FREE ESSAY ON HACKING A ART

HACKING A ART

In today's fast-paced world, the high-tech computer industry offers a unique opportunity
for high-paying jobs. Many people start their careers much younger than I have, so
consequently I have to search for a career in a field that will offer me adequate
financial rewards in a limited amount of time. I started working with computers four
years ago, upgrading systems, and increasing modem speeds to enable me access to the
World Wide Web. I find programming to be the most interesting area of Computer Science;
there is a subculture within this area that call themselves hackers. There seems to be a
negative connotation with the word hacker. This is a misunderstanding because these
programmers, who consider themselves to be hackers, are not the evildoers that the media
portrays them as. Some misguided souls do attack systems for profit and pleasure, but
these are usually the wannabe hackers; they are referred to as crackers or cyberpunks.
True hackers do not waste their time with these types of antics. It is similar to an
artist who, instead of painting a beautiful picture, sprays profanity on a city wall.
There are many misconceptions surrounding the artform of hacking.
Computers have made our world and lives much easier. In the past, many jobs were done by
hand. Computers have replaced calculators. Word processing is now much faster and more
conveienent than it was when we had to use typewriters. Not only can we type and correct
errors much quicker since it can be done on a computer, but we don't even have to type at
all as a result of dictation software, which allows us to speak to our computers.
Computers revolutionized our world. We can communicate through e-mail with friends around
the world. Research on any form or type of information is readily and easily accessible
through the Internet. Computers have opened doors to people all over the world that just
twenty years ago were not even dreamed of. Through all this innovation computers are,
nevertheless, electronic components. They can only do what man tells them to do. This is
how Alan Gauld, a computer programmer, explains computers:
Logical thinking comes into play because computers are intrinsically stupid. They can't
really do anything except add single digits together and move bytes from one place to
another. Luckily for us some talented programmers have written lots of programs to hide
this basic stupidity. But of course as a programmer you'll get into a new situation where
you have to face the stupidity and its raw state. At this point you think for the
computer you have to figure out exactly what needs to be done to your data and when
(Gauld).
Who are programmers? They are people who write the software, which runs the hardware in
your computer. Without the software, computer systems would be electronic components
incapable of performing any useful operations. There are types of programmers, who are
called hackers. In the early 1960's, university facilities with huge mainframe computers,
(like MIT's artificial intelligence lab) became staging grounds for hackers. At first, a
hacker was a positive term that described a person with a mastery skill of computers who
could push programs beyond what they were designed to do. Today's hacker, however, comes
with a negative connotation. Eric S. Raymond reveals this about hackers:
There are a bunch of definitions of the term hacker, Most having to do with technical
adeptness and a delight in solving problems and overcoming limits... There is a
community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its
history back to the decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest
ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term hacker. Hackers
built the Internet. Hackers made the UNIX operating system what it is today. Hackers run
Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you
have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker,
you're a hacker (Raymond).
Therefore, in my opinion hackers are unique problem solving individuals. In order to gain
access to their culture, you can not just talk about hacking, or go in and ruin someone's
computer system, database, or web page. Most access gained by true hacker goes totally
unnoticed by the public. However, to the hacking community at large you are recognized.
Hackers will not let posers waste their time, but they worshiped competence-- especially
competence at hacking, but competence at anything is good. Hackers are naturally
anti-authoritarian. Although they do help authorities capture criminals thru the
Internet.
Kim Kamondo elegantly explains it this way:
The computer-cracking culture can be broken down into four basic groups. To the general
public, the term hacker has come to mean someone who gains illegal access to a computer
system. However, in geekspeak, the term has a very different definition. To insiders, a
hacker is merely an avid computer enthusiast. These types often do gain access to systems
they're not supposed to, but they don't do it with ill intentions. Instead, the goal of
the hacker is mental stimulation, much like fiddling with a Rubic's Cube. The bigger the
hack, the greater the bragging rights 
The most obvious troublemakers in this culture are termed crackers. These are generally
misguided people with some sort of anarchist bent. They delight in breaking into systems
and fouling things up. 
Perhaps the most dangerous contingent of the hacker corps is the one you never hear
about. These people aren't interested in fame or intellectual stimulation. 
They're simply in it for the money. They hack into the computer systems at financial
institutions, transfer money to different accounts and then vanish. Sound interesting? So
why do we seldom, if ever, read of such exploits? The answer is simple: security.
Financial institutions are very tight-lipped about such breaches, fearing that any
publicity will only encourage copycat offenders. They'd rather take the hit and deal with
the matter internally than trigger a potential feeding frenzy among the hacker community
(Komando.p62) 
The good things hackers do. Like many of my quotes, it is difficult to do hacking
community justice without long quotes in their behalf. I can say that hackers helped
created the World Wide Web, or I could go on to say that they test financial institutions
systems for the safety of our funds. However, to say those hackers have gone after
pedophiles for the betterment of mankind, and to make the Internet a safer place makes a
much larger statement. 
Some hackers have chosen to use their skills for the betterment of society. Theirs is a
higher cause. As Deborah Radcliff argues on behalf of the hacker, Case in point: 
Christian Valor, a k a Se7en. Valor spent 17 years in the hacker underground, and for
most of that time he dismissed reports of online kiddie porn as exaggerated claims by
overzealous lawmakers. His suspicions were reinforced when in 1996, he spent eight weeks
combing the Web for child pornography and came up empty-handed. Then he discovered chat
channels and newsgroups that catered to pedophiles and other perverts. That was a rude
awakening for Valor. 
In 1997, after discovering just how low his fellow Netizens could stoop, Valor made a vow
to disrupt the online activities of kiddie porn peddlers in any way that he could--legal
or not. Of course, it's highly unlikely that any child pornographer would cry foul to the
authorities. And if someone were stupid enough to turn this Robin Hood-like figure in to
the police, Valor says he's been assured by the Secret Service that they'd probably
decline to take action on the matter. 
Valor's first target in his new crusade was an employee of Southwestern Bell. Although
the perpetrator took numerous steps to cover his tracks, Valor was able to determine that
this fellow was using his employer's computers as home base for his kiddie porn
operation. Valor claims that several days after e-mailing the evidence to the president
and network administrators at Southwestern Bell, he received a message back that the
pornographer was no longer employed there. 
Valor's crusade has led other hackers to join the fight. In fact, there's even a Hackers
Against Child Pornography site that encourages others to take up their keyboards and
modems against online kiddie porn peddlers. Combined with a couple of large-scale
multinational child pornography busts that took place in 1998, maybe these cyberspace
sexual misfits will think twice about their chosen lifestyle. 
In the battle against child pornography, one of the authorities' best allies turns out to
be hackers, the ultimate haters of authority. Although police won't acknowledge them
publicly, some hacking groups informally assist law enforcement agencies in both
technical training and evidence gathering (Radcliff.p51).
The media and the government will always look down upon hackers. Nevertheless, within
their culture lies an attitude towards solving fascinating problems. Challenging one's
mind, is the highest form of mental stimulation. If it were not for hackers, the computer
enthusiast's from the '70s and '80s we may not have come this far with technology. Much
of our computer technology that we take for granted like the Internet, e-mail, word
processing software would not be what it is today without their efforts. Since imitation
is the purest form of flattery, and crackers are aspiring hackers. I do not believe that
we should be so cold and cruel, with such long hard jail sentences for mediocre computer
crimes. I believe the FBI is trying to send a message to the public, by scaring them with
such stiff penalties for computer crimes. Because computer systems, the Internet, and
electronic banking cannot truly be protected due to the newness of the technology, and
its constant changing pace.