Hackers: Who are they and how can they be stopped

[saintakaagni]

i read this article in http://www.attrition.org it paints a different picture form what is said in that article:

Cracking the Mind of a Hacker

[Tim_axe]

...
According to Dr Peter Tippett, chief technologist at security specialist Trusecure, every internet address in the world is attacked in some form by a human being 40 or 50 times every day. But that's not all - every address is also hit five or 10 times every minute by an automated, computer-based attack. On average, 1500 web sites are defaced by hackers every day - half of which originate, for no obvious reason, from Brazil.

Clearly most of these attacks are harmless or easily repelled, but the scale of the problem is disturbing. So who are these people?

...

'It's 10 to one male to female. They tend to be the kind of nerdy, non-social people, although there's a lot who aren't. We've met lots who are intelligent, social, the sort of people you'd know at work and not suspect. They typically have an angry mentality, or the structure of their thinking doesn't comply with ours. How can they think what they do is right or justified?'

At the next level there is a hard core of a few hundred very technically adept hackers who create most of the attacks and the tools used for electronic crime. As many as 100 new attack tools are developed every month, and distributed over the web for the 11,000 - and the one million - to use as they choose. Organised crime groups tend to be expert users of these tools rather than creators of their own.
...

So defacing 1,500 websites every day is harmless? And with over a million people attacking my computer 40 to 50 times a day, and 5 to 10 times a second is also harmless? Especially since it is an organized group of 10 males to every female, being anti-social and without any sense or right or wrong? It doesn't sound very friendly to me...

...
And of all the internet worms that have spread, only three flaws were involved in all of them combined.

'If you know that, then you know you need to do things to make sure those are not a problem,' says Tippett.
...

I think that the article is critically mistitled. Does it acturally tell anyone how to stop a malicious hacker? What are these things that I need to do to make sure that these three flaws are not a problem?



They should at least consider retitling the article. And definately not present it to the average Internet user. It is full of conflicting information and would do nothing to have a person protect themselves from these evil hackers. (I'm not concerned how the word is used) I favor the Microsoft Posters much more than what is said in that article. They are simple, and to the point. "Use an updated anti-virus", "Get computer updates", and "Use a firewall". If I had to present a new computer user with this or those posters, I would definately give them some of those free Microsoft Posters. It would save a lot of trouble in the long run...

[menjadibaik]

i glad join here...

i so dumb about hacker, but from now i must learn about that...
the first i surf the web about that topic, i found article writen by Garry D Robson at www.robson.org. it's very help me to describe what is and how to become a hacker. i recommend you to read this article. From that article and if related with your question, i think hacker is the unbad position. Moreover they have outstanding skill about the computer. I have advice to you about your question from "Hackers: Who are they and how can they be stopped ?" to "Hackers: Who are they and how can they be deployed ?" are you agree ?

see you !
correction welcome too (like soda talk)

[SilverMinx]

Without REAL hackers there would be no patches to the security flaws these idiots use to gain entry to computer systems. Without us there would be no encryption for skiddies to TRY to break in the first place, without hackers no security whatsoever would exist because that's what we do. OUR curiousity beckons us to attempt entry just to see if it can be done, and of course if it can we aren't going to keep it to ourselves.

Well said. I suppose the danger is born when curiosity turns into something more.

[Cybr1d]

SHARING IS CARING ......well, how do I put this...you see that there is a flaw with the tire of your neighbor's car, which seems like it would break in the middle of the road. Every day your neighbor picks up other neighbor's kids including yours, and takes them to school. You are the only one who notices the flaw on the tire. Do you share that with other people who know what you're talking about or do you keep it for yourself risking the lives of all those kids and your neighbor? A little bit harsh for a comparison, but its just to give you an Idea.

[groovicus]

And definately not present it to the average Internet user. It is full of conflicting information and would do nothing to have a person protect themselves from these evil hackers.

They have to present it to the average user, otherwise who would believe their bulls**t? And we wonder why the average user is intimidated by computers...

[x acidreign x]

I once heard someone equating hacking for fault discovery purposes as "breaking into someone's house and telling the person who lives there how unsafe they were in their own home" but really its more like noticing someone's front door is swinging open and telling their dumb ass to shut it.

[Soda_Popinsky]

There needs to be a different word for the white hat hacker-

If I were to tell someone I was a hacker, then I would have to explain that I'm on the good side of the law. But people still have such a bad impression of the word Hacker that I doubt it will ever be seen as a good term. So my point, we need a different name.

white hat + hacker = whacker?

Ahhh I don't know.
Corrections welcome.

[agent.idle]

I laugh at this. It's the same as it's always been. People in an influencial position write articles trying to shape the opinion of the general public. These people are usually ignorant of the details or the truth (though some of it may well be true) and never show both sides of the fence. Obviously there are digerati (I will use this term rather than labelling someone as a hacker or cracker...you can look up the definition here) that use their knowledge and skill for malicious intentions, but there are also those who use their ability for good. Human knowledge belongs to the world as the saying goes, but like all power (which knowledge is a form of), it comes with responsibility. It's unfortunate that people don't realize that it's these digerati that propell our technology forward and protect us from the irresponsible ones. I think it would do well for society to have most people learn more about computers and to allow those who are skilled in the ways of 'hacking' show their side of the story. One of these media publications needs to grow a set of balls and ask a digerati to write a guest article...something along the lines of: [gloworange]Hackers on the Subject of Hackers[/gloworange]. Let the public form their own opinion by hearing both sides of the story. Unfortunately, the only place you'll find such articles are on hacking websites, where the only audience is fellow 'in-the-know' people. I just think we need to start doing something other than bitching on forums. If it really bothers people to be mislabeled then I would suggest that someone here with the right to be called a digerati take the initiative and approach a media company with a request for an article. I do have an intrigue for learning as much as I can about everything computer related and would one day like to contribute to improving our technology, but I'm in no way what most people would call a hacker. I think we need someone with a real authority on the subject to go for it and lets see what happens. I'm sure the public is not as dumb as a stump and can form their own educated decisions once they have all sides of the issue.

Anyway, enough from me. This is just an opinion.

[shadow]agent.idle[/shadow]

[el-half]

If I were to tell someone I was a hacker, then I would have to explain that I'm on the good side of the law. But people still have such a bad impression of the word Hacker that I doubt it will ever be seen as a good term. So my point, we need a different name.

white hat + hacker = whacker?

Have you ever heard of the word "Security Expert"?
whacker??? what about wanker? :P
We do NOT need a different name, just tell people you are an elite computer freak instead of an elite hacker.