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Hacking is sweeping the world over; the underworld of predominately young white male teenagers is infiltrating government, huge conglomerate, and small business computers. How dare they? What about the freedom of privacy? What is happening to the ideals of society? These things were already there. Society is changing rapidly, it's problems are growing more definite, and terrifying. Statistics and studies show that the problems of today compared to the problems of the 40's have grown in magnitude, and will only get worse. We have a uncertain and drama filled future. It seems as though the information age has evolved along with society, and created problems and concerns within itself. A virtual community has been formed. It has it's own love affairs, scandals, celebrities, and crime. The crimes, though, seem to have rocked the real world and made its presence known. The information superhighway is so new, copyright laws, privacy rights, and communication rules have not been thoroughly established.
The first major computer crime bust, Operation Sun Devil, proved fruitless compared to the expense as the knowledge needed to understand the crime was not understood. The Bill of Rights is confused in this environment; right and wrong are not so clear anymore. Computers are a new frontier and is akin to the earliest settlers claiming land that was virgin to civilization. Territories are being etched out, gangs created, and wars fought. This is one of the most important wars, the war for knowledge; the most valuable commodity of the upcoming century.
These young people that are breaking into computers have the ability, and therefore, in and of themselves, they are a valuable commodity, and they cannot be touched. Operation Sun Devil was unsuccessful because the law enforcement officials could not comprehend what they were against. They did not understand the enemy, and the enemy knew the competition. The hackers could control the communication, impersonate authorities, hide incriminating evidence, almost anything, if they so chose. In the new information age, they are unstoppable. Hackers learn the system, and make it work for them; they do not work to destroy it. Hackers discover and maintain cyberbia, as it were, a new world of code and power, communication, and information. These cyber-pioneers are the driving force behind this new frontier, the ones that are defining it and making it more like the real world. They find the breaks and holes in the system, and make them into entrance holes for intrusion, and centers of information and communication. They create loopholes for themselves in order to explore computers that they themselves cannot afford. These victim computers become hackers' playtoys. There are moral judgments to be made and comparisons to be drawn. Hackers are essentially explorers, leading the way for new technology to be invented and copyrighted to send this nation ahead.
An annual conference, MacHack, is where a large amount of Microsoft and Macintosh programmers are discovered. These are the people that are helping America financially. Without the harmless trespassing that they do, they would not understand the technology. The fact is, by this trespassing, what have they gained? Practically nothing, aside from the negligible cost of network access and use of the Central Processing Unit. Aside from that, knowledge was their only gain. Those few that do know industry secrets do not sell them or reveal them, because that would defeat their cause. Hackers do not want anyone to know that they had ever been trespassing. A hacker's number one rule is to hack something big, but not to get caught. Getting discovered means an increase in security, and the loss of the ability to get back in. Whenever a hacker gets caught, security and surveillance on the computer lines everywhere is increased, making some backdoors previously established inaccessible, and ruining planned exploits. One must remember, that their intent in hacking is not malicious, it is just curiosity. Some things do get ruined, as, unfortunately, they inevitably will, as it does in any sort of expedition into unknown enviroments.
The hacker underground is a lively bunch, ranging in age from fourteen to early twenties, the average is about sixteen. They are predominantly male with a penchant for mischief and testing the limits set for them. Membership into "gangs" in cyberspace is varied, and always leaves room to get caught. These people wish nothing else than to see their excellent computer skills put to the test. Their mentality is if they are not given that chance to display and hone their talents in an lawful way, it may as well be in an unlawful one. These members of cyberspace are curious, and need something to occupy themselves with that is interesting, and the current job market has no openings for those of limited on-the-job experience, but a huge amount of expertise and knowledge. Although, the previous descriptions only apply to an part of the so-called "elite" group.
The average "hacker" has text files, hangs out in the "hack" or "phreak" channel hoping to catch a glimpse of an elite and then pouncing on him when one comes in. The average hacker hasn't really done too much, but has big dreams and stories to tell. "Elites" are identified by keeping silent and being a demi-god to the "lamerz." Lamerz are those that are not fluent in the workings of the computer medium and fall pray to the elites comments. One common way the average or elite hacker gets rid of a room full of lamerz is to tell them to push a combination of keys in order to prove that they are not lame. The inexperienced comply in order not to be left out and in hopes of learning some trick to impress others with. They soon learn that no one is to be trusted, especially hackers, as they are thrust out of the room, or sometimes, even off their server by their own eagerness not to miss a thing.
There is another group of underground minions, an relative of the hacker, called Crackers. They are known for their notorious knowledge in breaking into, or cracking open, computers with security measures installed. They have tools designed especially for stealth and employ these on all varieties of computers. They are convinced that if there is sensitive information on a computer that is unprotected, then it deserves to be utilized at their leisure. Every member of the online community is confronted with well illustrated comparisons of morality. Is hacking into someone else's personal files unauthorized akin to going into someone else's dwelling and trespassing? Many hackers see where this analogy is drawn from, but think that hacking is not a crime. They feel that their interest is not on the information itself that is acquired, but the wisdom and elation begot from the action. Hackers therefore feel as though, in an sense, the did not violate the person at all, they used the person's attempt at security measures to gain experience. This very philosophy is important, as the technology needed to comprehend this morality has not, until now, been necessary. In an on-line hacker's conference in 1990, two hackers, Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak, presented themselves as authorities on this issue. As a response to Phiber Optik's display of one of the conference guest's credit history, ( John Barlow, an author) Acid explains how having the ability of hacking is profitable for all.
files on what color and religion we are? If you didn't
know that they kept such files, who would have found
out if it wasn't for a hacker? Barlow should be grateful
that Optik offered his services to update him on his
personal credit file.
Hackers are an old group, started in 1959. The first true group of hackers were The Tech Railroad Club. They were a group of students at MIT that found that the wiring and relay switchers of the trains were not unlike those of the computer. Thus began a short history of hackers. The hackers of old are all but gone now, for the were masters of ideology and thought. Those of today are of practice, persistence, and the greed of knowledge. They are not the socially accepted hackers, this generation, but those that are victims of dissension and aggravation. Hackers of today are a new breed, and are exposed to doubt of their prowess, and a new force in the law that is starting to learn how to stop them. The general public do not seem to realize that the real hackers not only have excellent programming skills, irrefutable knowledge of the ways of information, wisdom of getting any kind of information, but today's hacker has also developed an skill the hackers of the past did not need, the utilization of invisibility. Today's average hackers and "elite" are not the highest achievers in the hacking scene. The highest are the real unknowns that gradually leak out hints to tease. They are the real hacker, and people will never realize their genius until they lose it.
The goverment is building up a knowledge base, but blowly. In 1990, a case that the city of Chicago dropped charges against a young man they were hoping to make an example of. Craig Neidrof bacame a symbol of how a mere adolecent could make fools of the federal goverment. A well known gang in cyber space, called the Legion of Doom, pleaded guilty to disrupting the 911 emergency system after being raided by the Secret Service. Neidorf was simmaliarly radied, and a file was found that was "described by law-enforcement officials as a computer program that controlled 911 emergency services (Wallich 38, Scientific American)." was found to be published in his self published newsletter, Phrack. Later, this "program" was quoted by BellSouth, the owner of the document, to be worth "precisely $79,449.00. and not a penny less (Barlow, Crime and Puzzlement)," and was said by the same sources that the E911 document (the"E" standing for enhanced) was was said to be "a highly proprietary and sensitive document (Mungo 219, Approaching Zero)" Neidorf had all software and data, including his list of subscribers, and was being threatened with 30 years in jail, an 122,000.00 fine. Later, the document was found by Neidorfs lawyers to be neither valuable nor of any use in shuting down anything, least of all the entire 911 system.
E911 information was available from local bookstore
and libaries. Furthurmore, by dailing a free 1-800
number, two publications could be obtained from
Bellcore for $34 which contained even more detailed
information. Mungo 219, Approaching Zero).
The most well documented form of crime is computer trespassing. The value and control of information is far exceeding that of any material commodity. Almost all of this data is being stored in computers, which are accessible to employees, and hackers. The protection of this information seems to be either lax or impossible, as the world's supposedly most secure computer systems are repeatedly broke into. Perhaps the answer is that this information could not be stored electronically and accessible to the outside world. It seems as though sensitive information is being trusted to machines that cannot keep a secret. The hacker breaks into those computers that have sensitive information, for the almost sole purpose of gaining prestige and acceptance amongst like minded peers. The penalties for wire fraud and computer trespassing vary greatly from state to state; therefore attempting to educate the reader on the penalties of each state would be an document in and of itself. If one would like a look at a well written code, the Texas Computer Crime law is a good start. It is a well rounded and thought and clearly illustrates the concerns of the nation on the subject of computer crime.
Computer criminals will not be stopped by crackdowns or raids, but by an induction of morality that will instill in them the ability to help society with their talents. This is the only way our nation will maintain it's competitive edge, but embracing its technologically advanced youth to grow in the direction of production and wealth. Not by forcing their talents and inquisitiveness down their throats.
This is a great cource of informatipon of the most recent computercrimes that have been commite and about our world in cyberbia in general. Something to look at regularly just to know who the bad guys are and what they are doing.
missx@berkshire.net