HOW COMPUTER HACKING HAS INCREASED
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘hacker’? You probably have a picture of an unwashed teenage boy in a darkened room, typing furiously at his computer, trying to break into other people’s computers and steal information from all around the world. The only part of that description that might be correct is the ‘boy’. Generally speaking, hackers are male – although one reason for that statistic may be that female hackers often use male screen names. Interestingly, the connection between the word ‘hacker’ and the idea of ‘crime’ is a relatively recent development.
When the study of computers and computer science first began in the 1950s and 1960s, a ‘hack’ was a term used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to describe a clever or beautiful solution to a problem. A hacker was a person who came up with this solution. In those days a computer filled an entire room. Students amused themselves by ‘playing’, finding the limits of this new science, and by breaking into other people’s systems. There was no criminal intention behind this. Why do people climb Everest? Because it’s there. Why did hackers break into computers? Because they wanted to see if they could.
By the 1980s, the number of computers in use had grown considerably, and so had the number of hackers. Society as a whole was more dependent on computers. In the 1960s nobody cared much about a computer that didn’t work; but by the 1980s it had become a serious issue. The British and US governments passed laws criminalising hacking. In the US there were a series of clampdowns throughout the following years, culminating in Operation ‘Sundevil’ in 1990 when FBI agents arrested people across 14 states. If this clampdown was intended to put an end to hacking, it failed.
The cyber world had begun to change – but not the hackers. They stayed the same, their name just took on a new meaning. From the early days at MIT hackers had had little respect for those in power. IBM was hated for being traditional, ordered and too respectful of the machine. A new set of laws wasn’t going to stop them. In fact, it just made the challenge that much bigger and more exciting.
As the use of computers continued to spread, a new generation of hackers grew up, keen to demonstrate what they could do. Many hackers start their careers breaking into websites and leaving graffiti. But this is seen as a lowest form of hacking (though not as low as being caught). Operating at a completely different skill level, one hacker, going by the name Mafiaboy, made his name by crashing the websites of Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and CNN. Another, Dark Dante, hacked into the telephone lines of a radio show in order to become the 102nd caller on the show and win a Porsche.
These new hackers fall into two main groups depending on what they are hacking and why. The ‘white hats’ are the good guys and the ‘black’ hats are the bad guys - though ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are not necessarily absolute moral values in cyberspace. The ‘black hats’ are the ones that governments want to catch and lock up; the ‘white hats’ are the people that governments and large companies want on their side. Facebook, for example, has a ‘white hat programme’ where they offer rewards to hackers who tell them about problems with their system.
If hacking was something that started in the US, it is truly a worldwide activity now. There are groups all over the world. In China and Russia, it is believed that many hackers actually work for their governments. And what explains this growth? Probably not an improvement in the teaching of computing. More likely
it’s the fact you can download programs off the internet that get would-be hackers off to a good start. Mind you, if you’re thinking of doing that, make sure you’re wearing your white hat.
Discuss the questions.
- How serious a problem do you think hacking is?
- Has you computer ever been hacked into? If so, what happened?
- Do you know anyone whose computer has been hacked into? If so, what happened?
- What do you do to try and stop hacking?
- Should the police or the government be allowed to hack into anyone’s computer if the think they are a criminal?
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