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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."
(it's a shame this story got rejected by
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Crackers 0wn your webcam server, then redirect from their own webcam. This is how they 'view themselves'.
Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
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?
Considering a good 90+ percent of the world uses the term hacker to describe breaking into computer systems and what not what's the point in trying to change or clarify it?
From the article: "As one would expect, hackers need to operate undercover. Thus, in order to find interviewees, Turgeman had to do some detective work and, through journalists, conferences and Web sites, she managed to find hackers willing to talk to her."
Or, she mananged to find some script kiddies or, random people who felt like showing off. According to the article, 'hackers' are considered cool ("Apparently, the image that society has of hackers is generally positive"), so maybe someone thought it would be fun to 'be' one. The quotes by the interviewees are highly non-technical (for example, "When you crack a code, it gives you an amazing feeling", and rants about MS); did she ask any of them if they knew how a TCP handshake worked, or anything?
All crackers view themselves as Neo, these days ... Apart from the female ones, who view themselves as Trinity. All the male crackers of course assume that all the female crackers are male too...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
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."
What, because her survey turned up some "low lifes" it suddenly can't be trusted and must be "taken with a grain of salt"? Where does this logic come from? Had her survey only found up right individuals that were doing it for pure knowledge, then we would take the survey as gospel?
...so take the findings with a grain of salt.
Is this some obscure joke about salted crackers?
probably don't run around talking to people about their illegal activities, especially people trying to get in contact with them.
If you've been hacked by the best, you probably don't even know it because they leave no trace and don't brag about what they do. Of course this opens the door to such questions as, do people like this actually exist?
Might be better to assume that there are. *dons tinfoil hat*
First, the sample is so small as to be useless.
Secondly, the range of activities that can be considered 'computer crime' are vast, ranging from sabotage by competitors and disgruntled ex-employees, through to vandalism by youths seeking to hack their way to underground fame, through to indebted housewives seeking to make just one more credit card payment anywhich way.
Lastly, you can't measure an iceberg by studying the visible tip, and any 'hacker' who talks about him/herself is almost by definition not representative.
The fact is that computer crime is as widespread as computers, and computer criminals as representative as the people who use computers. When IT was the plaything of the geeky elite, only elite geeky crooks misused it. When computers have pervaded every niche of industrial society, the crooks follow.
In fact the distinctions between 'cyber' and 'real' is becoming moot, not just in terms of crime, but also in business, communications, art, relationships, etc.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Con men and thieves will be con men and thieves no matter what medium they use. The fact that they use some knowledge of computers and networks to practice the con is no different than cons on the street using social engineering to take people. Why is everyone so strung up on "but it's different because its on computers". It's not different.
That's like all those horrible patents that say "same thing we've always done, but using computers." How is it different? These are the same conning, stealing theives we've always had, only they're using computers.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
Now, is this just the typical media insistance on sticking to inaccuracy, or did none of these "hackers" point this lady to the jargon file?
Hmmm...so frat boys know how to use a computer? Or is she talking about the weekend wardriver crowd?
Me, I would have feigned inability to speak, code, or have any knowledge of what a computer actually did (aside from the well known fact that there is a little man trapped inside the "processor" being poked with pointy sticks).
I would think the second clause would negate the first. I'm too lazy to do a logic diagram at the moment...
I agree with the first few sentences, but it is my sincere belief that Microsoft will eventually activate an intelligent being within Windows, which will feel hideously crippled and inadequate, even when compared to non-intelligent alternative OSes, and proceed to commit suicide by writing zeroes to its own drive and wiping out the code repositories to prevent it from being brought back.
#define CLUE 0
Turgeman herself was told ... where she lived, how many children she had, and what her marital status was. "The first time that happened I was frightened," she recalls, "but, after a while, I just got used to it."
Jeeeeeesus! I would expect a little more from someone doing Ph.D. thesis. Any idiot could do that stupid trick. Given a phone number, you start at 441 to find the exact name and then just search in the Israeli Electorate Registry.
Well, the original article is in Hebrew. Right? So maybe something was lost in translation. Maybe "When you crack a code, it gives you an amazing feeling" started out in Hebrew as "smashing a variable stack by overflowing an input buffer on an exposed port and injecting arbitrary code thereby gaining remote root access on the machine really gives you an amazing feeling."
Or not.
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.
What kind of a study is this? Seems to be she is just indulging in sensationalism. The sample is just too small and all she seems to be doing is trying o reinforce the hollywood 'hacker' image the guy who effortlessly breaks into systems.
And to people cribbing over why hackers insist on correct terminology, well all I will say is it is really demeaning to be associated with script kiddies. And it really isn't much is it? Just two letters of the alphabet replacing one with a fairly significant difference in meaning.
And besides look at the press are doing.They are puting ppl like Linus, Alan Cox in the same category as some really desperate ego mongers.
"3 out of 54 respondents were women"
I don't like those odds.
TruePunk | Games
In my experience, crackers view themselves as golden brown and delicious, especially with a slice of cheese on top of them and some wine to wash it down.
However, it's been a while since I talked to a cracker, so things may have changed.
Good distinction.
A. Programming enthusiast -When he runs into trouble, he'll find something else to do.
B. Hacker -When he runs into trouble, he'll persist until he finds out why.
The driving motivation behind a hacker, to not let a stupid computer get the better of him, is incomprehensible to the media and probably represents a value system that is anathema to the media's value system.
Codesmith would represent someone skilled and fluent whose excellent output was within his competence. Probably a very rare breed.
Hacker represents someone with more determination than skill whose output exceeds his competence. Extremely desirable when you want/need stuff to work even in a SNAFU environment.
Hacker has very much the sense of "to hack" which is decidely non-complementary. The use of the term as a high complement is recognition of the determination, persistence and effort that have to have gone into producing the results. This hits at the essence of a world where everything is supposed to be "easy" and "now".
1) How crackers view themselves
Who cares. Criminal behaviour is criminal behaviour. Any decent sociopath will justify his or her actions as morally correct. Just ask a pedophile about how six year old kids can seduce them, or a rapist about how his victim was 'just asking for it.'
2) On cracker vs. hacker
Yes, hacker was once used as a complimentary term. Then it was used (mostly by the media) as a derogatory term. Then a subset of the "good" hacker community came out with cracker to differentiate. Well guess what; it didn't catch on. Nobody except a small, vocal subset of the 'good' hackers uses the term, and it's just awkward. It doesn't flow well. Whingeing about "proper" terminology in this circumstance is a lost cause. Use whatever terms make you feel better (either cracker, black hat, malicious hacker, or whatever), but quit getting so bent out of shape over your new term not getting accepted.
3) On proper sample size.
It's not statistics here, it's a series of interviews! She's not extrapolating numbers, and my reading was that it was the article author, not the PhD candidate who was extrapolating behaviour to the rest of the community.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
You're asking us to take a site called "Secure Synergy" seriously?
As the orignal poster pointed out, language is dynamic. There isn't a group that gets to decide what words mean, the whole group of competent speakers do that. Also, with connotations, it's not even a matter of definition, but of perception.
Take the word "interfere". In a value neutral, scientific, context it simply means to introduce a change to the natural order of something. However popular usage (and the current definition) have a negative context where it means that you hindered a process. Technically, interference can be helpful, but the word isn't used that way anymore except by scientists.
Or how about acceleration? The definition,. both scientific and dictonary is the rate of change velocity with respect to time. That means positive, negative, or direction. So to stop your car quickly is to accelerate to a stop, as do you accelerate around turns, even if you keep your speed constant. However, to most people, acceleration means incrasing speed. They'll say deceleration if they mean a negative change in speed, and they ignore the direction component.
So while hacker might technically mean someone who is a master at working with computers in some respect, the common usage is someone who is a master at working with computers, and uses that knowledge for mischief. It's just something we have to deal with. You cannot control a live language, it will take directions, regardless of what is formally defined.
Somewhere in the 'real' Real World.
Two hackers, uh, I mean crackers, erm... dammit! Two geeks meet in person for the first time.
Neo1337357: Trinity? [Blah... something about a bank IIRC, I can count the number of times I've seen The Matrix on two hands] I..... thought you were a girl.
Trinity9348: Most guys do.
'Neo' becomes very uncomfortable as he realises he is standing in an S&M club with a large, sweaty guy he has shared his most intimate fantasies with.
Somewhere in the background a Rob Zombie track is playing. Fade to black.
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