Hacker Information 

The term “hacker” originally applied to a computer programmer and it was first given to those at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in the 1960’s. It was a prestigious term as it implied that the person had exceptional computer skills. In the 1970’s with the appearance of “phone phreaks”, hacker began to take on a derogatory meaning. “Phone phreaks” had figured out how to tap into phone lines and make free long distance phone calls. They were called hackers by people outside the computer intelligence world. Since then, the term hacker has conjured images of sneaky, under-handed criminals who intend to do malicious harm through a computer system.

Some hackers take offense to this image and claim that without them, computer operating systems like Unix would not exist and the world wide web would not be maintained. Eric Stephen Raymond, a self-proclaimed hacker, describes the difference between a hacker and a cracker; “Hackers solve problems and build things…crackers break them”. A cracker is someone who illegally accesses a computer network with the specific intention to do harm. So essentially when you hear the word hacker, it is really a reference to a cracker.

There is a “hacker code of ethics” in which hackers promise not to damage computers and to hack “for the advancement of human knowledge for its own sake”. Unfortunately, most people see hackers as crackers. For the sake of avoiding confusion, for the remainder of this article, we will refer to the hacker in the more commonly accepted viewpoint; as someone who illegally accesses a computer or network.

People hack for many reasons ranging from theft for personal gain to simply making statements about the insecurity of a network. Some massive thefts have occurred in the past. For example, The First National Bank of Chicago was robbed of $70 million back in the 1980’s, as a result of a computer hack. Government documents including military intelligence have also been stolen through hacking.

Black Orifice is a program that allows the user to completely take over a remote computer. It was created for the purpose to prove vulnerability of computer securities. Programmers who create such programs hope that they will trigger a change in the computer industry to improve security. It apparently does not work, as the warnings go unheeded and hackers are still able to gain access in the future. Black Orifice is actually downloadable free from a website.

There are many hacker threats. Files can be deleted, personal information stolen, installation of viruses into the network and ultimately complete shutdown of the computer called a “denial of service” attack.

Group 4: The M and Ms