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Another one got caught today; it's all over the papers. "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
Damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and
1960's techno-brain, ever take a look behind the eyes of a real hacker? Did
you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces molded him, what may have fashioned
him to something that you today call a criminal?
The story begins in his school... He is smarter than most of the other kids,
the crap they teach him is bore... Response: Damn underachiever. Least interested
in studies. They're all alike. He's in high school. He has listened to teachers
explain for the fifteenth time how to generate a fibonacci series. But he never
got a pat on his back for anything, he always had to explain, "I do understand
it Ma'm. No, Ms. Singh, I didn't show my rough work, I did it in my head. Believe
me Ma'm!" and gets a stern reply, "Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're
all alike."
Then things got different, he got his hands on a computer. "Wait a second
this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because
I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or thinks I'm a smart ass…"
Response: "Damn kid. All he does is play games. Tying up the phone line
again. They're all alike." And then it happened... a door opened to a world...
rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic
pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetence's is sought...
a board is found. This is it... this is where He belongs... He knows everyone
here... even if He has never met them, never talked to them, may never hear
from them again... still he feels at home..
He was spoon-fed baby food at school when he hungered for steak... the bits
of meat that was let slip through him were pre-chewed and tasteless. He had
been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something
to teach found him willing pupils, but they were like a bucket of water in the
desert. But now, things have changed, he explores a new world where he is the
sole master, he has found an unending, boundless and unexplored arena, and he
is a soak-pit. He'll absorb every bit and scrap of knowledge and construct his
own rules. It was his curiosity, which gave him such powers that now no password
can withstand him and no security can jam his way. This teen has now moulded
into a hacker, but 'He is certainly not a criminal…!'
So what exactly is a hacker? First, let's define what a hacker is not. A hacker
is not a mugger. The people with weird names who are arrested for stealing credit
cards or shutting down Yahoo are not hackers. They are criminals. Other people
with uncanny names, who advise the president of the United States, NASA, and
various three-letter agencies, are hackers. They are computer security professionals.
A hacker is one of the most feared types of persons on the Internet. Hackers
have been called both techno-revolutionaries and heroes of the computer revolution.
Hacking
has become a cultural icon about decentralized power. But for all that, hackers
are reluctant rebels. They prefer to fight with code than with words. And they
would rather appear on the net than at a news conference. As a result of this
tabloid mentality, the hacker attempts to fade into the digital world, where
he and it is almost always he who has a place if not a home. The aurora of a
hacker is a mystical one that has eluded many of their victims. To say that
they are rude and arrogant would be far from the truth.
A Hacker is a "person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable
systems and how to stretch their capabilities." Which means that he is
not necessarily a computer geek or a nerd. The hacker defines himself in terms
that extend beyond the computer, as an "expert or enthusiast of any kind.
So in the broadest sense, the hacker hacks knowledge, he wants to know how things
work, and the computer, the prototypical programmable system simply offers more
complexity and possibility, and thus more fascination, than most other things.
From this perspective, hacking appears to be a harmless if nerdish enthusiasm.
But at the same time, this seemingly innocent enthusiasm is animated by an ideology
that leads to a conflict with civil authority. The hacker is motivated by the
belief that the search for knowledge is an ending venture and should be unrestricted.
But invariably, when a hacker explores programmable systems, he encounters barriers
that bureaucracies impose in the name of security. For the hacker, these security
measures become arbitrary limits placed on his exploration, or in cases that
often lead to confrontation, they become the focus of further explorations:
for the hacker, security measures simply represent a more challenging programmable
system. As a result, when a hacker explores such systems, he hacks knowledge,
but ideologically he hacks the freedom to access knowledge. They have deep and
intimate lust to search around inside of a place they've never been, to explore
all the little nooks and crannies of a world so unlike the boring cesspool we
live in. So why would he destroy something and take away the pleasure from someone
else?
A true hacker seeks to expand his own knowledge and free it for everyone. In
the field of computer security, exposing the flaws in programs and operating
systems, used by most people, to heighten security awareness, etc, does this.
It's a learning experience. When an exploit is released, it's not to cause trouble;
it's to make administrators and users aware of potentially serious problems
so they can fix them. At the same time, it keeps software developers on their
toes, making sure that they don't make shoddy, hole-ridden software.
But there is a disturbing growth in what the hacking scene refers to as "Script
kiddies", People, usually nosy teens, who use code written by a hacker
to break into systems in order to get the information they want without any
regard or regret for how they do it. Why should they bring down the whole world
on the few true hackers who aren't cruising the phone lines with malicious intent?
To quote from one of the reference's I got hands on, which says the same point.
..."These kids don't really have any skills," says Deth Veggie of cDc, one of the oldest hacker crews around. "Since they didn't learn it for themselves they don't respect the system they're infiltrating. And so they steal things and download files, which a real hacker would never do."...
Incidents like that, end up giving true hackers a bad reputation,
and they end up looking like pranksters. Although the account is from the perspective
from a hacker, it shows that there is a certain degree of division of the term
hacker, as well.
But I won't label the latter as 'Crackers', which is an inappropriate but the
most often word used while referring to nefarious hackers. 'Crackers are usually
programmers or code-breakers who crack softwares, create and spread viruses
and do other such wicked jobs but they rarely ever break into a system. Those
who do so are usually a novice in this jungle and are very much illumined by
the power of code, but in any case they are the one who are loathed the most
by the real hackers. Hackers have a sort of honour among thieves. There are
hacker's ethics, and these chaps scorn upon their reputation. Hacker is somewhat
of a very honourable title, and they don't like anyone giving them a bad name.
But in this creepy world of ours where computer literacy is still much beyond
the priorities of a major population, a general opinion about a Hacker is out
of the question. But still among the persons who claim to be familiar with the
term, this man is nothing more than someone with an extraordinary intellect
and indulged in the greyish sort of jobs. Still he has got no less magnitude
than a celebrity for he is certainly a face out of the crowd. But he may never
have the honour he is worthy of and would always be treated as a mere crook
or a criminal. And that's too, for something that is not a wrong at all…
for something that he just can't spare with and that is his curiosity and his
nature to explore the depths of technology to feed his grey cells.
At last I'd like to end with an excerpt from a manifesto of
a true hacker, known as 'Mentor': -
"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if profiteering gluttons didn't run it, and you
call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge...
and you call us criminals. We exist without skin colour, without nationality,
without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs,
you wage wars, murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's
for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is
that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think,
not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that
you may never forgive me for."
Written by: -
Môhit Nanda