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The Hacker Profiling Project

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they-know-who-you-be-lads dept.

NewsForge writes "NewsForge is running a story about a project aiming to profile hackers like the police do with common criminals. Not based out of the U.S. per se, this project falls under the auspices of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). The project was co-founded by Stefania Ducci, in 2004, along with Raoul Chiesa." From the article: "NewsForge: What would the project concretely produce as final output? Stefania Ducci: The final goal is a real and complete methodology for hacker profiling, released under GNU/FDL. This means that, at the end of our research project, if a company will send us its (as detailed as possible) logs related to an intrusion, we — exactly like in the TV show C.S.I. when evidence is found on the crime scene — will be able to provide a profile of the attacker. By 'profile' we mean, for example, his technical skills, his probable geographic location, an analysis of his modus operandi, and of a lot of other, small and big, traces left on the crime scene. This will also permit us to observe and, wherever possible, preview new attack trends, show rapid and drastic behavior changes, and, finally, provide a real picture of the world of hacking and its international scene."

4 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. What have they done to our language by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From Wikipedia
    In computer programming, a hacker is a software designer and programmer who builds elegant, beautiful programs and systems.
    Well, that's what it used to mean. Someone who was close to the metal, not some jumped up script kiddie with no morals. now even Newsforge is using it in its pejorative form. Personally I think they mean crackers.
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  2. Don't like change? by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Word meanings change, and can have multiple meanings. Sorry if you've some personal attatchment to those 6 letters arranged in a certain, but the fight was over long ago. Find a new word for what you're talking about, because hacker now means someone who breaks into computers. You can't fight what 99% of the population accepts as the definition, no matter what some wikipedia entry says.

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    AccountKiller
    1. Re:Don't like change? by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I totally agree that the war is lost, but it's a sad day when a title I used to aspire to becomes a pejorative term on Newsforge

      --
      init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  3. Mod up by Gabesword · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This has been modded as funny but it really needs to be modded insightful. Governments the world over are trying very hard to get data such as the Amazon purchase data and store that in a useful database. Buying a book about rootkits very well may put you on a list of, oh, let's call them hackers who need to be kept track of. This, "hacker", book purchase can be cross referenced with the hacker's employment records, possibly including training received. It is all too possible that your phone or data line could be tapped and monitored because you are suspected of a crime based on nothing more than you having the skills necessary to commit said crime. Just because I am capable of lifting a baseball bat and swinging it doesn't mean that I should be an immediate suspect should someone be murdered by baseball bat. Having the ability to commit a network intrusion shouldn't make me a suspect of a network intrusion. That should only be the case if there is some indication that it was me.