The Hacker Profiling Project

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."

Comments

What have they done to our language

[Silver Sloth]

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.

Re:What have they done to our language

[wired_LAIN]

If the title of a news article was "UN institutes Cracker profiling" the non-slashdot crowd would interpret it as "UN is racist against white people"

Like CSI?

[ajlitt]

"exactly like in the TV show C.S.I. when evidence is found on the crime scene"
You mean they stand around in a dark room and spout techno-BS while a computer graphically and textually points out the obvious?

One question

[squidfood]

Will the rankings be computerized?

Something interesting that might be related to it

[Ernesto Alvarez]

Reminds me of a project the Argentinian military presented about a year ago in a security congress I went to.

The idea was to "fingerprint" hacking attempts by measuring timing in typing on terminals. Say, a hacker would attack a system, a fingerprint would be taken (of the unknown hacker's typing habits) and then on another break-in, a new fingerprint would be taken and compared to previous ones to determine if it is a formely filed hacker.

Another possibility from that idea was to use the fingerprint also to verify the user's identity (you have to enter a password, but the server also fingerprints you and denies access if the fingerprint does not match).

Definitely one of the best expositions in the congress. Pity I cannot find any papers. I found the original presentation, in spanish though, by searching for "Remote identification of keystroke patterns" on google.

Don't like change?

[Vellmont]

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.

Re:Don't like change?

[Silver Sloth]

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

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[account_deleted]

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