How Crackers View Themselves

prostoalex writes "Dr. Orly Turgeman Goldschmidt from Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted a research to figure out if there any any differences between the classic computer vandal stereotypes and the real life. After surveying 54 Israeli repondents and using the term hacker gratuitously, Goldshmidt found out many computer vandals to be "young, well-educated men without a criminal record, who belong to the middle or upper class." 3 out of 54 respondents were women, some of the respondents were married and had children. Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of computer security community, the type who goes on shopping sprees on stolen credit cards, so take the findings with a grain of salt."

Comments

Israel bad place for sample

[corebreech]

Israel leads the world in Internet attacks, ergo I think the numbers here are probably skewed. It's probably best to perform research like this in a nation that's, um, a little less on the brink.

JERUSALEM (UPI) -- A survey by Symantec says Middle Eastern countries comprised six of the top 10 bases for Internet attacks, it was reported Monday.

In the first half of 2003, the top offenders included Israel as well as Iran, Egypt, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, WorldTribune.com said.

Symantec ranked the threats according to the size of a country's Internet population base. Israel was cited as the biggest source of Web-based attacks with an Internet user base of more than 1 million, Middle East Newsline reported.

About 80 percent of all attacks originated from systems located in 10 countries.

"The Internet is a great leveler and the issue of Web security in the Middle East is no different from any other part of the world," Kevin Isaac, regional director at Symantec, said.

"Wherever there is high bandwidth availability and a proliferation of the Internet, the chances of breaches taking place are high."

(it's a shame this story got rejected by /.)

WE all know what a cracker really is.

[iphayd]

Crackers don't see themselves as trailer trash, and their mullet is the most stylish way to cut their hair.

They think having the rusty cars in the front yard is useful, because one day you might just need an '84 Trans Am transmission.

They also create websites like this, which was featured on the Cruel site of the day blog.

Re:I'm Getting Sick of This

[Ronald Dumsfeld]

What's the big hang up of hacker vs cracker? I understand both meaning of hacker and the definition of cracker. So why the persistence with insisting hackers should be called crackers?

In this case the article doesn't even make a distinction between good hackers and bad hackers. It assumes that, by definition, "hacker" means someone who carries out illegal acts.

In the case of Yaron, 39, a former hacker who now owns an information security company...

Whoever wrote this article does equate "hacker" with criminal. Why else label someone who sets up an information security company as a "former hacker"?

The researcher obviously isn't much better. The paper the reporter has used for this piece comes from the "Understanding and Controlling Cybercrime in the 21st Century" session given to/at the American Society of Criminology. Other papers include "Exploring Criminal Traits of Online Offenders", and ""Hardening the Target" in Cyberspace: Assessing Technology, Methods, and Information for Committing and Combating Cyber Crime".

From the latter...

"The presence of new computer technology aids cybercriminals from hackers to cyberterrorists, offenders who, to a great degree, depend upon the lack of technological skills of law enforcement ...".

From this I conclude that all the attendees, including the reporter, left that little session assuming "to hack" meant "to commit an illegal act with a computer". Is that really the idea you want the police to have when, if casually asked, your brother/sister/parents might respond that you "work with computers and are a bit of a hacker"?

I hope not!