An Overview of Hacking
Hackers cost governments, corporations, and even normal people billions of dollars per year. You might ask, sure, there are those out there for profit, but what about the college student who was just doing it for fun? Profit or fun, it's still theft. In some cases theft of money, in others, theft of information. Just because a person uses a computer should not impact the severity of their punishment. A murderer's punishment is not affected by which weapon he chooses to employ, so why should a thief's punishment be affected? Usually, information is stolen for the express purpose of making money, either directly, or through the sale of the information obtained, or by blackmail. In today's fast-paced computerized world, knowledge is indeed power. Through the miracle of the Internet, information can be shared and accessed around the globe, instantaneously. At any given time, millions of people's credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other private data are flying through phone lines near your house. The downside to this technological marvel that we all use, whether we know it or not, is that thieves, disgruntled network administrators, and other unsavory character
Hackers represent a clear and present danger to the security of the United States of America. Not only do they cost our nation billions a year, but hackers also contribute to a serious espionage problem. Hacking, no matter its form, is an act of thievery, piracy, or blackmail, and cannot be tolerated. Combating hackers is a very expensive process. It is estimated that in 1997 a total of $6.3 billion dollars will be spent on computer security. (Lohr, par. 1) A great deal of this will go to protect against computer viruses. A computer virus is a very small program that can clone itself at will, over disks and phone lines, and usually causes some devastating impact on the target, such as deleting files, or even damaging the computer. Just like human viruses, such as AIDS, which changes form constantly to avoid destruction, some computer viruses, called polymorphic viruses, change slightly so that any previous anti-virus software will no longer detect it. This is why there are constantly new virus protection tools and utilities. Viruses aren't the only threat, though. When a company or organization starts a web page, they must have a wall of some type to keep people on the Internet from accessing parts of their computer system they want to keep private. Such programs are called firewalls, and allow only specified access. A firewall is the main obstacle for a hacker to get through when he is trying to hack in from a remote location. Unfortunately, inept use of the network can leave the firewall inactive or disabled, and once a hacker gets past, he can create hidden ways for himself to access again even if the firewall is restored. Computer security isn't just sitting in a room tapping away on a keyboard, though. Some hackers who are doing this for a living will go out and search for information that will allow them to break into a system. Remember the hospital with excellent computer security? One firm, which will break into your system, and report its weaknesses (ho
Some common words found in the essay are:
Russia Police, Draft Hackers, CIA FBI, United America, Sharon Phone, computer security, Steve Feeling, World Report, Door Computerworld, York Times, scheir par, medical files, phone lines, break system, caryl par, punishment affected, theft money, computer viruses, access firewall,
Approximate Word count = 1349
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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