Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to touch on the issue of Hacking. It will go into detail about the history, evolution, future and prevention of Hacking. In addition, this paper will discuss different types of hackers and their motivation behind hacking. This paper examines the major impact caused by malicious hackers and give modern examples of such attacks. To conclude, it will predict how hacking will be in the near future and give the precautionary measures Information Security professionals can take to mitigate the risk of being victimized.
What is Hacking?
In the early days of computing, a hacker was primarily referred to as a computer guru, someone who is extremely technical with a high expertise in computer also known as “Expert Programmers”. Nevertheless, as technology is advancing at a face pace, hacking has adopted a completely different definition. The modern definition is someone who access a computer system primarily to steal or destroy information. Hacking has caused major harm in the realm of technology. Over the years, hackers have become much more lethal in their craft. They manage to break into complex information systems from entities such as banks, government agencies, and private businesses. Furthermore, they often manipulate their victims through social engineering in order to obtain financial benefits. Hackers hold different label such as: black hat hacker and white hat hacker in which all have their own motives.
History of
Modern day technology has changed the ways in which people purchase products and services. In the twenty-first century, all business has pretty much converted over to the electronic payment systems. One swipe of a credit card and immediately the data transmits through a gateway onto the payee 's bank processing link. However, during the disbursement of data is when more than forty-three million people’s debt or credit card information becomes promised. May of these computer programs assume the title of Hackers. A hacker is one who installs malicious software onto individuals compter’s or computers networks. In hopes of gaining unauthorized access to sensitive information on the victim 's computer.
In today’s modern society, to which a well-developed information technology has been applied, it is getting more and more inevitable to use it in our everyday life, since people can store and access to their private information in one place without difficulty. However, this is also the danger of it, as it has become much easier for a third-party to collect and steal information online. Consequently, many cautious company and institutions are aware and well prepared for the potential cyber data hack attacks. (Bennett, 1992)
There are many Computer Science myths that are propagated throughout modern media. These technical myths can be seen as positive and sometimes negative. A big myth that is often propagated is the idea of hacking as an individual. Hackers are seen to possess a sort of superpower that allows them to hack anything alone. In movies and tv shows, hackers are shown to be able to infiltrate everything from social media accounts to governments. I want to debunk the myth that hacking is not done quickly by a single person like we see in the movies. Instead, to be the most effective, hackers form groups which enables them to solve difficult problems in a timely manner.
“We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon…but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession. It won’t be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located.” Quoted from an Anonymous member. (Schiller, A.6.) Computer hacking began in the 1950s with an individual looking out for his own personal gains; like free phone calls for instance. The perception of hackers ever since has become very negative. Hacking has evolved over time, with many modern hackers following their own set of values that they believe are, arguably positive motives.
Computer hacking generates a lot of controversy these days. Hacking involves the use of computer skills to penetrate a network or a computer mostly to obtain protected and sensitive information. Computer hackers are generally of two types - white hat hackers and black hat hackers. White hat hackers use their computer skills for constructive purposes while black hat hackers use their skills for nefarious activities. To prosecute black hat hackers, different countries have put in place special IT law provisions.
Cyber terrorism is a new class of threat to the world. This is one of the extreme cases of hacking. Here, instead of physical terror efforts are focused upon attacking information systems or resources especially using World Wide Web. Cyber terrorists use computer systems and software to create violence and loss by breaking security of target systems or by stealing/corrupting computer systems. Unlike hackers, Cyber terrorists usually work under political or ideological influence and always more harmful than a hacker. However it’s always possible that a hacker can turn into a cyber terrorist by providing his technical skills to perform terrorist activities. Hacker himself can be a terrorist or can be hired by terrorist organizations for hacking. In this case, we see overlaps between hacking and cyber terrorism activities.
The world has been undergoing persistent transformation which some have been attributed to the changing developments in science and technology. In particular, information and communication technology is one of the most celebrated developments. Indeed, information technology has changed the lives of people
Hacking is generally accompanied by a negative connotation. In this article, however, the reader is subjected to a new definition of hacking, and it is extremely progressive and interesting. In their abstract, authors Gregory Donovan and Cindi Katz state “we focus on these issues through the lens of technological interactions known as ‘hacking,’ wherein people playfully engage computer technologies for the intrinsic pleasure of seeing what they can do” (197). It is clear from this sentence that these authors have a unique outlook on hacking, and as the reader gets farther into the article he or she begins to derive the ultimate goal of the article: to depict hacking not as a negative thing, but rather one of a beneficial, mind-developing learning tool for children to better understand computers and technology that they will be using for their whole lives.
Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.
On the internet there are billions of people logged on at one time. Among these users are, different types of hackers: white, grey, and black hat hackers. White hat hackers are hackers that try to put a stop to mischievous acts from cheating in a video game to corporate espionage. Black hat
There are several variations of hackers and all of them are referred to by a color of hat. We will start with the “White Hat”. These are generally the ethical hackers someone who for non-malicious reasons will break into their own security system for testing purposes. This classification
Hackers can benefit from a wide range of weaknesses in security, break into systems, find the information they need, and eventually change them to fulfill their desire. This, over the years, has resulted in great deals of information loss in big companies throughout the world, causing them to not functioning properly or eventually break apart. This is precisely
Ethical hackers are employed to protect networks and computers from attacks from non-ethical hackers who illegally penetrate computers to access private and sensitive information. Though they possess technical skills to those of an unethical hacker, an ethical hacker utilizes these skills for
Hacking is the process of attempting to gain or successfully gain, unauthorized access to computer resources. Nowadays this technology has become a crime due to these aspects, we should not neglect using the technologies for such criminal aspects, and instead we can use it in the better manner like security purpose.
The human dependence on technology has been increasing rapidly because humans are trying to incorporate technology in every aspect of life. The increasing dependence on technology in today’s world has led to an increased level of vulnerability of the private information of the people. Most of the technology being used today is open to attack and can be hacked. According to CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, 80 percent of the U.S. companies have been hacked successfully [PHYS ORG, website]. Thus, cyber-security is a major concern in today’s world. One of the major causes of vulnerabilities found in cyber-security is the acts done by people either performed deliberately or accidentally.