can be used to further popular ideas and make the public voice heard; it is a great way to broadcast ideas that would otherwise be obscure and ensure that a level of justice is promoted among peers.

The Truth about Hackers In the winter of the year 2000 an eighteen year old hacker, who went by the name Curador accessed about 26, 000 credit card numbers and put them on the internet. With the help of an ex-hacker, Curador was eventually tracked down and sentenced. All of this was explained in a frontline interview with Curador himself also known as Raphael Gray. Who are these so called hackers? Are peoples assumptions about teenage hackers correct? In 1995 the movie Hackers portrayed the images and lifestyles of hackers similar to the one mentioned above. The characters in Hackers show a media example of finding themselves in cyberspace by forming a community which creates their own boundaries. According to

Even though a great deal of individuals believe that hacking into their personal computers or into business systems is unethical, it is done continuously. Some individuals do it for kicks, others to cause havoc in corporation’s data system, others do it to steal individual’s private information and even their identity, while others hack to assist the owners in recognizing their vulnerabilities and finding solutions to protect their information.

The fight against hackers and cyber crime is a global problem and nationally and internationally, the threats they caused have been recognized and acknowledged.

To explain why these people should be held responsible for their crimes, we must first look at how hacking came to be. According to an article written by CNN, “Hacking actually has some pretty innocent and harmless beginnings”(). When hacking first began it was more about finding out information and learning how to make things work more efficiently. In fact it was