Cyber Attacks And The Internet - 1226 Words

The terms hacker and hacking are often associated with malicious cyber-attacks carried out by no-name specters wandering around in cyberspace. These â€Å"people† intentionally create virtual chaos for anyone or any computer connected to the internet (global network). Such activities range from causing system errors—program crashes, lockups, and system shutdowns—to intrusion attempts to gain access to private information or data, and even to steal personal funds. A decent hacker can gain total control over a user’s PC while it’s in use. Generally, hackers disrupt the flow of normal everyday life by manipulating security codes, capitalizing on security vulnerabilities to take advantage of many computer users, private networks, and†¦show more content†¦It is a shadowy task but it is performed only to better protect consumer’s physical and virtual property. A majority consensus views hackers as evil people who do nothing by play around in computers all day to improve their intrusion techniques in order to steal money, information, and cripple computer systems for various reasons. Based on the second paragraph of this paper, the consensus is somewhat flawed. The confusion stems from the definition of hacker and how they have been perceived. Hacking was originally defined as the production of furniture with the use of an axe, but MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology—the origination of the replacement term hacker) define it as students who pulled pranks with the use of a computer. In 1963, a group of MIT students tied up phone lines from both the MIT and Harvard Campuses, turning lines inactive and using available lines to make long distance phone calls that carried hefty phone charges. This was the first instance of the term being applied to the young, and rising profession of hacking. It has since then been in permanent use due to the evolutional path of hacking—the aspect that was widely publicized. In 1983, the 414s, a group of 6 computer hackers, broke into Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center computer systems and deleted a number of patient billing information. They, again, broke in Los Alamos National Laboratory known for its research in nuclear technologies. The leader Neal Patrick earned a reputable