Wednesday, May 9, 2007
About Hacker
Hacker, a term that may not be familiar to our ears. According to the general stigma that developed in the community,
hackers identical with that crazy person computer daily activities can not be separated from the virtual nature of crime
like burglary website, identity theft, credit card number theft, viruses, data theft or enterprise organizations and others. Hackers usually depicted with a figure of anti-social, technological crazy, aloof, and daily activities just in front of the computer.
Some of the illustrations above may be true while others are much distorted and become a general understanding from generation to generation. Hacker mistaken about is actually very related to the activity itself that many hackers caused controversy in the community other than that coupled with 'spice' which is given by the press and film maker (read: Hollywood) in describing the activities of a hacker so unknowingly giving a negative bias about hackers and hacker ultimately makes the term so far deviated from the true purpose.
This requires a special discussion about the hacker community in order to assess their activities more objectively. So that's why I created this article, this article is expected to provide benefits to the reader as well.
Before we discuss more about hackers and some of its derivatives such as crackers, script kiddie, and others. Be worthwhile to review briefly the history of the term hacker. Referring to the view of Steven Levy in his book "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", the term hacker was first used in the computer in 1960 among students Tech Model Railroad Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This term is the designation for someone who has the ability in designing a computer program that is better than programs that have been designed together. MIT later recognized as the originator of the term hacker in the scope of the more modern. But there are also some people who think that the term hacker has been used previously among those who experimented with a set of tube radios and amplifiers. The meaning of the term literally true hacker is someone who is expert in processing (hacking) of wood to be made into furniture.
To understand a hacker then can be seen from hackingnya activities. Based on these approaches can then be divided into hackerpun some variant.
Cracker. Imagine a program that has a code of protection such as serial number or even the copy protection. Then there was someone with programming skills are high enough to successfully break into or remove the protection routine to the source code so the application can be used completely for free. Then that person is called a cracker and activities referred to cracking software. Cracking activity for personal needs is legal but if the program had been distributed will crack it against the law. But, nevertheless generally recognized due cracker. In contrast to the hacker, cracker activities usually violate the law but there is also the opinion that the cracking could also be said as a first step to become a hacker. Indeed when a hacker from hacking activities that violate the law, then that's when he became a cracker.
Script kiddie. Crackers are using the script (read: the source code) and programs written by others to perform activities of a system of security break-ins. Script kiddie does not know how to make program / script or even their own exploits do not understand how the actual workings of the script other people who they use.
In the area of hacking a man to get the status based on the level of ability / skill and knowledge. Script Kiddie is the people who do not have the skills, knowledge, and ethics. Another term for the script kiddie is Lammer (lazy) or lame.
Phreak (baca: Freak). Can be called also referred to as 'species' by hackers. Phreak is a hacker who are interested and have mengusai Traffic in telephone systems. One thing that distinguishes the hacker phreak is, if the hacker is someone who is very interested in mastering the computer technology phreak are people who are interested in telephone systems. Therefore phreak is Hacker.
White Hat and Black Hat. White Hat term which refers to the first hacker used in 1996 when the holding of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. Black Hat conference is a meeting of IT experts worldwide who held once a year. The conference was organized by a hacker named Jeff Moss aka DarkTangent this conference, where hackers or the black hat before presenting pengethuannya security professionals. Terminology Black hat and white hat actually refers to 'evil hacker' and 'good hackers'. The term black hat sorang figure taken from a criminal character in the classic films that Hollywood always use black hat. Black hat is often used for the hacker who uses his ability to conduct criminal. However, not everyone agrees with this because in the world of hackers is very thin difference of good and evil. For example, a hacker broke into considers that the activities are good if the system in view of the security aspects of the system because by doing the piercing so weaknesses can be identified so that systems can be improved and create a better system. But not so well with security experts (white hat), they tends argued that exploitation of a system and all information associated with it must be covered to the vendor only and does not deserve to be published to the general public. Because the two opposing views of the hacker is divided into two groups of black hat and white hat.
Gray Hat. The hacker who dalah adopts Full Disclosure . Where they believe that the world is not divided into black and white only. The gray hat believe that every individual is responsible for what he does. They assume that any information is free (full disclosure), freely published for public interest. They do not judge the black hat always evil and white hat is always good. The following is an excerpt from the words of a gray hat hacker named Weld Pond which is a member of the group of gray hat L0pht :
"First off, being grey does not mean you engage in any criminal
activity or condone it. We certainly do not. Each individual is
responsible for his or her actions. Being grey means you recognize
that the world is not black or white. Is the French Govt infowar
team black hat or white hat? Is the U.S. Govt infowar team black
hat or white hat? Is a Chinese dissident activist black hat or white
hat? Is a US dissident activist black hat or white hat? Can a black
hat successfully cloak themselves as a white hat? Can a white hat
successfully cloak themselves as a black hat? Could it be that an
immature punk with spiked hair named “evil fukker” is really a
security genius who isn’t interested in criminal activity? Typically,
a white hat would not fraternize with him.
Seems like there is a problem if you are going to be strictly
white hat. How are you going to share info with only white hats?
What conferences can you attend and not be tainted by fraternizing
with black hats? The black hats are everywhere. We don’t want to
stop sharing info with the world because some criminals may use it
for misdeeds.
—Weld"
Hacktivism. Hackers who are using it's hacking ability for certain political purposes. Examples of such cases on the site hacktivism Klux Klux Klan to display speech dideface Luther King Jr. Dr.marthin. Or deface (replacing the front page of a website) with the sentence political.
Therefore, it can be seen that hackers can not be judged from one perspective or just one form of activity. In general hacker is someone who is very interested in information technology and contribute to the development of information technology. Well, if you are someone who is interested in information technology and can design an application that is useful to society, then you are a hacker. If any of the readers who have exploited the ability of a computer security system and are willing to share information with the public in hopes of memebrikan positive side effects to people and feedback system improvement is better than the vendor, then you are a hacker.
First few of my brief. Hopefully usable and can add to your knowledge. And apologize if any of my colleagues who take offense at this writing, because I never intend to. This article was written on the basis of sharing information only.
