Sunday, October 25, 2009
Hacktivism
Both of the readings on "Hacktivism" give broad examples of hackers and hacking. What are your definitions for hacker, hacking, and hacktivism? When exactly does one become a hacker? What constitutes hacking? Does your roommate trying to guess the password to your computer constitute hacking? Is he/she a hacker? At what point is the line crossed? Can hacking be used for good causes, or is it inherently evil?
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Because D2L has been down all day today (Sunday), and there is no estimate on when it will resume normal function, here are the links for the readings:
ReplyDelete"Hacktivism" http://sniggle.net/hacktivism.php
"Conscience of a Hacker" http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=7&id=3&mode=txt
For the "Hacktivism" article, you may find it helpful for our discussions to take a look at some of the links (though certainly not all of them).
To me a hacker is someone who tries to gain information illegally by using computer technology. And hacking is the act of accessing information that person doesn't have "permission" to see because the "owner" of the information does not allow them. I do think that anyone who fits these definitions is a hacker or is performing the act of hacking. But, like the articles, I don't think that hacking is necessarily evil. If my roommate were to figure out my password to get to my iTunes, I would consider them a hacker that "hacked" into my computer, but I don't think it is terribly "evil". There are much more evil people in the world and such a small act is not large enough to be considered evil. I do think that if someone were to get to important information and use for destructive purposes, they are an "evil hacker".
ReplyDeleteHactivism is the movement to remove the negative stigma associated with hackers and show that they are clever people who have a skill that can be very powerful, but are not bad people. Since I've classified "evil hackers" who use their powers for evil, the articles focus on the hackers that are "good hackers", those that are just having fun and not causing any real harm. My favorite example is the guy who was invited to speak at a conference because his parody site was so good, they believed him. Everyone's skill sets are different, allowing them to do different things, but I think that a hackers "powers" can be used for good, not just evil like many seem to be portrayed. Example: Tranformers- young hackers were able to help solve the alien code. I think the world not being destroyed by Megatron is a good use of hacker skills, don't you?
I think the terms "hacker, hacking, and hacktivism" have bad connotations. When I hear one of these words, I think of someone trying to illegally obtain information or use technology to create viruses or cause problems. Reading "Hacktivism" opened my mind a little bit. I now believe that not all hacking is evil. In the case of etoys and TOYWARS, hackers used technology and the internet to defend a small company against what they believed to be an unjust ruling.
ReplyDeleteI think a hacker is when a person is able to completely manipulate technology. Hacking can be for good or for bad; it can protect technology or destroy it.
From the text given by the first reading, hackers would be those who use the computer to explore beyond the limits set by standards and laws. They are those who enter into forbidden territory whether to find the truth or to manipulate the system. The second describes hactivism as the use of computers to cause social change in the world in a not too unlawful yet active way. I will disagree from the first text in that all hackers are not "the same." Each has his own individual methods and motives. One cannot judge hackers as a whole as either evil or misunderstood knowledge seekers. Even in hollywood, we see both examples of these types of hackers. There are the hackers who cause chaos or help the evil mastermind access the information he needs to accomplish his nefarious plans. And then there are also the "good hackers" who assist the hero in saving the day. Either way, assuming hacking is an absolute evil is as immature as believing that you should never ever lie. Hacking should be judged the same way any other action would. In the "Hactivism" article, many examples of hacking as beneficial to the world is shown. Like with any other questionable activity, one judges the hacker on their intents and purposes.
ReplyDeleteHackers are those who utilize computer technology to gain access to information that are legally forbidden to them by the "owner" of that information, and hacking it the act of actually doing it. Hactivism, after reading "Hactivism" and "Conscience of a Hacker," seems to describe the instances when hackers utilize their skills in order to make a statement and change societie's structures, rules, and impressions on hackers for the better.
ReplyDeleteOne becomes a hacker when they knowingly breech the legal barriers between what information is allowed to them and other people's "private" information as described by the law, or society. Going along this definition then, I would say that a person trying to guess another person's password to their computer, specifically with the intent to gain information, data, or files constitutes a hacking. On the other hand, a person trying to gain access to the computer with the intent only to use the internet or the tools on the computer might be less black and white.
"Hacking" is a skill set. As with most skillsets, it doesn't correlate to good and evil. Rather, it is the PERSON who possesses those skills that decides whether a hacking incident is used harmlessly or to hurt others.
Admittedly, the situation where hackers used their skills to sabotage another person's business is "hurting" others, yet if its for a good cause . . . basically, when it comes to issues of good or evil, nothing is black and white. I'm in no position currently to decide on this specific topic, because it varies by situation or which side you fall on.
While it's common that hacker, hacking, and hactivism have a negative connotation, I think that all of them deal with a user that exploring through various aspects of cyberspace. Interpret that as you will. On the one hand, exploring could be going through a particular program or through Windows to try to make it work better for you. On the other, it could be attempting to access someone's computer without consent, whether it's to gain information or cause disruption. Either way, I believe that the term hacker can be positive and negative. In fact, a common term that is tossed around for someone that does something negative with their skills is sometimes called a cracker.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my definition, if my roommate tried to guess my password then I would consider it hacking in a negative sense. He obviously doesn't have my permission to go in there because he doesn't have the password in the first place. However, I would hesitate to call them a hacker or say that they were hacking because of the sheer simplicity of their actions. In my mind someone needs to do something much more than that for me to consider them a hacker. I think the line is crossed mainly when someone is exploring through more than just guesswork. There are plenty of people out there who know what to look for and/or what to do in order to get what they need through hacking and when that happens, I think they can be considered a hacker.
Hacking can definitely be used for good. A lot of times, companies higher hackers to try to break into their latest security software, for example, to attempt to find holes. This way, the software can protect the consumer better when it is released to the public. It is definitely not inherently evil, I just think it has gotten a bad rap.
Hacking, to me, is the art of accessing and information or data that is not necessarily yours to use, whether it is used for benevolent purposes or malevolent. I think the key word is art. Hacking takes skill and a kind of art as described by the first article. It takes curiosity and willingness to go beyond the ordinary and use your brain to get past the barriers presented. Hacker is a loose term that can be easily used to describe several people. To constitute as a hacker, simply one has to attempt to access something that is not rightfully theirs. As for the roommate situation, to me, the roommate does constitute as a hacker. However, as many of you have already explained, hackers do not necessarily have to be evil and use hacking as a negative art form. The roommate may have simply forgotten the password, but used the computer prior to this situation and knows the roommate well enough that accessing his or her computer is okay. Also, the second article listed several benevolent examples of people hacking into websites in order to put information that had been blocked by some form of authority, such as the government.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, hacking can definitely be evil. It does get a bad connotation and although some examples serve to disprove this connotation, not all hackers access the information for beneficial purposes. Putting viruses on computers and other various examples are ways in which hackers can negatively affect humans with their abilities. So, overall hacking is not inherently evil, although some cases do prove it evil, and these articles definitely opened my mind up to the various ways in which being a hacker can actually be something of value.
-Allison R.
To me, the term hacker applies to anyone who, for whatever reason, manipulates computer information and technology that doesn't necessarily belong to them. I agree with the above posts that hacking, hackers, and hacktivism do indeed have negative connotations, but after reading the articles online I feel like this is a misapplied connotation. Actually, some of the examples of things hackers are up to in the Hacktivism article I thought were fairly entertaining, such as the hackers who tried to trip up the spambots by making pages full of fake email addresses, and the parody sites who actually had representatives from the fake sites invited to real world events to speak. Those were pretty funny!
ReplyDeleteI think anytime somebody manipulates information that isn't their own constitutes hacking, but as we saw from the Hacktivism page it isn't necessarily all "evil". It depends on the point of view of the hacker and the person being hacked; obviously the person being hacked is going to think it's a bad thing, whereas casual observers might think it's a good action or might just think it's funny. There are examples hacking both for good and for evil; good are my examples from above, evil would be hackers who put viruses on the internet to catch unsuspecting Internet users.
So, I would agree that my room mate trying to guess the password to my computer would constitue hacking, but it's not necessarily evil. I think that the line between good and evil is crossed with hacking when information is manipulated to cause destruction on others' machines and computers. An example of this would be those who put viruses in files for unsuspecting users to download to their computers. I honestly don't understand why people do this... I guess some people just think it's entertaining, or they are trying to make some sort of point.
There are always multiple facets to any situation. Hacking is no exception to this rule. Hacktivism is seen by many as “cyberterrorism,” an intrinsically evil act that ought to be abolished, while others think it’s a way to speak out against the injustice in the world, while still others think of it as a way to show off their 1337 5|{!112. Obviously, it can be used for good and for evil, as can anything else. According to the 'electrohippies' link on the hacktivism page, “Fundamentally, hacktivism is all about creativity; it's about taking a given piece of technology and envisioning a use for it beyond that which it was designed for….” This reminds me of technology as an extension of man; it shows that hacking is a way to expand your creativity, to extend your opinions, and to share your message to a greater audience, regardless of whether your message is one that will be a benefit or a detriment to the audience. In the Hacker Manifesto, The Mentor admits to having commited the crime “of outsmarting you.” Hacking can be about using the technology that you have been given to prove yourself to the world.
ReplyDeleteThe electrohippie website also defined hacktivism. They said “Hacking & Activism = Hacktivism.” According to this definition, again, hacktivism can be positive or negative. Activism isn’t always beneficial, so neither is hacktivism.
I personally see hacking both ways. I’ve had friends whose MMORPG characters have been hacked, costing them months from the hundreds of hours that they had put into their chars. On the other hand, after reading about the DOW Chemical and Burson-Marsteller attempted-cover ups in retaliation to the parodies of the company sites, I find that hacking can have some very real, very humanity-oriented results. The 4,000 lives lost and the 200,000 individuals permanently injured by Union Carbide’s gas tank failure would probably be barely known if not for Yes Men’s parody site that DOW Chemical tried to destroy, thus drawing even more attention to UC’s horrific treatment of the natives living in Bhopal. Not only did UC pay next to nothing to compensate for their loss, they refused to clean up the toxic spill, leaving the poisonous mess to seep into their water system, costing even more lives. Thanks to hacktivists like Yes Men, these atrocious crimes were brought to the surface; thanks to DOW Chemical’s attempt to quell these hacktivists, these crimes will stay in the public’s eye. I find it ironic that they did more to try to clean up their reputations than they did to clean up their toxic mess.
So, in the end, hacking is another way to use our extensions, our computers, to change the world in whatever way we deem proper, whether it be through unearthing forbidden information or pointing the finger of shame at companies that are disregarding the lives of others. It is all up to the user.
When I think of a “hacker”, I think of someone who uses advanced technological skills to steal information that is not theirs. Before reading the article “Hacktivism”, I thought hackers only broke into computing systems to steal information such as credit card numbers, government data, and other personal information that would help them have some sort of advantage over someone else. I believed them to be criminals who used their knowledge to exploit others. After reading “Hactivism”, I now have a better understanding of hacking and the many reasons people manipulate technology in ways that are controversial. I see “hacktivism” as more of a social movement, or as the article names it, “electronic civil disobedience”. It seems that hacktivism is not just for personal gain, but rather for a person and sometimes a group of people to take a stand against something they believe to be unjust (such as the DeCSS case or DOW parody website mentioned in the article). Hacktivism is just another form of free speech in which brave people voice their opinions in a usually risky and widespread way. I believe the line is crossed when the hacker fails to consider how their actions will negatively affect innocent (and sometimes gullible) people; for example, the “self-perpetuating propaganda viruses” that hackers spread seem to serve no functional purpose other than for their own gratification and amusement. Overall, it seems that hackers have more potential to do harm than good, but some use their knowledge to promote ideas that make people question what they have been told, such as when hackers make parody sites of election campaigns and popular figures/companies. This questioning and mental stimulation is usually a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with others in that initially, the terms hacker, hacking, and hacktivism all had negative connotations to me involving someone stealing something that was not intended to be theirs in the first place. After reading the narrative on hacktivism, I was enlightened by the author’s opinion that his hacking was a result of curiosity and he was eager to expand his knowledge in a way that the educational system could not provide. The “hacktivism” article shed light on the good and evil sides to hacktivism and once more my understanding of the terms was expanded.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of my previous opinion and these two articles, I would define hacking as an act to acquire knowledge that was not intended for your use, whether for good or evil. Hacking constitutes any action that tries to do so. The line of hacking vs. not hacking is crossed the moment one sets out to gain such forbidden information.
Therefore, yes, your roommate trying to guess the password to your computer is considered hacking, but whether they use the knowledge on your computer for good or evil is another story. However, for the most part, I would say hacking is inherently evil because besides the example of etoys in the article, I can’t think of a time when hacking was considered noble or honorable. That doesn’t go without saying that my horizons on the subject could stand to be expanded and I do not claim to be an expert on the subject of hacking.
-Sarah K.
The word "hacking" always reminds me of my childhood, when I would spend countless hours with friends playing online computer games. If I or one of my friends would die in one of these first person shooter games, the word "Hacker!" would often leap out of our mouths as a way to explain how we could have possibly died. Our opponent wasn't better than us, we reasoned, but instead had downloaded some unfair advantage (super speed, steady aim, etc.) to gain the upper hand while in battle. Back then, a "hacker" wasn't one who gained information, but one who gained skills from outside the game to "pwn" the rest of us non-hacking players.
ReplyDeleteAs I grew older, my definition of a hacker changed to incorporate anyone who unlawfully or unethically surpassed a security system to manipulate, steal, or distribute private information. My friend attempting to guess my password would, therefore, be considered a "hacker."
While my definition of "hacker" changed as the years wore on, my interpretation and opinion of the subject remained much the same. Sure, I had hated hackers when I was a little kid - why couldn't they just play fair? But I also realized that hackers were the ones motivating game designers to come up with new updates, game modes, and security patches to prevent further hacking. Hackers motivated progress.
Similar to back in the day, the real world hackers of today have a similar effect on the progress of technology and technological security. So, while a virus or hack or data manipulation may be detrimental at first, the technological progress it will spur will eventually be beneficial to the digital community and the future progress of technology as a whole.
I believe that hacking is anything that is trying to get into a system that the person does not have direct access to. This could be anything from someone trying to guess your password to trying to decipher a code on the Internet. Although someone trying to guess your password may not be as serious as hacking into one’s credit card information, it is still breaking the system by gaining entrance into something that was supposed to be hidden.
ReplyDeleteHacking can be used for good and bad. Most of the time when people think of hacking they think about all the negatives. Hacking has a negative connotation because sometimes it is used to steal people’s identification or to corrupt your computer with a virus. Hacking scares a lot of people because it allows others to cross that line of personal space. The thought of someone destroying your computer with a virus or seeing anything you have ever entered in your computer is too invasive for most people.
Hacking does have many positive aspects too. Hacking can be useful in the government. The government can use hacking to fight against terrorists or find information that will allow them to take action to keep their citizens safe.
I agree with Allison's definition of hacking, which is that it is "the art of accessing information or data that is not necessarily yours to use" and that it can be used for "benevolent purposes or malevolent" ones. I further agree with her that hacking requires intense skill and is something that governments, organizations, and businesses should be making sure to take advantage of. In fact, I'm sure that governments do employ people with refined programming skills, and the negative ways in which they could be used frighten me quite a bit. Obviously I am also aware of the positive side to hacking, which involves promoting free speech and other basic human rights that some people, mostly in other countries, are being deprived of. However, the widespread occurance of hacking makes me seriously question the security of our internet.
ReplyDeleteI followed up on a link from the second website that we were assigned to explore and read an article titled "Waging Peace on the Internet" (www.theregister.co.uk/2002/04/19/waging_peace_on_the_internet/). This article discussed what constitutes legitimate hacking and how it can be used for both good and evil purposes. Although this article was written a few years ago, it also mentioned how "hacktivism is a very new field of endeavor" and that "we have to find new paradigms." This article supports my idea that we have yet to see how influential hacking can be. The possibilities seem to be quite limitless and certainly it can bring about social and political change through radical protest.
The idea of hacking being used as radical protest is further supported by the other article that we were assigned to read. The tone that "the mentor" used in his/her "The Conscience of a Hacker" was slightly enraged and demonstrated how his/her hacking abilities could have been used for very rebellious purposes. I wish that the article would have provided some context as to what the individual used his/her skills for so that we could determine whether or not his/her feelings that s/he was being treated unfairly were justified. Overall, I believe, like everything else pretty much, that hacking can be used to both benefit and harm society. The trouble is that most hackers are quite clandestine so how are we to go about regulating what they do?
I believe that hacking qualifies as an illegal means to gain access or information from a restricted site or area. The negative connotation (mentioned in earlier blog posts)comes from the fact that hacking is illegal, and the purpose behind hacking is usually "evil" opposed to good. A hacker would be anyone who performs this takes of illegally gaining access or infiltrating a system, regardless of whether the hacker's intentions are to cause damage or not. A roommate guessing a password would be an attempt to hack, because the information is restricted by the owner. I think anytime an attempt is made to trespass into a restricted zone, (obviously without the owner's consent)it is considered hacking. Not all hacking is necessarily evil, such as some of the jokes included in the "Hactivism" article. It depends on the intention of the hacker.
ReplyDeleteHacking, to me, is the act of using technology to gain access to information that is not yours to have. A hacker, then, is someone who participates in the act of hacking, whether it is one occurrence or multiple. Hacktivism is the process of using hacking to create social change. According to my definition, my roommate trying to guess the password to my computer would be hacking. Whether or not I would consider it to be evil depends on his/her intent. Hacking can be used for good causes, as was shown in the Hacktivism article through the example of TOYWAR.
ReplyDeleteOfficially, I think hacking involves modifying a computer program. However, I colloquially use the term all the time. To me, a friend guessing my laptop's password is "hacking," regardless of his or her intent.
ReplyDeleteI think, as a result of their usage, my official definition of hacking has negative connotations while the colloquial definition can have positive, neutral, or negative connotations. Truly, it is all in the way that you use it!
Of course hacking can be used for good causes. The first example I thought of this is in the support of national security. If it takes our government's hacking into a terrorist group's online network/program/whatever to prevent bad things from happening, so be it. I think that in the name of our country and the protection of our citizens, hacking is a rather minor offense.
At the same time, I understand that hacking CAN be used for evil. However, I do not believe hacking is inherently evil.
Hacker: one who hacks
ReplyDeleteHacking: the act of accessing digital information without permission in order to test its (legal) limitations
Hacktivism: Using hacking for the purpose of activism, political or social means, etc.
One thing I noticed about the examples provided was that they did not follow the common guideline for what one thinks a hacker is. I always considered a hacker as someone who accessed digital information without permission and / or with malicious intent.
But the examples swept across many different fields and covered things like digital parodying. Very few of the examples fit this description of a hacker. This got me thinking, and I redefined it more as someone who uses digital media to explore the limits of both the media and the users. Hacking often uses semantic attacks that “target the way we, as humans, assign meaning to content.” With this new definition, it’s difficult to define when one becomes a hacker…
So what IS hacking? When IS the line crossed? I’m not sure… I believe I require a discussion to help me solidify an opinion. =]
I suppose that one trying to get into someone else’s account, for example, constitutes hacking as they are accessing digital information without permission, likely with the intent to foment change (such as a new status update: __ likes to eat small children!).
I do not believe that hacking is inherently bad. Some of it is (like the intentional spreading of harmful viruses), but others instances may have good or playful intentions. Citing the case of etoy v eToys, a hacker protest fighting the indecency to steal a domain address, good intentions can lead to a desirable outcome in public campaigns.
The morality of hacking should be determined case by case, not as a whole. All hackers are not, as ‘The Mentor’ asserted, “the same.” They all hack, but the motivation and outcome could be incomparable.
“Hacking is a contact sport. The more people who have contact with one another, the better.”
-- Shaolin Punk, Proxy Boss, Hacktivismo
I had always thought of hackers as people who stole information by sneaking their way past security systems on the internet. After reading these articles I know now that there is much more to the art of hacking. Some of this is much less malicious than I had originally thought. Although some of it seems more dangerous than what I had believed before. Things like viruses and whatnot are along the lines of things hackers can do with their skills.
ReplyDeleteI think that anyone capable of bypassing a security system constitutes as a hacker. But like most enterprises, there are varying levels of ability. By this definition, if my roommate managed to guess my password, she would be a hacker, just not a very skilled one.
Although hacking is technically illegal, it is one of those things that require a certain skill set. And like anything that requires skills, these skills can be used for good or for bad. I don’t think a set of skills can ever be inherently evil though. I think that whether an act of hacking is for good or for bad depends entirely on the hacker. It appears, from the Hacktivism article, that there exist acts of hacking that are for the greater good. But sometimes you have to stop and wonder if the end really ever justifies the means. Hackers walk a fine line between right and wrong, one slip and there is no going back.
I believe that a hacker becomes a hacker when they have broken into a system they are not granted permission to enter. Hacking is the act of breaking into something that is not rightfully theirs. I would then define hacktivism as activism for hackers. It allows people’s political agendas to be heard online through the process of hacking into a system.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that my roommate trying to guess my password to my computer would be considered hacking. Recently one of my friends said, “let us hack into her computer while she is in the shower and we’ll change her facebook status” she tried this by continuously guessing her password (that she eventually got). I would consider this hacking because she broke into a system that she is not granted permission to enter. She also had an agenda of her own, mainly to poke fun at the roommate in the shower. Many of the hackers online, especially those who have parody sites similar to other sites, hack into the system and display their own political agenda.
I believe that hacking is evil because it is not just. I would hate to be hacked. Then again, the second article discussed how some hackers leak information that the government censors. The government would see these hackers as evil but the civilians would see the hackers as heroes. From one perspective or another, the hackers would be seen as evil. Their hidden political agendas drive them to this evil act of hacking into systems.
I think the art of hacking is trying to access information that you were not allowed to look at or changing information that you were not told to do. Anything that you do not have control over but are trying to change or read that does not belong to you or you were not given the information to do so. If they have to bypass some form of security then this also constitutes a hacker. Another thing a hacker can do is distribute a virus but that would also be under the umbrella of changing information. Also it could be defined as creating a website similar to another one like in the case of the WTO example in the "Hacktivism" article. According to this scale, if my roommate attempted to guess my password without my consent, she would be considered a hacker because she did not have permission to try and guess it. Any act of doing something that you were not designated to do and actually need permission to do it but you do it anyway is crossing the line. Making a mock website is not crossing the line. In order to further a cause is always a good use for hacktivism but at the same time who is to say if the cause is acceptable. This begins to cross into the line of right and wrong and is defined differently by different people and begins to question the ethics of the people judging.
ReplyDeleteMy definition of a hacker, as pertaining to the internet, is someone who purposely invades the privacy of an online space. A hacker may have the intention of performing evil but I believe it is just the simple act of breaking into a restricted aspect of a site that constitutes the actions of a hacker. One becomes a hacker once they intend to do this act. I think hacking constitutes anything from breaking into one’s facebook page and up. Mind you, there is a distinction between a jealous girlfriend logging into a boyfriend’s profile or a roommate trying to guess your password. I think hacking relies upon the fragile art of remaining anonymous. The line with hacking is crossed once one deliberately acts in a manner that is meant to hurt someone, either financially, socially or mentally. Yet just because hacking often results in this does not mean that hacking is inherently evil. Hacking for the purposes of good can be found in war and even when it is used as a mechanism by the police. When hacking is used for purely malicious purposes is when it crosses the line yet this is only the stereotype of hackers and is not necessarily always the case.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think hacking would be defined as obtaining access to materials (usually using computer technology) that you normally do not have permission or authorization to access. A hacker is someone who does the hacking, and hacktivism is the purpose or end result of said hacking. Normally, I'd consider hacking bad, but it can be used for good purposes. For example, there was a website that my roommate used to frequent that is a collection of message boards wherein someone posted a threat to their school in it. According to the wikipedia article on it, the users of the site "helped to track him down by finding the perpetrator's father's name in the Exif data of a photograph he took, and contacted the police.[60] He was arrested before school began that day."
ReplyDeleteIn this case, using technology to gain access to the background code of a digital camera was beneficial. Often though, it's used for negative purposes, such as spreading viruses or getting information that's restricted. If my roommate was trying to guess my password, I really wouldn't consider it hacking, because it's on such a small scale. I would consider it an invasion of my privacy, but I don't think I'd go so far as to accuse him of being a hacker.
After reading the posts above mine, I feel like I'm only restating what other people have said. I agree with a lot of what was said above. Hacking is given a negative connotation. However, I think it is intriguing. It is something that I couldn't even imagine doing because of the legality and because of the skills it requires. A hacker is someone who attempts to obtain illegal information that is supposed to be hidden from others. This is mostly in the medium of the computer. Hacktivism is the act of hacking to send some sort of political or social message.
ReplyDeleteI think that one becomes a hacker when they attempt to gain access to material that is not theirs to obtain or see. Whether or not they actually obtain this information is negligible. The intent is what constitutes the crime. Hacking can be in the range of something small, like hacking into someone's facebook, or something rather large, like hacking into a government database. Both extremes are one and the same.
It is hard to for me to say if hacking is inherently evil and if it can be used for good. I want to say that it can be used for good. For example, hacking could be used for national security. If hacking prevented another sort of attack on the country then maybe it is good. However, this is a fine line, and I don't know who gets to decide where that line is.
Hacker-one who gains access to something not belonging to them. One becomes a hacker when permission is not given to access information, but the hacker still obtains it.
ReplyDeleteHacking-the act of doing so
Hacktivism-the practice of the act of hacking
I think hacking can be used for good. As we saw in "The Conscience of a Hacker" it was a way for an individual to outsmart and utilize what he had learned throughout his life. Nathan also brought up a good point of the positive uses of it in the business world. Hacking aids in accessing information to those who need it though, for example the government.
I do not believe hacktivism is inherently evil, but I do advocate that it is predominately used for evil. I think man has a way of twisting and tainting what was one good. Many people use hacking for negative and horrible purposes, but I think that the POSSIBILITY to utilize for good is available, just highly unlikely.
In my opinion, a hacker is an individual who is able to access information that has been prohibited, or knows how to create and manipulate information that will hurt others. Hacking, would be the verb form of the above description, and can come in many forms (as seen in the examples provided in the second article we read). Hacktivism, is therefore the collective concept or act of hacking.
ReplyDeleteAs Vanessa and others stated earlier, I believe that hacking (and related terms) have negative connotations, that don't necessarily apply. Although hacking is primarily used to bring computer viruses to millions, or to steal identities, it has some positive outcomes. For instance, when a government hides information from its people, hacking can provide an outlet for them to see what's going on in their country. It can also be used to let the government know what's going on in the lives of its people, in order to keep order and control over them. Hacking also capitalizes on the internet's municipal nature, and can spread information (fact-based or fiction) to millions almost instantaneously. People can also unite, and rebel against a cause (as seen in the eToy conflict and the "TOYWAY" that enseud). The "Conscience of a Hacker" article made me feel more empathetic towards hackers because it made the point that they merely exploit resources already available, while "seeking new information". The author stated that schools etc., had bored him with repeated bits of information, and never taught anything new and substantial. Hacking, therefore, was his way of manipulating the system, so that new bits of information could be accessed. In that sense, I don't see hacking to be entirely detrimental. When used to spread information that many need or want access to, hacking can be a very positive act. However, hacking is not always used for good (hence, it's largely negative connotation) and it is our responsibility to think about the information we digest on a daily basis, before we deem it true or false.
I agree with Vanessa that these three terms, "hacker," "hacking," and "hacktivism" all have very negative connotations. When I looked up the definition in wikipedia, however not all of the definitions were negative. For instance, a "media hacker" is someone who uses the media in new ways. A "wetware hacker" is one who experiments with biological materials. However, "in common usage, a hacker is a person who breaks into computers, usually by gaining access to administrative control."
ReplyDeleteBased on these definitions and my own perception of hacking, I would not say that a friend trying to guess my password to an account is not hacking. That's just a creepy invasion of privacy. Hackers seem to always have malicious intent, but on a bigger scale than just trying to read other people's e-mail or messages. I have friends that have figured out their boyfriends' passwords on facebook, and I don't consider that hacking, but I don't know at what point I think it becomes hacking.
Hacktivism combines the terms hack and activism, and it is "the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends." The term nonviolent is interesting to me because although it is not physically violent, I feel like it can be emotionally violent if you are the victim of hacking.
I agree with Danica, and a lot of my other peers, that hacking has both positive and negative results. It's hard to know at what point it goes too far, because when it's beneficial to you, it is often still considered an invasion of privacy.
To me, Hackers are extremely smart programmers who can break in computer systems and get information through illegal means. Hacking is the process of unauthorized exploring of information and use of computers and other resources. And according to Samuel Alexandra, hacktivism is “the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends.”
ReplyDeleteIf my roommate trying to guess the password to my computer, Personally, I will consider the action is hacking, because I didn’t give he or she the permission to use my computer, or even to try the password. However, I don’t think he or she is a hacker, because he or she needs to be talented and has the ability to get the password correctly. The bottom line is that he or she has done something that is not morally acceptable.
Even though hacking sounds evil, I believe it could be used for good causes, not just inherently evil. It could be used in government or companies for good causes.
-Duoduo D.
I believe that hactivism can be very influential and cause a large amount of awareness, but I don’t believe it can truly be a good cause. It can be funny, but because it causes deception, I don’t believe it can be inherently good. In my belief, there are other possible ways to bring awareness without using hacking. Nonetheless, I think there are different amounts of “evil”, depending on the anticipations of the hacker. Everyone has a different goal, and these articles note the different uses of hacking, whether it is for political movements, guerilla warfare, or just as jokes.
ReplyDeleteIn the example shown in the question, if my roommate was sitting at my computer trying to find the password to my computer, I would surely at first think they were hacking. Truly though, it would take some questioning to understand why she was on my computer. If she wanted to decipher my password so that she could look at my files, history, and programs, I would definitely call her a hacker. She is invading my personal privacy and my property because of her curiosity or “need” to know about my things. I would have the same thought-process if she wanted to add a virus or cause malfunction to my computer on accessing it. If though, my roommate merely needed a document, needed to use my internet, or connection to my printer, and planned to be harmless and not nosey, I would not think it was hacking. I think every situation is different and has its’ own line to cross, so they must each be understood individually.
Hacking s when someone breaks into the security of others’ computers to gain access and control the computer for their own purposes. Hacking includes finding information on others’ computers that is their personal property, and possibly using it against them. I think it is the use of such information to cause disturbance and an uproar of problems. It many times includes illegal activity, which is why hackers are called criminals. I believe hackers breach personal privacy and property.
I think categorizing someone as a hacker is kind of like categorizing someone as gay. There are certain far reaching expectations of what that person will be like because of that label when in actuality there is only one thing truly connecting all of the people under that label.
ReplyDeleteA hacker can be some young jerk who is trying to make a profit off of something that hurts other people, or a hacker can be someone who is attempting to make information more widespread and easily accessible. The definition of hacking itself, is I believe, the knowledge and ability to access information that you were not intended to have access to. Hacktivism is what you can potentially do with that information. I believe the line is crossed when the information is used for personal monetary gain.
Last night I stumbled across Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible. I think it's interesting to point out that while most people agree that hacking has bad connotations, we often see lovable and heroic spies hacking their way into a situation in many action films. I think this just further goes to show that [as I and many others have said in this post] hacking can be a good thing if applied in the right way. Obviously, if a hacker is stealing information, somebody won't be happy about it, but I think it's what the hacker eventually does with that information that makes the whole hacking bit "good" or "evil". For instance in many spy movies, the hero hacks his way into a foreign database to get information to help protect our country.
ReplyDelete"Vanessa" Has a good point here concerning about the "good" and "evil" hackers. I agree with her opinion on the whole situation because everything stolen in the world either if its from a robber or a hacker, they do it for a reason. One might be stealing back what's supposedly theirs, or doing it for various needs. No one can tell til he/she does what they do with the information they've hacked. And yes Hackers could be "good" I believe just like in the movies, there are hackers the government hires to hack into our enemies base for our own needs. Information that we need and unable to attain from missions (War) are most likely stolen.
ReplyDeleteI also like what "Leena" has brought up about the whole awareness for hackers. Yes, everyone should know what he/she does, because no one is hacking you if the opposing side doesn't want anything from you. Everything is made for a reason, and because hackers are all over the net big companies often purchase software to defend themselves from being robbed by these "hackers" just like life's a cycle, hackers are part of the money flow, because of them we learn to protect ourselves from such and use software programs to help block them.
If hackers are defined as robbers on the internet, everyone should be in this category because i'm sure majority of the human population is doing something like illegal downloading, whether it is music or movies. Is this not some type of hacking ? we are stealing from the internet, and we are stealing from the companies who make music and movies for people to purchase.