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Hacker - Fr
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Hacker - Friend or Foe?
Hackers have been described by Hollywood films and the
press as a sort of modern Knight Errant that rights the wrongs of a
corrupt technological society by exposing the machinations of the bad guys.
The hacker is seen as more Robin Hood than Al Capone.
The hacker can enter a website and change its contents. He
or she can enter a database and change its contents.
Such potentially malicious hacking contradicts Kant's
"categorical imperative" that says an action is good if it contributes to a
universal law. If hacking were part of a universal law, all systems could be
hacked, all computer users could be hackers, and the Internet would be
inoperable.
An extreme example of the dangers of hacking is the denial
of service to a computer in a hospital. Suppose a computer is disabled ether
directly by hacking or indirectly by a virus. The life of a patient may be
directly affected; for example, the result of a vital test may be delayed.
Hackers who do harm by creating viruses or worms sometimes
use the defense that they are acting in the public good by exposing
potentially dangerous loopholes in the system. This argument is rather like
shooting a policeman and then claiming that you were really trying to
promote better body armor.
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The
term "hacking" has more than one meaning. It's root meaning comes from the
normal meaning of hacking; that is, to cut or slash in a disorganized
fashion. Hackers were one people who constructed hardware at home on the
kitchen table or workbench. Today, hacking is used in two senses. The
first is to describe someone who creates code rapidly (with a strong hint of
unstructured programming). The second is to describe someone who enjoys (as
an intellectual challenge) getting round the rules and accessing computer
systems that are supposed to be protected from unauthorized access. It is
this definition of hacking that we use when we discuss the ethical issues
raised by hacking. Some also use the term cybertrespassing to
describe this activity.
One of the images of the hacker is that of a community-spirited public
defender who protects us against the unreasonable power of large
corporations. This hacker gets into systems by cracking passwords and
reveals to us all the company's dark secrets. This hacker is an
investigative journalist for our age.
Another version of the hacker is someone who accesses systems and wreaks
havoc, not for the greater good of the community, but for his or her own
malicious pleasure. |
The Hacker Toolbox
Traditional hacking involves breaking into a system, an
operation now called cybertrespassing.
One a hacker has entered a system, the hacker may leave a
so-called Trojan Horse behind. This is a mechanism that allows the computer
to be accessed more easily in the future.
Two activities associated with hacking are the virus and
the worm. A virus is a self-replicating program. Some definitions of
virus state that this self-replicating program is destructive or
causes damage. That is, not necessarily so. A virus is simply a program that
moves from one machine to another by replicating itself at each
machine. The virus may carry a payload that performs a malicious act.
A virus is normally stored on a computer's had disk.
A worm is also a self-replicating program. However, the
worm is specifically designer to attack networks rather than computers by
multiplying to such an extend that all available bandwidth is consumed and
normal traffic comes to a halt. Worms are transient objects and normally
reside in immediate access memory rather than on disk.
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 Robert Morris
Love Bug |
 Are hackers all
bad?
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Professor Alan
Clements
School of Computing
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough TS1 3BA
England |
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iend or Foe?
Hackers have been described by Hollywood films and the
press as a sort of modern Knight Errant that rights the wrongs of a
corrupt technological society by exposing the machinations of the bad guys.
The hacker is seen as more Robin Hood than Al Capone.
The hacker can enter a website and change its contents. He
or she can enter a database and change its contents.
Such potentially malicious hacking contradicts Kant's
"categorical imperative" that says an action is good if it contributes to a
universal law. If hacking were part of a universal law, all systems could be
hacked, all computer users could be hackers, and the Internet would be
inoperable.
An extreme example of the dangers of hacking is the denial
of service to a computer in a hospital. Suppose a computer is disabled ether
directly by hacking or indirectly by a virus. The life of a patient may be
directly affected; for example, the result of a vital test may be delayed.
Hackers who do harm by creating viruses or worms sometimes
use the defense that they are acting in the public good by exposing
potentially dangerous loopholes in the system. This argument is rather like
shooting a policeman and then claiming that you were really trying to
promote better body armor.
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The
term "hacking" has more than one meaning. It's root meaning comes from the
normal meaning of hacking; that is, to cut or slash in a disorganized
fashion. Hackers were one people who constructed hardware at home on the
kitchen table or workbench. Today, hacking is used in two senses. The
first is to describe someone who creates code rapidly (with a strong hint of
unstructured programming). The second is to describe someone who enjoys (as
an intellectual challenge) getting round the rules and accessing computer
systems that are supposed to be protected from unauthorized access. It is
this definition of hacking that we use when we discuss the ethical issues
raised by hacking. Some also use the term cybertrespassing to
describe this activity.
One of the images of the hacker is that of a community-spirited public
defender who protects us against the unreasonable power of large
corporations. This hacker gets into systems by cracking passwords and
reveals to us all the company's dark secrets. This hacker is an
investigative journalist for our age.
Another version of the hacker is someone who accesses systems and wreaks
havoc, not for the greater good of the community, but for his or her own
malicious pleasure. |
The Hacker Toolbox
Traditional hacking involves breaking into a system, an
operation now called cybertrespassing.
One a hacker has entered a system, the hacker may leave a
so-called Trojan Horse behind. This is a mechanism that allows the computer
to be accessed more easily in the future.
Two activities associated with hacking are the virus and
the worm. A virus is a self-replicating program. Some definitions of
virus state that this self-replicating program is destructive or
causes damage. That is, not necessarily so. A virus is simply a program that
moves from one machine to another by replicating itself at each
machine. The virus may carry a payload that performs a malicious act.
A virus is normally stored on a computer's had disk.
A worm is also a self-replicating program. However, the
worm is specifically designer to attack networks rather than computers by
multiplying to such an extend that all available bandwidth is consumed and
normal traffic comes to a halt. Worms are transient objects and normally
reside in immediate access memory rather than on disk.
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