Hacking Computers and Ethics
What comes to mind when you hear the word 'hacker'? For most it means stealing information through the Internet, gaining illegal access to another person's PC, or simply - disruptive behavior using a computer. The subject of hacking is no secret to the general public. Many people have been exposed to it by a bad experience or through the news and media. The idea of hacking that is stuck in the minds of people is that of which they have seen in the movies. The movies portray hackers as young and devious criminals. However, in reality these individuals are, talented people who use their abilities to find new and challenging ways to change how computers work. According to the Cult of the Dead Cow, a hacking organization, true hackers do not get into the system to erase everything or to sell the information to someone else. They get in there to satisfy their curiosity to see if getting into the system can be done, to search around inside of a place they have never been, and to explore the little nooks and crannies of cyberspace. Of course there are those who erase files from other people's computers, steal information from cyberspace, and vandalize web pages. These people are not hackers, as the media cal
9) Never intentionally delete or damage a file on a computer you hack. 4) Be careful whom you share information with. 4) Do not distribute or collect hacking software. Another famous criminal hacker was Kevin Poulsen. Poulsen's hacking started when he was 13 years old. He was able to simulate the 2600-hertz pulse used by Ma Bell to shuttle calls, by whistling through his braces. The computer revolution barely started when he when he became a phreaker. Unlike Mittnick, Poulsen always kept to the code of hacker ethics. He conducted in "legal" hacking until he started to have run-ins with the police. At age 17, Poulsen was caught for breaking into the Defense Department's system. After that, he started to look for a legitimate job as a computer programmer. He started working at a computer firm, SRI international. There, along with his boss, he continued to break into networks. At that point, the FBI started to investigate Poulsen, which led him to become a fugitive. Soon after that, Poulsen was featured on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries. (http://tr.livinginternet.com/i/ia_hackers_poulsen.htm) In April of 1993, Poulsen was indicted on nineteen counts of computer fraud, wiretapping, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Poulsen was also charge with fraudulent winning of two Porsches, $22,000 in cash, and a trip to Hawaii. (Littman, 277) In June of 1994 Poulsen pled guilty to seven counts of mail, wire, and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. (Littman, 279) The indictments were in separate jurisdictions. The government estimated that if convicted of all counts, the hacker would face $4.75 million dollars in fines and a maximum of one hundred year's imprisonment. (Littman, 277) Finally in February of 1995, Poulsen was sentenced to a term of fifty-one months and ordered to pay $56 thousand dollars in restitution. His best known hack was taking over all of the telephone lines for a Los Angeles radio station, guaranteeing that he would be the 102nd caller, and winning a Porsche 944 S2. (http://tr.livinginternet.com/i/ia_hackers_poulsen.html) All true hackers have their own set of ethics. The ethics of this type hacker are much different than the ones listed above. A true hacker goes by his or her own ethical code, respecting the computers he or she works on and the hacks. A real hacker would be considered an ethical hacker as opposed to the crackers whose only objective is to gain information and money illegally. An example of a Code of Ethics of an ethical hacker would be the following: Another successful hack that turned out to be destructive was the Morris Internet Worm of 1988. (Schwartu, 34) Claiming that it was an accident a student by the name of Robert Tappen Morris created an experimental, self-replicating, self-protecting program called a worm and released it into the Internet. This worm brought most of the Internet to a grinding halt. He created this program in order to test security flaws. The program took advantage of a hole in the debug mode of the UNIX sendmail program, which runs on a system and waits for other systems to connect to it and give it email. (http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/info/guide/The_Internet_Worm.html) The program was written to spread across computers using the flaws, but spread faster than he had anticipated. The program infected 10% of all the computers on the Internet causing them to slow down and crash.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2526
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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