Ethical and Unethical Hackers
Ethical and Unethical Hackers
When we hear the word hacker we think of a person who has gained access to a system they do not have permission to access. “The first generation of hackers who emerged in the 1960s was individuals who would be called technology enthusiasts today. These early hackers would go on to create the foundation for technologies and the Internet such as the ARPANET” (Oriyano and Michael 2). They also initiated many early software development movements that led to what is known today as open source. Hacking was motivated by intellectual curiosity; causing damage or stealing information was against the rules for this small number of people. In the 1980s, hackers started gaining more of the negative connotations by which the public now identifies them. Movies such as War Games and media attention started altering the image of a hacker from a technology enthusiast to a computer criminal (“Hacking History”). During this time period, hackers engaged in activities such as theft of service by breaking into phone systems to make free phone calls. In many respects, the 1980s formed the basis for what a hacker is today. “Over the past two decades, the definition of what a hacker is has evolved dramatically from what was accepted in the 1980s and even the 1990s” (Oriyano and Michael 3). Hacker has become such a universal term. However, there are experience hackers who never break the law, and who define hacking as producing an outcome the system designer never anticipated. Some act with good intentions, others with bad intentions, and yet others with a mixture of both. No matter what the intentions were, the outcomes of their actions affected the world in some way. When popular organizations such as Microsoft and Apple were founded, they open a new and free attitude towards software development evolved (“Hacking History”). However the good came along with the bad. Some hackers were more interested in their own personal gain and strived to circumvent
When we hear the word hacker we think of a person who has gained access to a system they do not have permission to access. “The first generation of hackers who emerged in the 1960s was individuals who would be called technology enthusiasts today. These early hackers would go on to create the foundation for technologies and the Internet such as the ARPANET” (Oriyano and Michael 2). They also initiated many early software development movements that led to what is known today as open source. Hacking was motivated by intellectual curiosity; causing damage or stealing information was against the rules for this small number of people. In the 1980s, hackers started gaining more of the negative connotations by which the public now identifies them. Movies such as War Games and media attention started altering the image of a hacker from a technology enthusiast to a computer criminal (“Hacking History”). During this time period, hackers engaged in activities such as theft of service by breaking into phone systems to make free phone calls. In many respects, the 1980s formed the basis for what a hacker is today. “Over the past two decades, the definition of what a hacker is has evolved dramatically from what was accepted in the 1980s and even the 1990s” (Oriyano and Michael 3). Hacker has become such a universal term. However, there are experience hackers who never break the law, and who define hacking as producing an outcome the system designer never anticipated. Some act with good intentions, others with bad intentions, and yet others with a mixture of both. No matter what the intentions were, the outcomes of their actions affected the world in some way. When popular organizations such as Microsoft and Apple were founded, they open a new and free attitude towards software development evolved (“Hacking History”). However the good came along with the bad. Some hackers were more interested in their own personal gain and strived to circumvent