Hackers: Misguided, or Wrongly Faithful?

[ShoobieRat]

You know, why don't hackers apply their devious trade towards something useful?

I mean, instead of attacking innocent people, why don't they use their uber-hack powers to clobber some of the nasties in this technological world?

For instance...why don't they attack spam servers, spyware-makers, virus makers, and telemarketing servers?

Think of all the good they could do, by being their normal, scummy, destructive selves...just pointing those abilities in a different direction. Heck, the opinion of hackers might even go up if people started to see that this "evil" of the computer world was actually fighting against those hurting the computer world and our lives.

Think of all the good that could come out of some elite hackers totally blitzing the overseas software piracy rings. Or an outright assault by hackers on the spamming community.

I mean, it's like...they still get to blow stuff up...but they'd be blowing up the stuff we want them to blow up.

 

[sunsider]

Stuff we want blown up? Was there a survey made asking what we would want them to blow up? I don't recall getting anything in my email box about that. Oh yeah, it would be classed as spam by my filter and trashed appropriately ..

You have to understand something, half the stuff you mention is something they are apart of, why destroy something they helped to create? That would be akin to biting the hand that feeds you, which would lead to unpopularity in their community. Think about it, half these guys crack softwares so you, and many others can enjoy products without paying for them. Some of them even run servers to host those elusive mp3 files, porn, softwares that many internet users take pride in downloading so they too, can stick it to the man. Yes, even amongst hackers, there is an understanding of how it needs to work.

If you have ever spent time in a community that focuses on "hacking" then you would well know what they are doing and why they do it. A lot of what they do is for educational purposes. What better way to learn coding or how program structure lays out than to decompile a program and see what makes it tick.

It seems to me they are already doing something worthwhile, or "good", only its for themselves, not for you. Or the general public.

Personally, I don't think dealing with spyware or spam is that hard at all. If people don't have the ability or understanding to properly maintain their pc's and protect them, they shouldn't be on them in the first place. Just because you can afford one, does not mean you should purchase one. take a class or course, read a book. Get educated. Then buy a pc. Can't afford a class/course? Go to your local library, get a book or three. It's free.

 

[horndude]

youve got hackers and crackers confused

linus torvlad,bram cohen=hackers
kevin mitnick=cracker, but much better social engineer

 

[Alex81388]

Pretty close in my mind.

 

[horndude]

Pretty close in my mind.

not really, hackers are usually creative and do good, they write code, the help people, they benefit the tech sector

crackers break into things, even if they mean no harm, they dont help anybody,some are malcious and seek to destroy things

 

[Harper]

You know, why don't hackers apply their devious trade towards something useful?

The main problem is that a lot of joe-end-users confuse Hackers with Crackers.
Traditionally, a hacker would just try to by pass the surcurity on a network. They might leave a TXT file saying "I was here", and then leave.

Crackers on the other hand are cyber-vandels. They get pass the sercurity, and then trash the place.
They seem to get off on making other people stuff and they are more technology adapted than others.

I got my house mate, Spike. He's only interested in playing online games (FPS or MMOLRPGs) with the only provision that he can "hack" into the game.
One second, he will be boasting about how he's just hacked into the game server and is making every one else's lives miserable there.
And then 2 minutes later, he's crying like a little japanese school girl when someone hacks back.


As for virus.... well they keep my business busy as most of the time I am cleaning up messes. So from a point of view of AU$80+GST per hour, i don't mind. However I do get the shits as this does slow me down on other business ventures that I would like to take on.

 

[horndude]

without hackers there's no software-->no games,no OS's, no apps, they write code

another defintion and subset of hackers is using something not for its intended purpose but something else instead or modifying something to work differently would be considered a hack

then there's the crappy golfer definition, they are called hacks or hackers

 

[Nubius]

youve got hackers and crackers confused

lol you pointed that out before I could get to it

 

[PP Mguire]

Ok guys, you got this all wrong. The "real" hackers of today actually sit back and watch the amature wannabe "crackers" (as you so call) and laugh. We dont do anythign really unless somebody screws w/ us then we come out and bite and nobody knows what happens. Ppl that are stupid that crack AOL to sign everybody off are just amatures that think they are cool so we can laugh at them and tell them they are stupid. We do good, but we sit in the shadows and you never know what we are actually doing. If we started to do what needed to be done the US would have a civil war from anarchy and obliviation because the damn GOV that has no idea wtf they are doing wont even know what hit them. Just think about what you say before you open your mouth cause there coul be one watching you when you say it. (btw im not critisizning anybody here on TF just trying to make a point across)

 

[horndude]

oh please, yawn.........