ETHICS OF HACKING AND CRACKING

Computer cracking

Term for illegally hacking into a computer system without the permission of the system’s owner.

• White hat good hacker

• Black hat bad hacker

• based loosely on psychological profiling

Two ways commonly used to categorize hackers

White hat hackers

Learning new things, protecting the network in their charge from intrusion or damage, maintaining status quo.

Work with official sanction from official organizations.

Gray hat hackers

Fame, credit for solving challenging network puzzles. More interested in damage than pillage. Hacktivists who deface Web sites and networks of target “evil-doors” (e.g., corporations involved in fur trade, tobacco sales, abortions) are part of this group.

Black hat hackers

Cash payments, injury to others. May steal trade secrets, credit card numbers, customer lists, employee lists. They want whatever information they can find that will generate a profit.

They work with unofficial sanction from official and unofficial organizations.

• curiosity

• love puzzled

• recog for fame

• revenge

• financial gain

• patriotism/politics

HACKER MOTIVATION

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Ethical issues of hacking

• Profession hackers have a responsibility to society

• Their activities should help to build and improve upon existing technology.

• They should use their skills and interests as opportunities to learn and teach.

Ethical hacker

A security professional who applies his or her hacking skills for defensive purposes.

• bandwidth

Who needs to be secured

• Protection of data provided to organizations or stored on personal computers is a high priority.

• Some crackers break into systems to utilize what they consider wasted computer energy.

• Using ______ without permission may seem harmless.

  • But it is a crime, in addition to being unethical.

• Many hackers find it tempting to copy, download, and use proprietary software and other copyrighted works.