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Hackers – the ‘Bad Guys’

July 11th, 2008

The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s
Orange Crate

Hackers have long been portrayed by the media as one of two extremes – the socially-inept teen sitting for days in his bedroom trying to wreak havoc on the Net due mainly to boredom and a demand to be noticed, or the high-tech super-spy risking his life to steal top secret information from rogue states in the name of the free world. What we have been subjected to is the idea of good guys and bad guys, but does this equate to the real picture?

Well the truth is that although hackers have caused millions of pounds of damage throughout the history of computing, they have also facilitated the birth and development of many of today’s most powerful and recognized software packages. These days they are grouped mainly into one of two groups - “White Hats”, who are often employed as ‘ethical hackers’ to find and plug security holes, and “Black Hats” who work to exploit computer systems for their own gain and for cyber-crime causes.

This week let’s look at a couple of famous Black Hats. Are these guys really the criminal masterminds the media has made them out to be, or simply just the con-artists of a new era?

First up, Mr Adrian Lamo. An interesting fellow, he was dubbed ‘The Homeless Hacker’ as he would travel the US using internet connections in coffee shops and libraries to execute his hacking exercises. A kind of illegal White Hat, he would penetrate the networks of large companies and institutions then inform them of his achievements. Although it sounds like he was almost doing them a favour, his acts also gave him access to a lot of high-profile and classified material such as social security information and private corporate details. During his career he hacked such major groups as Yahoo!, Bank of America, Citigroup, and the New York Times. When he was eventually caught he was forced to pay restitution fines and was sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation. He is now a successful journalist and public speaker.

Next up is Jonathan James, who was incarcerated in juvenile prison at the age of 16 for his cyber-crimes. Known in the hacking world as ‘c0mrade’. He claims: ‘I was just playing around… to see what I could pull off’. By this he was referring to the successful hacking of a major US Defence Agency, where he gained access to top-secret emails and employee information, and the stealing of $1.7 million dollars of NASA software from NASA computers. Impressive for a 16 year old, but also embarrassing for the above institutions! James later contended that the software he stole was not worth as much as they claimed - ‘The (programming) code itself was crappy’ he later asserted.

One of the most highly publicized hacking cases was the authorities pursuit of Kevin Mitnick. Described as the “most wanted computer criminal in history”, it would appear that Mitnick craved the limelight and enjoyed the press he received. He started by hacking the LA bus punch-card system to get free rides, and penetrating software corporations to steal new software, but gradually his crimes became more and more serious as he went on “a two-and-a-half year coast to coast hacking spree”. CNN reported that he “hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks, and broke into the national defence warning system”, although it has been widely suggested since that many of his crimes may have been exaggerated. However he did serve five years in prison, eight months of that in solitary confinement. He is now a IT security consultant and public speaker.

Various other cases such as these exist, and there is much argument as to how they should be dealt with by the authorities in terms of punishment. Many contest that the punishments are not severe enough to fit the crimes, and that the offenders are pretty much guaranteed top jobs after their period of incarceration. However, publicity of these individuals’ feats has led to the advancement of security software and hardware at a greater rate – due largely to the global recognition of the dangers that are out there.

Add to this conundrum the problem of tracking, catching, and prosecuting hackers who are playing on a global game-board, and you begin to see one massive headache for world authorities. But it’s not all credit card fraud and stolen software, there is a positive side to the hacking phenomenon. Next week we’ll get to know a few of the good guys…
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