CyberCrime: What is Hacking?

In today’s digital world, most Americans leave long electronic trails of private information wherever they go. But too often, that data is compromised. When they shop—whether online or at brick and mortar stores—retailers gain access to their credit card numbers. Medical institutions maintain patient records, which are increasingly electronic. Corporations store copious customer lists and employee Social Security numbers. These types of data frequently get loose. Hackers gain entry to improperly protected networks, thieves steal employee laptops or disgruntled workers pilfer company information.

Such actions are often called hacking. Hacking is the use of computer skills to gain unauthorized access to computer resources. Hackers are highly skilled computer users that use their talents to gain such access, and often form communities or networks with other hackers to share knowledge and data.

Hacking in itself is not a new affair; it is more the vast availability of computers that has revolutionized the network security sector. ("The Era of the Personal Computer" http://hoc.co.umist.ac.uk/storylines/compdev/pcera/pcera.html). The fact that computers where becoming very cheap opened the market to common home users, and computers became very commercialized. Although this was a great benefit, it also posed a great threat. When the internet was launched connecting millions of "home PCs", Commercial Business Servers, and even some Government computers, the arena for hackers was finally , fully opened.

In the article, “Shopping for Privacy on the Internet,” James P. Nehf states that “… [Our] consumer privacy in the United States is largely the responsibility of individuals who are expected to guard their personal information and take steps to minimize the risk that it will be used in an unauthorized way” (Nehf, 351). Fortunately, there are multiple routes you can take to help protect and preserve your personal information, such as doing something as simple as changing passwords and double checking all the links we click or be cautious of websites we encounter that has strange behavior. However, technology also has a small catch: putting your private information at risk for invasion. Just when you believe our personal materials are guaranteed safety, the same content can be hacked or tapped into by a person or group of individuals with the knowledge of how to work a computer, they can use this skill for negative intentions. Knowing that technology is constantly changing, we must understand just how much our personal information is at threat. In many cases it seems as if you need to be a step ahead of the criminal.

Information can be attained through friends /relatives, accessed as part of a transaction, taken by a corrupt employee at any institution used, through mail, computer spyware, virus, hackers, and email, also out of the trash (Katel, Peter). The average American ignores the risks that everyday activities put it in. Ignorance is never an excuse when something of such substantial value becomes compromised, nor does it rectify the damages.

Laws reflect these views. In the United States there are multiple laws that forbid hacking. 18U.S.C § 1029 focuses on the creation, distribution, and use of codes and devices hackers can use to gain unauthorized access to systems, however the way the law is written talks about only the use or creation of the device with the intentions of using it to commit fraud, so a hacker can just claim he was just using it to learn how security systems

The ethical issues surrounding hacking, stem from several sources mainly dealing with order and control, and information ownership. What is difficult to decipher from all the media hoopla surrounding the terms, "hacker" and "hacking" is both the simultaneous sensationalism and the condemnation of said activities. Of course just recently, even a movie was made and was appropriately called Hackers. The term and all that it implies has truly entered our popular consciousness when Hollywood has made a box office movie on it. As the advancement of computer technologies and systems of information become increasingly more and more complex in today's fast paced modern world and said technologies become an integral

It is defined as the “use of a computer to gain unauthorized access to data in a system,” but I tend to use the term more generally. Hacking to me means to gain an advantage. Growing up around computers and understanding their components, I can attribute my knowledge to the modernizing and re-culturing society. Yet, my developing skills have never come close to the horrendous acts of crime, treason, and hatred that others developed on the computer. Real knowledge about technology is chilling. If parents are to fear one thing now and in the future, it will be electronics, not because of the traditional skill-sets you lose, but because if society continues as it is we will never be able to deprive ourselves from technology. The new skills many people will find, furnish, and develop will outweigh those that there thought to be traditional. Do I suppose the world can change, to deviate from this path, no. Technology is a drug, fear is its most welcomed ally. If a connected world is what society is striving for, moderation should be sought after with a furious pace. Contrastingly, moderation genuinely hard to achieve and so self-consuming, society will often fail itself to remove its addiction. Contrastingly, drugs can be repealed with determination and cause. This is the reality we as a society might face if we do not understand the implications of technology; isolated

There is a silent war happening in America today. With never before seen technologies available and coming about, new possibilities for spying on and altering data are being exposed. Many have unanswered questions as to why this is possible and how to stop it. With the assistance of at home processes, we can attempt to avoid much of the hacking going on.

The potential of violations can come from numerous sources (Lawrence & Weber, 2011) (Consumer Information). Recently Equifax had a data breach of their customer’s personal information. The hackers accessed the names, social security numbers, birthdates, and addresses of 142 million American consumers (Consumer Information). This is frightening and happens more often that we think. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers executive, ”Cybercrime has emerged as a formidable threat. Over the years millions have fallen victim to theses attacks. In a survey of 583 U.S. companies, 90 percent said that hackers breached their company’s computers over the last twelve months (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). Cyber crimes occur when hackers attempt to damage or destroy a computer network or system of company’s data. Criminals will use one of the most harmful systems around. This system is called a zombie. A zombie is

Externally, hackers gather information for their own personal gain and to pose a great threat from outside of the business or person’s home because they can find access into the system a lot easier with new advanced technology. Over time, computer hacking has grown into something that is essentially a worldwide problem in countries like North Korea, Russia, the United States, and China that is. Overall, some of these countries are trying to eliminate and capture hackers and produce a stronger, more secure-based program for all of the computer platforms. By taking these hackers off the market it can control the large amount of hackers that are roaming around the internet looking for an open system to invade and get information from. In other words, people throughout the world can claim that hackers that hack people and businesses are doing the world justice by exploiting what they are hiding from the public. That’s false. The fact is, that people and businesses do it so they can have a form of privacy outside of just printing and storing some documents that could end up getting lost.

Computer hacking: Is the practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in computer hacking activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long been used to describe someone who is incompetent at his/her profession, some hackers claim this term is offensive and fails to give appropriate recognition to their skills. The majority of hackers are technology buffs. They are self-motivated and learning about computers is their true passion. ("What Is Computer Hacking?" WiseGEEK. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2013).

For some individuals, hacking can be a hobby they like to undertake in order to analyze how many computers or the systems they can gain access to. While hacking seems harmless, there are those who do this vice maliciously so that they can get access to customer/ client information, the details of credit cards, their passwords, email addresses and identity fraud (Riem, 2001). Having this unauthorized access to these information warrants an arrest, and should the criminals be found, they are liable for their crimes.

As the world becomes more and more reliant on computers the computer hacking industry is greatly rising. With people such as Kevin Mitnick, who is known as a "computer terrorist" (Kjochaiche 1), computerized information isn't safe any more. Kevin is known as "the most high-profiled computer criminal and responsible for more havoc in the computer world today."(1) He considered this a fun and easy task. He got caught and thrown into prison, but once he got out nothing changed. Kevin stated that as long as the technology is there it just calls to people to break into it. Computer hackers usually start off young, thinking that it is nothing but a little harmless fun. But as they get older, they realize it has turned into

Computing is getting more advanced as the years go by & so are hackers. Hackers are those who hack with or without consent and their acts are usually considered illegal. Majority of the times hackers have utilitarianism motivation to use their skills in a personal or political way. Not every hacker is amateurish; there are some that use their skills for the common good. Those who use their skills under political reasoning fall under hacktivism.