WHO ARE HACKERS?
I feel it is necessary to clarify the term hacker. Perhaps your
definition of a hacker has been influenced and tainted over the years.
There have been various computer related activities attributed to the
term “hacker”, but were greatly misunderstood. Unfortunately for the
people who are truly defined within the underground tech world as a
“hacker” this is an insult to them.
There are various types of “hackers”, each with their own agenda. My goal is to help protect you from the worst of them.
Anarchist Hackers
These are the individuals who you should be weary of. Their sole
intent on system infiltration is to cause damage or use information to
create havoc. They are primarily the individuals who are responsible
for the majority of system attacks against home users. They are more
likely to be interested in what lies on another person’s machine for
example yours.
Mostly you’ll find that these individuals have
slightly above computer skill level and consider themselves hackers.
They glorify themselves on the accomplishments of others.
Their
idea of classing themselves as a hacker is that of acquire programs and
utilities readily available on the net, use these programs with no real
knowledge of how these applications work and if they manage to “break”
into someone’s system class themselves as a hacker. These individuals
are called “Kiddie Hackers.”
They use these programs given to them
in a malicious fashion on anyone they can infect. They have no real
purpose to what they are doing except the fact of saying “Yeah! I broke
into <insert name here> computer!” It gives them bragging rights
to their friends.
If there is any damage to occur in a system being broken into these individuals will accomplish it.
These individuals are usually high school students. They brag about
their accomplishments to their friends and try to build an image of
being hackers.
Hackers
A hacker by definition believes in
access to free information. They are usually very intelligent people
who could care very little about what you have on your system. Their
thrill comes from system infiltration for information reasons. Hackers
unlike “crackers and anarchist” know being able to break system security
doesn’t make you a hacker any more than adding 2+2 makes you a
mathematician. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been
fooled into using the word ‘hacker.” They have attributed any computer
related illegal activities to the term “hacker.”
Real hackers
target mainly government institution. They believe important
information can be found within government institutions. To them the
risk is worth it. The higher the security the better the challenge.
The better the challenge the better they need to be. Who’s the best
keyboard cowboy? So to speak!
These individuals come in a variety of age classes. They range from High School students to University Grads.
They are quite adept at programming and are smart enough to stay out of the spotlight.
They don’t particularly care about bragging about their accomplishments
as it exposes them to suspicion. They prefer to work from behind the
scenes and preserve their anonymity.
Not all hackers are loners,
often you’ll find they have a very tight circle of associates, but still
there is a level of anonymity between them. An associate of mine once
said to me “if they say they are a hacker, then they’re not!”
Crackers
For definition purposes I have included this term. This is primarily
the term given to individuals who are skilled at the art of bypassing
software copyright protection. They are usually highly skilled in
programming languages.
They are often confused with Hackers. As
you can see they are similar in their agenda. They both fight security
of some kind, but they are completely different “animals.”
Being
able to attribute your attacks to the right type of attacker is very
important. By identifying your attacker to be either an Anarchist
Hacker or a Hacker you get a better idea of what you’re up against.
“Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious...”
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