Safety and Hacking

I remember about seven or eight years ago, when our internet was still run on a dial-up modem, and Napster and Kazaa were the fad, computer hacking was something pursued by ecstasy popping, rogue cyber rebels and anarchists. If your computer got hacked, it was taken in stride as something part and parcel of being a member of the web. Indeed, it was a simpler time. Since then, I believe that there have been two large evolutions of the hacking culture. In fact, these two trends have been in completely different directions.

The first, which is the more unfortunate side of hacking, is that a majority of hackers have become part of a larger "organized crimes" community. According to a survey done by Verizon, organized crime was responsible for over 90% of web breaches in 2009. With information being much more valuable nowadays than ever before, and the criminal community recognizing this, the internet became a huge target for criminal activity.

I think this brings to a sad reality, the culture of hacking and what it has become. What was once a community of cyber ninjas, looking to always challenge and in a twisted way, keep the progress of the development of the internet on its toes, has now become a means for damage at a much more serious and superficial level.

The second trend, I feel, is the idea of using hacking tools to make complicated and restricted technology, much more useful and free. Some might say that this is some form of "life hacking". I would include in this, ideas such as "jailbreaking" a phone so that it can be used on all platforms, the same idea with gaming consoles and music systems. There are a lot of restrictions that companies set on tech products, for the sole purpose that the method of use is close streamed, and within their control. What hacking like this does, is that it brings back flexibility and a lot more potential of the technology that you can use. The legality of any kind of hacking is obviously debatable, and it would probably be a very short debate, but if I were to endorse any kind of hacking, I would certainly go with this one, mostly because it doesn't cause the use any harm and information is always protected. Obviously it does harm the corporations that want to maximize profits on their technologies, but sympathy is very rarely on their side.

I think that there is a very healthy side of hacking. True hackers are people that challenge systems and technologies. Without them, we wouldn't be near the sort of security standards that we are at now. With organizations such as Anonymous, hackers are becoming much more surfaced nowadays and they are less of an underground community. It will be interesting how the hacking culture will change in the coming years, and what will happen legislatively to account for them.