[jakediddy]

I am writing an article for my journalism class about hacking. Here's my question: is hacking a good thing or a bad thing? Feedback would be great!

[darkcarnival]

oh it would depend on who you ask dude heres what the def is:

a person who goes in a machine but does NOT harm it

a hacker will go in just to say they did.

a cracker though is one to fear because they will not only go in your computer, but hgarm it by adding harmful code and or programs that has a virus,worm or other means of harfulness.

in short, i think they are good only because the only thing they do wrong is going into another persons machine.

[nekeno12]

I agree with darkcarnival, a hacker with malicious intent is obviously bad because I causes chaos, but not in a life-threatining way.

For example, they shut down a datacenter that hosts thousands of websites and create a total loss of over $600,000 in business loss from not being able to do business without their website.

I suppose, hacking would only be good for educational purposes. You hear of many hackers that do big things, become famous with the underground, and then make millions as security consultants.

So, as long as there is no malicious intent, there's no loss and most importantly, no jail time.

[blaw]

Hi there,

I do agree with the above two - cracking is bad. In fact, I think it's illegal in many cases.

However, I also think that there is broader meaning to "hacking" than simply accessing others' computer without appropriate authorization.

I am not a theorist nor willing to argue what it really means, but what I believe is hacker (i.e. whoever does hacking) is simply a person with an extensive computer skill. You see there are books from O' Reilly called "~~~ Hacks" (e.g. Google Hacks, Amazon Hacks), but it doesn't tell you, say, how to hack into Google server or to rip off Amazon, but instead, authors are really good at these fields, and share how we can make the best (or above what we think is best) use of it.

I noticed plugins to online scripts are also called Hacks, but again, phpBB hacks does not mean with that scriptlet you can hack into someone else's phpBB admin page. Finally, you can find sections called "Note - For Apache hackers:" in Apache documentation, but this section is more targetted to those who (want to) know a lot more about Apache than ordinary users, but by no means for those who want to compromise others' web servers (I sure hope not...!).

So to me (and perhaps most of the people who think the same way), hackers - or hacking - are what have made and will make our computer life a lot easier with their great skills/knowledge and a huge amount of effort. They are the pioneer, so in my opinion, depending on what the definition of hacking is, the answer is more like "necessary", rather than good or bad. Of course, when people have so much power, some would want to spend it for malicious purposes, but not all of them.

Thanks for reading my wuffling. =)

[ermau]

You must understand that there is a difference between "hacking" and "cracking" Like blaw said, cracking is bad. Cracking is your hacker with malicious intent, nekeno.

Hacking is different, it serves all beneficial purposes and does no harm. Hacking can be anything from modifing code for personal englightenment to trying to get into systems to determine security flaws so they can be fixed so a cracker can't exploit them.

[iBold]

People say it's 'educational', but only for the purpose of furthering itself. If hacking didn't exist, there would be no need to educate ourselves about it. So saying it exists to educate other people is no better then chasing your tail...

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[darkcarnival]

well your right on some point. but hacking really dont go in to and like add a file that could track every motion you make and stuff.

most hackers are from companies that test a password network to see if a cracker can invade the network and screw around with stuff. therefore you would need to educate yourself.

but its not really hard to gain access to a computer, i think if you know how to program, you can do it since theres special made functions that show the ip,browers type,os,rev,color,ect that a person could use to go into another system. but should never be done.

[tylerc]

hacking is for law enforcement
cracking is for anarchists

[cshark]

Originally Posted by tylerc

hacking is for law enforcement
cracking is for anarchists

That's just not true.
Hacking is an extremely broad term. It can cover everything from simple reverse engineering (which is neither good nor bad, it has both applications), to DDOS attacks (which are pure evil), to overclocking the processor on your mother board (which can be good).

Is hacking good or bad?
Depends on what you mean when you say hacking.

With the same skill set, you could write a program that creates a grid on a corporate network allowing all kinds of useful things to happen, or a virus that mutilates thousands of computers. Is it the same thing?

Yes. It is... actually.
It's the same basic technologies in play, using the same basic protocols in many cases, and essentially doing the same type of work?

Is it bad?
I think honestly, it's an issue of consent.
No one wants their resources raped. Even in some small way.

Everything on the internet is that way. Why do you think people get so annoyed by Spam and popups? Because they didn't want them.

People get annoyed by spyware for the same reason. Granted spyware will take a chunk out of your system resources, but it could also be argued that any program you run does. What differentiates a legitimate program from a piece or spyware? Consent. What differentiates a virus written by a human being and a spyware program? Purpose. Most spyware is commercially motivated, and most viruses aren't. That's been changing over the last couple of years though. Does it makes a difference? No. The remedy is the same.

It's never black and white. Obviously, there are programs that live on the borderline. Like Microsoft Windows for example. Any program that calls home when you don't want, expect, or tell it to is a form of hacking. Is that wrong? Or bad? Depends who you ask, and where their financial motivations lie.

[a_c_fan204]

jakediddy i am having that problem too. i am writing an article for my journalism class and i am going with the anonymous thing talking about how they are hacking into facebook. so what i did is just got a big thing that is happening and write what i think of it.what i think of anonymous is that i agree with what they are doing about facebook but they are just a pussy rip-off of v for vendetta. so just get i news story about hacking and write what you think of it.