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

Do we need this ?

[jdifool]

Do we really need this ? Don't we all already know that hackers are, and will remain the fucking martyrs of the computer field ?

At first sight, I was quite rejoiced : it is so rare to see 'cracker' instead of 'hacker'. And then, pssshhhh, vanished are the hopes.

We've all been reading plenty of stuff like that before, but this article put some other sneaky insight.

• Did you notice, first, how the martyr theme was well represented ? (okok offtopic)
• The main thing is that, by now, the average hacker is a sympathetic guy. He has children , he is not obese, he is not illiterate, ie he is not a bear. Even though the bear cliche was quite tough, there is another threat here. The pattern of evil hidden behind respectable appearances is made shallower and shallower as the article goes on. The author almost finish by an breaking point like : beware, the hackers can be everywhere. A truly scary incitation to irrational fear. Again, this is strange this has been written in Israel (offtopic !).
• Secondly, the hacker seems to be granted by the state departments a holy grace that makes the average citizen think : 'how the bad hacker, full of revenge, which is at last spared by the authorities'. Truly pathetic : maybe only there hackers are granted such a favorized treatment. Who knows ?
• And, eventually, the deja-vu pattern of for the most part, Ashkenazim, secular, leftist hacker. BTW, do you think that there is still leftists in Israel (offtopic, but so true !) ?

Regards,
Jdif