Hackers – The Good Essay, Research Paper
Hackers, Good or Evil??
By: Christopher A. Busillo
Imagine this, you are driving along the road and suddenly you see something spectacular. Now imagine that you are not allowed to deviate from your course to check it out. This is what a so-called hacker faces. Just imagine that you saw an injured person on the side of the road. In this analogy you are not allowed to help the injured person. A hacker is not allowed to explore like everyone else in the world. A hacker is not allowed to help fix potential security holes. The term hacker can have many meanings. The most visible to the public is the person pirating software, and breaking into corporate networks and destroying information. This is the public misconception of a hacker. Back in the Unix days, a hack was simply a quick and dirty way of doing something. Hackers in those days were basically just computer experts. Nowadays hacker means the same thing as a cracker, a person who pirates software, and malicious hackers. The media, of course, never prints the good things hackers do. Most hackers provide a service to companies, by letting the company know about security holes, before a rival exploits it. Most hackers want nothing more than to simply learn. A hacker has an extreme thirst for knowledge, but not in the traditional subjects. Technology, and anything new interest hackers. In fact most security experts start out but learning and hacking. The bad view of hackers is not completely false. There are hackers out there that will do there best to harm any system hey can, but most want nothing more than to find the beauty in system, or network. To hackers vast networks, and the inside of a firewall that was meant to keep them out, are the most beautiful sights on Earth. In every aspect of life there are people who exploit others. Murders, robbers, or any other criminals come from every walk of life. Even hackers have some, but like the general population, it is a small percentage. Most people would call the whole Linux community hackers, because anyone who has the knowledge to run Unix must be a hacker. This show what good hackers can do. The entire Unix GNU community is run by hackers. They all contribute toward a free operating system. They all work out the bugs, and then distribute it for free. Hackers got tired of paying for an OS that did not work well. So they all worked together Today Linux is one of the fastest growing OS s on the planet. Many would say that Linux is buggy simply because its free, but it s made by the same people who can get into any computer, or write any program to fit their needs. All Hackers are not good, but then again, all people are not good. In any case, the hacker community as a whole, has done many things for end uses. First of all they help companies make they transactions securer. Second they help develop new code, and help work the bugs out of old code. And lastly, all hackers really want to do is learn. Even if it means breaking in to a computer. Most hackers break in simply to learn. Very few will touch any data. A hackers goal is for the systems administator to never even know that the hacker was in the system in the first place. The Hacker s Manifesto by the Mentor, is a classic example of how hackers feel that the rest of the world does not understand us. It shows how hackers were once shunned from society and created their own underground society. In fact 2600 Magazine has been published since the early eighties. Many articles are in this magazine about how hackers are merely misunderstood. This is the most famous article: Hackers Manifesto By: +++The Mentor+++ Another one got caught today, it’s all over the papers. “Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal”, “Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering”… Damn kids. They’re all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950’s technobrain, Ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, What forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world… Mine is a world that begins with school… I’m smarter than most of the other kids, This crap they teach us bores me… Damn underachiever. They’re all alike. I’m in junior high or high school. I’ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time How to reduce a fraction. I understand it. “No, Ms. Smith, I didn’t show my work. I did it in my head…” Damn kid. Probably copied it. They’re all alike. I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it’s because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn’t like me… Or feels threatened by me… Or thinks I’m a smart ass… Or doesn’t like teaching and shouldn’t be here… Damn kid. All he does is play games. They’re all alike. And then it happened… a door opened to a world… Rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict’s veins, An electronic pulse is sent out, A refuge from the day-to-day incompetence is sought… A board is found. “This is it… this is where I belong…” I know everyone here… even if I’ve never met him or her, Never talked to them, may never hear from them again… I know you all… Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They’re all alike… You bet your ass we’re all alike… We’ve been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak… The bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We’ve been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, But those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now… the world of the electron and the switch, The beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing, Without paying for what could be dirt-cheap, If it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, And you call us criminals. We explore…and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge…and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, Without nationality, Without religious bias… And you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, You wage wars, You murder, Cheat, and lie to us, And try to make us believe it’s for our own good, Yet we’re the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, Not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, Something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, But you can’t stop us all… After all, we’re all alike. +++The Mentor+++