Hacker

7 Pages 1806 Words

“I am a hacker, enter my world now” (Mentor). These are the words of The Mentor, one of the most famous anonymous hackers in history. He is known for forming several hacker groups and his famous “Hacker’s Manifesto.” In this infamous document he states the principles of the hacker, the way they think, and how they came to being. Which brings up the question, what do they think? What principles do they live by? Why are they who they are? It is hard to explain it, but for starters it would be recommended to differentiate a hacker from a cracker. A cracker is “one who attempts to break into a system via crack/guessing user passwords” (CandyMan). Most of these crackers are merely “young teenage punks” who just wish to get a “kick” out of “destroying or alternating data” (CandyMan). Yet, a hacker is only “an individual who yearns for knowledge” (CandyMan), which fits Mentor’s statement that hackers “seek after knowledge.” So, why is it that we see headlines and news reports on cyber warfare and cyber terrorism in which the word most repeated is “hacker?” According to Joel Snyder, columnist for Internet World magazine, true hacking “used to exist” and what prevails now is “the new digital terrorism.” Therefore, what is there to say about hackers? Should we be blaming these acts of cyber terrorism on crackers instead? Or are they the same as hackers? The truth is that it doesn’t matter that much since the importance is to end these cyber crimes, but is this possible?
Cyber terrorism began appearing since the dawn of the Internet. It has only been a couple of years since it has become a subculture, an actual problem. An article in the Washington Times spoke of the new warfare, not nuclear warfare, but cyber warfare. There is “evidence that Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, India, and Azerbaijan” (Maier) have tried to enter US computer systems in search of information useful for their countries. A...