Abstract
Hacking has been on a growth trend due to increase in awareness of hacking techniques and exposure to information sources on the internet. Hackers have now easy access to personal data of worldwide users of the web. Also, through the advanced technology, they tend to take control of several confidential matters of either a state or it may be an organization. These hackers have been classified into different categories which include white hat hackers, the black hat hackers, the grey hat hacker and the list goes on. Hence, hacking has been a source of great destructions in many places and has continuously been causing damage to the society as a whole. For this reason, it is advisable for people to take precautions and log off their devices from the internet to avoid any possible chances of being hacked.
Introduction
Ethic in computer hacking entails the use of someone knowledge and skills for good. Ethical and professional computer hackers are technologists who assist organizations and companies to realize the loopholes in their systems and help to counter them. These people have to incorporate their integrity skills while performing their task. There are some basic questions that an ethical hacker ought to think of in the course of maintaining the security of a system. They should have thorough information on what type of information they want to protect, the information that an intruder is capable of seeing on the target system and the harm that an intruder may cause with the information.
There has been tremendous growth of computer hacking over the past decade and the effects are massive and costly. Each year, millions of dollars, worth of crucial information are reaped off organizations and companies by illegal hackers (Chang, 2004). It is for this reason that organizations employ ethical or professional hackers to check and maintain the security of their networks and systems. In addition, some systems and networks have been manipulated by hackers leading to inconveniencies to the companies and their clients. Moreover, they cause serious damage to computer systems by deleting or interfering with data files that are essential. The main issue of hacking is that organizations do not report these incidents for actions to be taken by law. Besides, the technology on the internet presents is advancing every day and this has made it difficult to track the hacking penetration to the hacker. This implies that there are low chances of most of the hackers being caught and prosecuted in a court of law.
Background and History of hacking
Background
A computer hacker refers to a technologist with knowledge in computing who maneuvers and exploits weaknesses that exist in a computer network or computer system with or without authorization (Sweigart, 2013;Levy, 1984;(Turkle 2005). Computer hackers uphold values such as privacy, access and freedom and they have their passion in computers and networks. According to Coleman (2009), computer hackers are equipped with special training in addition to economically technical skills and arts of programming, security and network or system administration.
There are three main types of computer hackers; black hat hacker, gray hacker and white hat hacker. A black hat hacker is someone who makes use of his computer knowledge to engage in criminal activities so as to achieve personal gains. A white hat hacker however, uses his knowledge with no criminal plans in mind. White hat or ethical hackers are used by companies around the globe to penetrate and test their networks and systems. Gray hacker is a technologist who uses his skills for both legal and illegal activities, but not for financial or personal gains.
History of hacking
In early days when computer hacking culture started, the term hacking did not have a negative attitude as it possess today. Those who started this culture of hacking were just programmers who were enthusiastic and had an interest carrying out modifications on programs, customizing these programs for other application and developing quire interest on how these applications worked (Clarke, Dlawson, & Cordell, 2002). But from 1980’s, people like Kelvin Mitnick, the likes of Kelvin Paulsen started using the internet and computer techniques for their own benefit and this changed the whole meaning of hacking.
Computer hacking has been existing for a century now. The earliest incident of this hacking culture dates back in 1870’s on the days of Bell Labs. Bell lab was a telephone company owned by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had employed a group of teenagers who worked as switchboard operators. These teenagers intentionally distorted the phone system wanting to know it worked. Basically the teenagers hacked in the phone system (Devitt, 2001).
100 years later in 1960, enthusiast in MIT who hacked into their train sets in order to try and find out how the sets worked.
Several hacking stories, films and books came up from then starting with a movie war games which characterized a hacker then followed a publication ‘heroes of the computer revolution’ by Steven Levey about hacking in 1984.Later in the 1980’s, an incident by Kelvin Mitnick was reported and convicted for having monitored emails of MCI and Digital Equipment’s security officials. In the same period also an Indian hacker by the name Fry Guy also faced the same trial as Kelvin.
Nowadays the act has become illegal but there has been some professionalism that has been devised to practice hacking. This involves the use of ethics in computer hacking.
Interviews and observations results
Computer users leaving their internet network on when they are not using it or when they leave their offices.
Users signing up to websites that they are not familiar with expose their sensitive information to undesired personalities.
Downloading and installing any materials and software from the internet may contain worms and Trojans that could send personal information such as s and passwords saved in a computer to hackers.
Evaluation
Basing on the findings from observations, questionnaires and interviews, it is clear that most intrusion originate from the people who have access to the details of a given system. This is because the people who are within an organization expose the organization to threats of attacks by exposing sensitive information. Therefore, it is important that people close their internet network when not in use, avoid exposing themselves on any website and limit exposure of s and passwords to untrustworthy sites.
Summary
In conclusion, with regard to the rise of hacking, it is vivid that hacking can have profound irrecoverable effects on organizations systems and information. A single hacker could interfere with several organizations. This leads is what leads to massive intrusion when several makes attempts to penetrate a system different time intervals and time. It is therefore vital to employ proper, knowledgeable and skillful ethical hackers to assist in countering these attacks. Having a network or computer system that is not secured is the main source of hacking. Also, companies and organizations should not keep information regarding hacking to themselves but should rather expose such act so that necessary actions are by law.
References
Chang, J. Computer Hacking: Making the Case for a National Reporting Requirement. SSRN Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.530825
Clarke, Z., Dlawson, J., & Cordell, M. (2002). Historical Approaches to Digital Media. A brief history of Hacking, 10-25.
Coleman, G. (2009). Hacking - by Tim Jordan. Journal Of Communication, 59(4), E19-E22. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01464.x
Devitt, M. (2001, June 18). A Breif History of Hacking. Retrieved 11 14, 2014, from Dynamic Chiropratic: http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=18078
Levy, S. (1984). Hackers. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Sweigart, A. (2013). Hacking secret ciphers with Python. [San Francisco, Calif.: Al Sweigart].
TRIGAUX, R. (2000). A history of hacking. Retrieved 11 14, 2014, from St Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.com/Hackers/history.hacking.html
Turkle, S. (2005). The second self. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Webroot.com,. (2014). Computer Hackers & Predators. Retrieved 14 November 2014, from http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/resources/articles/pc-security/computer-security-threats-hackers
