http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/wr/story.html?s=v/nm/19990315/wr/pluggedin_22.html
Monday March 15 10:18 AM ET
Smashing The Stereotype Of The Villainous Hacker
By Lydia Zajc
TORONTO (Reuters) - Every hacker is a pimply youth out to break into your
system, steal your money, vandalize your Web site and leave destruction in
his wake, right?
Wrong.
Up to 80 percent of computer criminals are corporate insiders who
penetrate their company's system to siphon out money, do some industrial
spying or mess up computers for revenge and more, experts think.
But eliminate the lawbreakers and bratty teen-agers, and you'll find
technology lovers who dispel the overblown hacker mystique by testing
systems for consumers and advocating free speech.
``There's a demonization of hackers that goes on that's unfortunate,''
said Richard Power, editorial director at the San Francisco-based Computer
Security Institute.
Hacker stereotypes include young computer joyriders who promote mischief
and mayhem. Then there are those who freelance for illicit gain, called
``black hats,'' and the ``white hats,'' generally established corporate
types who are paid by companies to break into their own systems.
But there are those to whom the term ``hacker'' was a compliment:
brilliant technicians on the cutting edge of exploring the vulnerabilities
of technology, Power said.
Like Mudge (not his real name). He's from a Boston-based group that calls
itself L0pht (pronounced ``loft'') Heavy Industries. The group,
established in 1992, was named after its headquarters in a loft space but
jokingly spelled in the silly fashion used by computer insiders to
distinguish themselves.
Mudge, who has been hacking for up to 17 years and has hair flowing past
his mid-back, said the term ``hacker'' originated as a positive label in
American academic hotbeds in the late 1960s.
``Any neat and novel way of solving a problem was called a hack,'' Mudge
told Reuters by telephone. ``So to be a hacker was to be somebody who was
capable of thinking abstractly, thinking in not-just linear methods to
solve problems, and doing it in a bright and novel way.''
The meaning was twisted once Hollywood and the media stepped in.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put out a movie called ``WarGames'' in 1983, featuring
a teen-ager who accidentally breaks into a U.S. military computer, nearly
triggering World War III. Some people responded by attempting to replicate
that kind of feat, which helped lead to negative media coverage, Mudge
said.
Hackers have been struggling to reclaim the language, with some
considering the epithet ``cracker'' as the correct term for lawbreakers.
Mudge and L0pht sell tools on the Internet to allow companies to break
into their own systems, which firmly puts them in the ``gray hat''
movement, he said.
Like bullets, the tools can be used either by authorities patrolling for
possible intruders or by criminals to crack open a company's defense
systems.
``The L0pht prides itself on kicking the beehive pretty frequently and
staying, you know, smack dab in the middle of the gray area,'' said Mudge,
who has testified to the U.S. Congress on the topic of hacking.
Beyond the tools, L0pht believes in helping consumers. The group, which
routinely finds the holes in systems, sees itself as providing a public
service for unwary buyers.
Power added that vendors can be under pressure to get a product out the
door to reap profits and so might highlight the product's strengths and
shy away from revealing its weaknesses.
Mudge said, ``Who's the bad guy: the person who actually exploits this or
(company X) for knowing this up front and giving the user a false sense of
security and putting them in that situation to begin with?''
L0pht is not the only group which believes in doing good. Count Zero (also
not his real name), a 31-year-old who researches ways to manage
information for hospitals, belongs to a group whose name was inspired by a
visit to a Texas slaughterhouse.
The Cult of the Dead Cow, shortened to cDc, began as an electronic
magazine for creative expression in the early 1980s, Count Zero said over
the phone. The name sprang from the concept that ideas and free speech
could flow in a raw, fresh format; not censored or dressed up like a
steak.
In fact, Count Zero likens the computer to the automobile. First it was
simply a vehicle to allow people to travel, then it created wide-ranging
consequences such as freeways and pollution, changing lifestyles and the
shape of cities.
``There are going to be even more changes in the way people communicate
with each other, and ideas get across, and we're seeing the 'Net become so
ubiquitous that it's really a true global, wired village.''
-o-
Subscribe: mail majordomo@repsec.com with "subscribe isn".
Today's ISN Sponsor: Internet Security Institute [www.isi-sec.com]
Received on Wed Mar 17 12:43:22 1999