Imagine this, you are driving along the road and suddenly you see somethingspectacular. Now imagine that you are not allowed to deviate from your course tocheck it out. This is what a so-called “hacker” faces.
Just imagine that yousaw an injured person on the side of the road. In this analogy you are notallowed to help the injured person. A hacker is not allowed to explore likeeveryone else in the world. A hacker is not allowed to help fix potentialsecurity holes. The term hacker can have many meanings.
The most visible to thepublic is the person pirating software, and breaking into corporate networks anddestroying information. This is the public misconception of a hacker. Back inthe Unix days, a hack was simply a quick and dirty way of doing something. Hackers in those days were basically just computer experts. Nowadays hackermeans the same thing as a cracker, a person who pirates software, and malicioushackers. The media, of course, never prints the good things hackers do.
Mosthackers provide a service to companies, by letting the company know aboutsecurity holes, before a rival exploits it. Most hackers want nothing more thanto simply learn. A hacker has an extreme thirst for knowledge, but not in thetraditional subjects. Technology, and anything new interest hackers. In factmost security experts start out but learning and “hacking”.
The bad view ofhackers is not completely false. There are hackers out there that will do therebest to harm any system hey can, but most want nothing more than to find thebeauty in system, or network. To hackers vast networks, and the inside of afirewall that was meant to keep them out, are the most beautiful sights onEarth. In every aspect of life there are people who exploit others. Murders,robbers, or any other criminals come from every walk of life. Even hackers havesome, but like the general population, it is a small percentage.
Most peoplewould call the whole Linux community hackers, because anyone who has theknowledge to run Unix must be a hacker. This show what good hackers can do. Theentire Unix GNU community is run by hackers. They all contribute toward a freeoperating system. They all work out the bugs, and then distribute it for free. Hackers got tired of paying for an OS that did not work well.
So they all workedtogether Today Linux is one of the fastest growing OS’s on the planet. Manywould say that Linux is buggy simply because its free, but it’s made by thesame people who can get into any computer, or write any program to fit theirneeds. All Hackers are not good, but then again, all people are not good. In anycase, the hacker community as a whole, has done many things for end uses.
Firstof all they help companies make they transactions securer. Second they helpdevelop new code, and help work the bugs out of old code. And lastly, allhackers really want to do is learn. Even if it means “breaking in to” acomputer.
Most hackers break in simply to learn. Very few will touch any data. Ahackers goal is for the systems administator to never even know that the hackerwas in the system in the first place. The Hacker’s Manifesto by the Mentor, isa classic example of how hackers feel that the rest of the world does notunderstand us.
It shows how hackers were once shunned from society and createdtheir own underground society. In fact 2600 Magazine has been published sincethe early eighties. Many articles are in this magazine about how hackers aremerely misunderstood. This is the most famous article: Hackers Manifesto By:+++The Mentor+++ Another one got caught today, it’s all over the papers. “Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal”, “Hacker Arrestedafter Bank Tampering”. .
. Damn kids. They’re all alike. But did you, in yourthree-piece psychology and 1950’s technobrain, Ever take a look behind the eyesof the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, What forces shaped him,what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world. . .
Mine is a world thatbegins with school. . . I’m smarter than most of the other kids, This crap theyteach us bores me. . .
Damn underachiever. They’re all alike. I’m in junior highor high school. I’ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time How toreduce a fraction. I understand it. “No, Ms.
Smith, I didn’t show my work. I did it in my head. . .
” Damn kid. Probably copied it. They’re all alike. Imade a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool.
It doeswhat I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it’s because I screwed it up. Notbecause it doesn’t like me. . . Or feels threatened by me.
. Or thinks I’m a smartass. . Or doesn’t like teaching and shouldn’t be here.
. . Damn kid. All he does isplay games.
They’re all alike. And then it happened. . . a door opened to aworld.
. . 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 issought. .
. A board is found. “This is it. .
. this is where I belong. . . “I know everyone here. .
. even if I’ve never met him or her, Never talked to them,may never hear from them again. . .
I know you all. . . Damn kid.
Tying up the phoneline again. They’re all alike. . . You bet your ass we’re all alike. .
. We’ve beenspoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak. . . The bits of meatthat you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We’ve beendominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic.
The few that had something toteach found us willing pupils, But those few are like drops of water in thedesert. This is our world now. . .
the world of the electron and the switch, Thebeauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing, Without payingfor what could be dirt-cheap, If it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, And youcall us criminals. We explore. . .
and you call us criminals. We seek afterknowledge. . . and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, Withoutnationality, Without religious bias.
. . And you call us criminals. You buildatomic bombs, You wage wars, You murder, Cheat, and lie to us, And try to makeus 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 theysay and think, Not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you,Something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is mymanifesto.
You may stop this individual, But you can’t stop us all. . . After all,we’re all alike.
