Hackers are all B@#t@rds

[Egaladeist]

Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly growing trend where hackers attack, compromise and steal money (and identities) from individuals. Whether it's the little old lady who lost $50,000 of her life's savings, or the Trojan that finds every parent's online banking account, what's the difference to a hacker?

Sitting behind a computer, any shy or docile human being can become the world's nastiest bastard of a hacker without even the slightest tinge of regret.

Attack, compromise, transfer funds, and then walk away. You might have just stolen the life savings of someone you don't know (and will never meet), so who cares? Or you've stolen the identity of someone who will feel the effects almost daily and for at least ten years down the road. But how does that affect you?

Hackers couldn't be any further detached from the damage, devastation and emotional destruction they cause. Just close the lid to your laptop computer, and move on.
Petty thieves or 2-bit thugs?

There are no morals among hackers anymore, no sense of right-or-wrong, and no appreciation of a greater good. Take the devastation caused by the tsunami last year and the destruction the Americans have faced with Katrina: dozens of phishing sites, phony donation efforts, fraud and rampant online identity theft, millions of pieces of spam and custom viruses purporting to be trojan relief efforts that were all trying to exploit the very individuals who, ironically, were offering up their funds in an effort to do some good. This is the community we work in.There are probably a dozen people trying to hack the Red Cross right now.

Would these same people break into their neighbor's home and rob an old lady at gunpoint? Or smash her head in with a sledgehammer? I'm guessing, probably not. Why? Because there's a clearer link between the crime and the consequences when you're not hiding behind your computer. The meek-human-but-vicious-hacker closes the lid of his laptop again, leaves the anonymous WiFi connection he was borrowing, and he's done.

This disturbing trend to attack individuals (and often for relatively petty amounts, at that), or emergency relief agencies, or even just the lowest hanging fruit around, is nothing short of evil and it must be stopped, exposed or redirected if it's ever going to come to an end.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09...cker_morality/
Hackers are all B'stards now | The Register

[gauravjulka]

Well..

I opened this thread for the same purpose

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=270581

May be there needs to be some clear and uniform civil laws across the world to curb this menace.... The field is newer yet so legislations across the world will need some time to get hold of these probs..

You dont know a hacker or phisher sitting in an oblivious place in Africa or subterranian desert trying to steal money from your local bank account... WHat your local laws will do when the culprit is operating from the darkest corner of the planet..

[Kite]

subterranian desert. an underground desert?

anyway, untill something major happens, like a computer disaster of some kind, we are not going to see much proactive legislation. when it comes to computers legislation is mostly reactionary.

[beee]

There are probably a dozen people trying to hack the Red Cross right now.

do u really think that is happening right now:P
umm.. let us volunteer and help protecting the red cross loool
instead of nagging and swearing
it will take a "saturday" afternoon lloooooll

I don't think those classify as hackers
once again, i don't wanna explain what a hacker is
but i think the word is somehow over used everywhere in wrong, sometimes good meaning

so we need now to make some new words
like computer criminals and such stuff

but sadly,in the end, there are ppl like that no matter what u call them, I know ppl like that
but in the end,they will get busted,i know it or u have to convince them to get them to the right side,more education needs to be done
and serious steps need to be taken from the software and hardware makers in order to ensure a good service
they are bastards too as they make lot of money from low quality poor products
that is stealing in another meaning too

[unvi$ible]

hi there,
i agree with you totally.
they are doing crime but because they are too far from crime scene or imidiate consencvences it doesnt seems to them as any wrong doing.
I think is same feeling like bying everything on visa card.it doesnt look like money and is easy to spend fortune on it even you cant afford it.Its only plastic.
as we are all aware its more and more evil in the world every day around us.
Developing big cities pple got alienated and Pc is best think which happen to this breed.
Alienated and alone you have the world on your fingertips.You can be whatever and whoever.
Our society had gone terible wrong as you worte it million pple who wants to help and then they get outnumbered by pple who exploit their generosity.
Noydays you will not stop on the street to help somone because its not your bussiness. IF you do and give them for instance first aid they come after you and sue you so better stay away.

Since i was small boy and started wotching tv and reading papers afrikca was more then in bad shape.
after 40 years and billions and billions dollars what has changed?
it even worse now with aids and more poverty until we in developing nationtrow and buy stuff we will never use.
Unfortunatelly a lot organisations (very well names in aid( misused genereous funds so pple get even more disolusion to help).
unfortunatelly i will not see in my life time that things in africa will improve, and poverty will go away.
with more and more divorces every day our kids became materialisticly maybe well off compare to undeveloped countries but emotionally they are same like them- poor in every sence.
watching city of new orleans and devastated area its braught to all of us that life is nothing.everything can be taken in seconds by mother nature and we can just watch helpleslly.
To see that superpower was badly prapered or underestimated damage gets to me how on earth you excpect tsunami most poor countries to respond to that type of devastetion.
they have no chance.
back to computers.
I am not sure statisticly but i believe only 2 % of world population have one.
here you go
god help us

[pakbehl]

This sounds like an article written by some angry journalist who got a huge credit card bill because he gave it to the wrong unsecured porno site. I can certainly understand somebody's anger at being devastated and emotionally destructed, I've had my things stolen, I've had to deal with virii, but do I write an article that generalizes every single person who ever wrote a virus, sent spam, ran a scam, ripped off the life savings of little old ladies, and found every "parent's" online bank account and called them all "hackers". I will most certainly agree whole heartedly that anyone who would do these terrible things are incredible jerks and should be made to feel what they inflict on others, but I've said 19million times before and I'll say it again these people are not hackers, they are cyber criminals, or whatever kind of criminal you want to call them. I am so sick of constantly arguing with people over the definition of 'hacker'. There are massive groups of law-abiding, tax-paying, PTA attending, hard working, proffesional people in the world that consider themselves hackers and make it known to others that this does not imply that they do anything illegal whatsoever. Yet over and over the media blatantly and rudely demonizes "hackers" and attaches that word to the worst kind of cyber*****s there are.
He speaks up for people who feel the effects of identity theft and the like ever day
Well I and millions of others like me are standing up for peaceful hackers who have to deal with the outrageous terroristic connotations that *random explitive* journalists like him perpetuate without a second thought.

Just thought I'd complain...

[NIKLAS?]

good lecture invisible.
yes,the world does seems to fall apart, i wonder how many wars will the u.s and its allies fought against poor countries?...can u guess?..

[The Duck]

Do not bring up political discussions in the security forums NIKLAS, that belongs in cosmos... Your just going to get HTRegz in here to complain about the US ...

[My SuperMan Ego]

I don't think those classify as hackers once again

No wait... your actually referring to kids who've got nothing better to do other than laying on their ass for hours while doing some very redundant and mundane computer related tasks in the hopes that this will somehow make them appear smart or cool? When they find out that making hello world appear on screen is neither very smart or even entertaining for that matter.... hey, just inform the person next to you that playing with a computer really makes you into something, yeah like a "hacker". Maybe this sexy word will make you appear hip and edgy or make the act of laying back and typeing alot into a cultural phenomena.

i don't wanna explain what a hacker is

And im just rambling on at the moment but if you didn't want to explain your view of things then why did you even bother posting that? Oh its because people who toss the H-word have an image to uphold, right?

There are probably a dozen people trying to hack the Red Cross right now.

Please... thats pretty dumb all around. And not only that but you also need to remember that the Red-Cross, on average, will only give 6% or so of their profits to charities. Anyone who goes about their day to day in a house made of mud or burns flags in their spare time yet can't seem to find a job will get a slice of that money before anyone else.

[Egaladeist]

And I've Said it before and I'll say it again...

Whether or not you have good intentions or malicious ones...if you gain Unauthorized access to any computer you are commiting an unethical act!

You do NOT have the right to ' HACK ' unless YOU SPECIFICALLY have received PERMISSION to do so.

In which case you are not a HACKER...you are a security professional....the very term HACKER came from having unauthorized access.

The official definition is:

Quick definitions (Hacker)

# noun: a programmer for whom computing is its own reward; may enjoy the challenge of breaking into other computers but does no harm (Example: "True hackers subscribe to a code of ethics and look down upon crackers")
# noun: someone who plays golf poorly
# noun: a programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism
# noun: one who works hard at boring tasks

The definition does NOT include having AUTHORIZATION so the term HACKER is a term for criminals...
if you break into my home to fix my VCR...you still gained UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS to my home...you committed a B & E ! You are therefore a criminal!

You are not a criminal ONLY if you have the person's PERMISSION!

If you think it's OK to enter another's person's property ( home or computer ) without their EXPRESSED PERMISSION then please forward your address to me in a PM and I'll be happy to enter your property if I'm ever down your way.

It is SOMEONE ELSE"S PROPERTY...I don't know why that is so difficult for HACKERS to understand...perhaps their mentality doesn't include ETHICS !

Their brain is obviously missing a vital piece of code!

Eg