Internet pirates

Good and evil in this world go hand in hand. Technology, too, is no exception to the rule. Hacking or rather cracking is proof of this.

Hacking started as a fun pastime for technology freaks who loved to test the extremes of different systems. Gradually the term started being misused, to the extent that hacking today is synonymous with evil doings in the technology domain.

What exactly is hacking?

The temptation to remotely access somebody else's system to steal personal information is what has brought hacking into worldwide prominence. When you have a law, you will also have a few lawbreakers — and they have their own reasons for taking on systems.

Today networks all over the world are fighting the onslaught of these so called malicious programme writers. Cyber crime has come of age—from web page hacking (changing the contents of the page or removing it completely) to spoofing (assuming a false identity) e-mail accounts, the horizons of internet pirating have expanded.

Earlier, the average offender would be a technology geek who intruded into systems to prove his prowess. Financial gain was not too important. However, with the large amounts of money being transacted online, this has changed.

Birth of the hacker

The term "hacker" first originated in 1960 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. It referred to skilled programmers in FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) language, which was a popular software programming language of the 1960s and 1970s. Hacking as a hobby was popularised by John Draper a.k.a 'Captain Crunch' in the seventies as Phone Phreaking. This kind of hacking was limited to telephones. It later caught on with computer geeks.

In the computer arena hacking is slang for a computer enthusiast, i.e., a person who enjoys learning programming languages and computer systems. A person like this is often considered an expert on the subject. Within their community they are referred to as 'white hats' or 'ethical hackers.'

Unfortunately, today, the term 'hacker' is commonly applied to individuals who gain unauthorised access to computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting data. The right term for them is actually crackers or 'black hats'.

Role internet plays

Hackers generally have an exclusive domain in which they operate. This could be a standalone computer, local network or internet. One common modern day exploit in the internet world is hacking into the email accounts of internet users by obtaining their login name and generating their password.

After signing in to the account, hackers change the password or read personal mails and delete them. They also hack into various websites and replace the original contents of the websites with their messages.

Hacking story of our times

The movie WarGames released in 1983 brought hacking into the mainstream. It tells the story of a young computer wizard who accidentally connects into a top secret super computer, which has complete control over the US nuclear arsenal. Something that started as a game between America and Russia accidentally starts off a countdown to World War III.

The world of hacking changed on February 15, 1995 when a two-year FBI hunt ended to find a wanted hacker Kevin Mitnick. Kevin was arrested on grounds of getting into other people's computers without their knowledge.

Apple's iPhone's initial inability/restriction to work on only mobile carriers led to many hackers working overtime to find a solution. They sure did! iPhone owners were able to hack their iPhones with the help of a popular programme called AppTap. It's another story that Apple finally came out with its own software update!

Hacking pays!

Digital Armaments is a US-based company that checks network vulnerability and helps organisations avoid internet security threats. As part of its innovative approach the company promotes various hacking challenges. For the January-February Challenge, Digital Armaments will give a special prize of $20,000 for each submission that finds an exploitable vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.

The writer is a guru of tech who runs a trading company in Dubai