Sort Of Crimes Happened In The Cyber World

Just as it is illegal to threaten, harass or stalk others in person, e-mail should be no exception for these acts. E-mail can create a shield of anonymity for the computer user, making communication seem less impactful. Upon first becoming acquainted with e-mail use, children should learn proper communication “tone.” Additionally, kids can be exploited by e-mail scams that might lure them into illegal activities that involve hacking, distribution of counterfeit products and the like.

Hacking, breaking into, or “cracking” refers to manipulation of orintentional damage to another computer or computers. Hacking can take a variety of forms, from cracking computer codes and stealing classified information to vandalizing a Web site. Illegal entry into a computer system can create a virtual avalanche of destruction, causing serious consequences. Computer viruses are infiltrating computers systems across the country at an ever-increasing rate. If a virus were to disable the computer network of a hospital, it could shut down medical instrumentation systems that control life support and monitoring functions-all of which could cost a patient his or her life. Almost every sector of the economy from transportation and financial transactions to emergency services and power distribution depends on computers. Disruption of any or all of these operations can result in consequences ranging from monetary losses to catastrophic loss of life.

The Internet is a useful and convenient tool that allows people to find almost anything they want, including products and services that belong to others. Most of us know that we should not go into a store and take software, movies, or CD, without permission. It can be just as wrong, however, to take music or software from the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner

It is easy to understand why the theft of an object is wrong; it is more difficult for children to understand the concept of theft of intellectual property. It is important that we teach our kids that they should not download pirated or counterfeit material. They should not download otherwise copyrighted works without permission. There are many websites where the authors of material encourage downloading. It is not wrong to download from these sites. Many others do not. Parents may want to try to learn more about copyright and trademark laws to learn if their kids are behaving ethically

One way that people share counterfeit and pirated goods on the Internet is at “warez” sites. Even though they don’t have permission to do so, these websites share copies of software, movies, music, and other goods at discounted rates, or sometimes, even for free. Those who set up and use such sites can find themselves in trouble with the law or being sued by the companies who own the rights to the goods being offered on the site.

It is important to teach kids that drawings or content from Web sites are ideas that belong to someone else. Copying these for use in a school project or paper assignment without a reference to where they came from is plagiarism. This is just the same as if your child stole a classmate’s homework assignment and tried to turn it in as his/her own. Any use of materials or artwork should be cited appropriately.

 Hackers

Definition : Hacker is a term used by some to mean “a clever programmer” and by others, especially those in popular media, to mean “someone who tries to break into computer systems.”

1) Eric Raymond, compiler of The New Hacker’s Dictionary, defines a hacker as a clever programmer. A “good hack” is a clever solution to a programming problem and “hacking” is the act of doing it. Raymond lists five possible characteristics that qualify one as a hacker, which we paraphrase here:

• A person who enjoys learning details of a programming language or system
• A person who enjoys actually doing the programming rather than just theorizing about it
• A person capable of appreciating someone else’s hacking
• A person who picks up programming quickly
• A person who is an expert at a particular programming language or system, as in “Unix hacker”

Raymond deprecates the use of this term for someone who attempts to crack someone else’s system or otherwise uses programming or expert knowledge to act maliciously. He prefers the term cracker for this meaning.

2) The term hacker is used in popular media to describe someone who attempts to break into computer systems. Typically, this kind of hacker would be a proficient programmer or engineer with sufficient technical knowledge to understand the weak points in a security system. For more on this usage, see cracker.

What Hackers Do

In theory, people who try to breach computer security should be called crackers rather than hackers. But the popular press has lost the distinction between the two, and I’m not going to make life difficult by trying to resurrect it. So, hackers, as popularly defined, are computer experts who spend enormous amounts of time trying to breach the security of networks, Web servers and email servers. Usually they use a selection of specialist software to identify weaknesses, which are then exploited. The majority do it for fun and as a challenge. They’re not interested in attacking private individuals. It’s the big companies and authorities they go for. There are just two aspects of hacking that you have to worry about as a private individual. One is that your details are on various company databases, and when these are cracked, information about you can be stolen. There’s not a lot you can do about this, and it definitely happens from time to time. The good news is that you won’t finish up with any financial liability if your credit card details are discovered. Your credit card company and the company that was cracked will sort it out between themselves. It’s unlikely that you’ll even know it happened. The second problem is that serious hackers need to protect their anonymity. This means they can’t mount their attacks on organisations like the FBI directly through their own computers and telephone lines. They need first to create an intermediary, like a kind of base camp for a mountain expedition. To get their intermediate base they use purpose built programs called trojans and backdoors. A trojan is a program that looks innocent but carries a dangerous payload, like the Trojan Horse of Greek mythology. It may be disguised as a game or some other kind of executable program, in the same way that viruses are often disguised.

The payload it carries is a backdoor program (or maybe just a few lines of code that create a security hole so a backdoor program to be installed later). A backdoor program allows the hacker access to your computer whenever it’s on the Internet. It’s a remote control, and usually a very thorough one with full access to every facility and file on your computer

 Computer Security Hackers

In computer security, a hacker is someone who focuses on security mechanisms of computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it is more often used by the mass media and popular culture to refer to those who seek access despite these security measures. That is, the media portrays the ‘hacker’ as a villain. Nevertheless, parts of the subculture see their aim in correcting security problems and use the word in a positive sense. They operate under a code of the Hacker Ethic, which acknowledges that breaking into other people’s computers is bad, but that discovering and exploiting security mechanisms and breaking into computers is still an interesting activity that can be done ethically and legally. Accordingly, the term bears strong connotations that are favorable or pejorative, depending on the context.

In a security context, a hacker is someone involved in computer security/insecurity, specializing in the discovery of exploits in systems (for exploitation or prevention), or in obtaining or preventing unauthorized access to systems through skills, tactics and detailed knowledge. In the most common general form of this usage, “hacker” refers to a black-hat hacker (amalicious or criminal hacker). There are also ethical hackers (more commonly referred to as white hats), and those more ethically ambiguous (grey hats). To disambiguate the term hacker, often cracker is used instead, referring either to computer security hacker culture as a whole to demarcate it from the academic hacker culture (such as by Eric S. Raymond) or specifically to make a distinction within the computer security context between black-hat hackers and the more ethically positive hackers (commonly known as the white-hat hackers). The context of computer security hacking forms a subculture which is often referred to as the network hacker subculture or simply the computer underground. According to its adherents, cultural values center around the idea of creative and extraordinary computer usage. Proponents claim to be motivated by artistic and political ends, but are often unconcerned about the use of criminal means to achieve them.

 Block Hackers

There are people out there online now who make it their goal to find out others’ information. Even when this information is absolutely worthless to them, some achieve a thrill from simply seeing things that they shouldn’t. Of course, there are more ‘practical’ uses of hacking. Not all hackers are small-time computer experts with a thirst for useless knowledge. Computers are hacked for a variety of reasons with a purpose, such as to steal credit card details for fraudulent use or a list of e-mail addresses for the purpose of unsolicited e-mail. There are a variety of tools and methods used by hackers. They will usually disguise their IP address through the use of an anonymous proxy, so that whatever damage they cause cannot be traced, and also utilise tools such as password breakers and encryption codes to obtain access.No matter what tools they use, however, there is one thing that remains true that the hacker cannot change. They must access your information through your internet connection. As with viruses, the best hacker-blocking software monitors these connections for any abnormal activity. The general job of the software is to alert the user to this abnormal activity and give them the option to block the connection, destroying the link between the hacker’s computer and yours, and thus preventing them from accessing your data.

The software used to stop hackers gaining direct access to your computer is known as a ‘firewall’. The best examples of such software are:

 1.Black ice defender

2.  Zone Alarm Pro 3.0

3. McAfee Firewall v4.0

4. Net Keys Ultra

5. Tiny Personal Firewall

6. Norton Personal Firewall 2.0 for Macintosh

7. Norton Personal Firewall

MY OPINION ABOUT THIS ISSUES

As we know, Hacker is a term used by some to mean “a clever programmer” and by others, especially those in popular media, to mean “someone who tries to break into computer systems.” Eric Raymond lists five possible characteristics that qualify one as a hacker, which we paraphrase here:

• A person who enjoys learning details of a programming language or system
• A person who enjoys actually doing the programming rather than just theorizing about it 
•  A person capable of appreciating someone else’s hacking
• A person who picks up programming quickly
• A person who is an expert at a particular programming language or system, as in “Unix hacker”

Computer crimes can be done against the government, companies, and even everyday people. It’s no secret that a mature sense of ethics is something a person develops over time. Parents are supposed to exercise authority over their children because the children are not expected to know how to make certain decisions for themselves. We have a juvenile court system separate from the adult criminal court system because we believe that a young person is not capable of criminal intent in the same sense that an adult is capable of it.

Beside that, Internet hacking is getting increasingly serious, and people are getting less tolerant, especially for businessman.  Businesses are losing money over it and they’re fed up. It won’t be long, and businesses will learn to stop sending the mixed signal of employing former hackers.

For the conclusion, People strongly disagree as to what a hacker is. Hacking may be defined as legal or illegal, ethical or unethical. The media’s portrayal of hacking has boosted one version of discourse. The conflict between discourses is important for our understanding of computer hacking subculture. Our government must to do something to destroy the computer crime syndicate like hackers, because it’s given many bad effect to us.

By : Fitriani Binti Abdul Hamid (144912)