Information Nation
Editor's Note: February 5, 2000
Media Outcasts: Why Blame Hackers?
For the longest time, people have blamed every single computer
problem or security problem on hackers. Keyword there is
hackers. See, ever since the beginning,
the media has given hackers a bad name. In the public's eye
all they are set to do is to cause pandamoneum, use your
credit card for illegal purposes, open your bank account, and
steal very important government secrets. But the truth is
there are two very different types of people over the Internet.
The first one is hackers. Hackers are individuals who are
not out to destroy, damage, or harm your system. These
individuals are only out to gain information, and information
these days is sacred. The more you know, the more knowledge
you posess, and the government tries to keep what you know
to a certain level. Hackers go beyond this level, and get
the information that you should know about that the government
restricts from you.
On the other hand there are crackers. These are the people
that steal credit cards, change passwords, implement viruses,
and are the real enemies that we on the Internet have to
look out for.
Every time I hear someone refer to someone doing damage to
their system a "hacker." I, myself, even went so far as to
get suspended because I beat someone up who calls himself a
hacker, and was putting viruses on the machines at school.
Now, say that a hacker was browsing around the school's
computer system, and got a password to, say, disable the
security system. Now, that hacker would use the password
to find out what kind of things on the network there were
interesting. For example, school issues, board meetings, etc...
On the other hand, take a the same situation with a cracker.
One of the first things a cracker would do is change passwords,
put viruses on the computer system, and continue to make
life for the technicians a living hell.
For more information I refer you to the Hackers.Com
so you can learn more about what hackers really do.
I also refer you to these sites:
2600 Magazine
KevinMitnick.Com
Please write me
with your comments on this matter.
Sincerely,
Joe Cosentino
