Hackers and Hacking

By: Jaswant singh

CS 3604 Participant, Fall 1996

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What is a hacker?

• Originally - A person who pulls clever practical jokes.
• Generally - A good programmer.
• According to the Press - A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by snooping around where they should not be.

Categories of Hacker

by Donn Parker, and by William Landreth

Samples:

• Hard-core porn stored on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's computers
• Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet
• Gang War in Cyberspace
• A mail bomb
• US White House Hacked?
• Croatian teen hackers break Pentagon codes.
• FTC shuts down 3 sites for phone fraud.

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Hacker Ethics

• Hackers do have a sense of ethics.
• Hackers believe that their duty is to share their expertise by writing free software and sharing information. (Basis of GNU)
• No damage, No Crime.
• Help Sysops and Admins by breaking in.
• 90% of hackers willingly share hacking information.

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How Hackers Hack

• Guess user passwords.
• Password cracker programs.
• Social Engineering.
• Breaking and Entering.
• Phreaking.
• Use of Bulletin Boards to find more information on how to hack systems.

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True Story of a Hacker

• Mr. RAD.
• 13 year old boy in 1986.
• Used a Commodore 64.
• Ran a hacker BBS
• Wrote and ran phreaking programs
• Cost innocent phone customers more than $300,000.
• Caught red handed by the F.B.I.

On-line with a Superhacker.

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Ethical Hacking

• is there such a thing?
• IBM suggests that there is!

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Conclusion

• Hacking is easy, so make sure you are secure.
• If you hack sooner or later you will be caught.
• Computer professionals must be responsible with the information they acquire and hold.
• Security professionals can learn from hackers.
• There are benefits.

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Last updated 98/07/01
Edited and expanded by J.A.N. Lee, 1996, 1998.