Bugs #02 31 декабря 1999

Hackers - What motivates hackers?

(C) Lelik 2000



                  What motivates hackers?



      Reasons for hacking may be different.

  In addition to irrational behavior on the part of the hacker
There are four basic reason: personal revenge, self-promotion
attempt to cause chaos destroys the foundations of society, or 
profit. When revenge hacking is based on social or personal 
order revenge for real or imagined offense. Some personally

motivated hacking incidents prompted by idealism - the victim
chosen in these cases so that the hacker was sure that her
punishment will abstract the benefit of people. Fracture 
networks government and large commercial companies often

refers to this type. Anarchic-minded young people
were the most prominent conductors such action until the last
time as considered hacking the answer to
immoral laws and government actions. Another type of
Hacking can be called propaganda, because it
seeks to obtain publicity for lighting a specific point
of hackers, or for self-promotion. Indeed, in a postscript
virus: "Sofia. Dark Adventure.", is equivalent to calling
card, since it suffices to view the log files
Sofia BBS, to find the author. Purely political hacking
unknown, since it is unlikely to cause significant
policy changes and more looks like a propaganda move
(An example is the virus, "made in China"
calling stigmatized murderers of Tiananmen Square. Although
was a case of the Pentagon's destruction of files with the 
names of recruits for Vietnam War, but it seems to be. did not 
a hacker, but system administrator.). But hacking for profit - 
is sooner or later end up losers in their personal or business

area. Publications have reported that left Russia
professional programmers, not navdya work, often
accept the proposal of criminal gangs who use
them as hackers to rob banks. These "gold collar"
almost imperceptible, as the normal operation is well
planned and takes only a few minutes, and the connection is from
rooms, shot on a fictitious person.


      Contrary to popular image, the hackers are not always 
young boys. U.S. sociologists found that a third of those 
arrested for Crime hackers were women, while only a seventh

some were up to 21 years. The study also showed that half
hackers, has an age between 25 and 30 years. Respondents in
computer crimes fit into three categories: pirates,
hackers and crackers (crackers). Pirates of the main break
copyright law by creating illegal versions of programs and data.
Hackers get unauthorized access to other computers
users and files in them. However, they are usually not
damage and do not copy files, contenting consciousness of his
authority over the systems. Crackers - the most serious 
violators. They allow themselves to everything. Computer 
services staff Security and antihakery divide all violators of 
the four groups with respect to the victim:


 * Do not know the foreign firm;

 * Knowledgeable firm outsiders and former employees;

 * Serve non-programmers;

 * Employees are programmers.


      Do not underestimate the possibility of non-professionals 
on committing computer crimes. As aptly written in

Guide to the U.S. Marine Corps officers on the series: "They
ignorant, but very shrewd. "Disloyal employees
having access to computers, play a major role in most
financial crimes. It's more of an organizational than
technical problem. If well selected salaried employees
well paid, it is unlikely that they would threaten
security. Technology can play here only an auxiliary
role. Statistics gives a very sad information, arguing that
only a quarter of the bank employees loyally, quarter,
certainly set the firm hostility and has no moral
limiters, loyalty is the remaining half is dependent
solely on the circumstances. Safety Procedures can
provides verification of passwords and strict access control
valuable shared data, but the burglar, who knows well the inner
device system is almost impossible to stop.

The number of hackers is much larger than it seems at first 
glance, but their illegal activities have a very wide range of

voyeuristic strangers secrets out of simple curiosity to robbery
and murder. Imagine a youngster who knew how to
make phone calls on your computer for free. Soon
through dialogue with friends from other cities and countries 
in its came into possession of detailed instructions on how to 
steal money with a stolen credit card. The temptation to 
inflate the company's famous such as VISA is large, and the 
real consequences of arrest, and its very possible due to lack 
of life experience seem vague.


A man who identified himself as Manuel Vaylarialom, ordered by 
phone at U.S. computer and told the seller that Bill Meyer will 
come away good for him one day later. Seller magazine became

suspicious, noting the excessive excitement boys
Maier presented itself. As a young man could not fully
to prove their credentials, the seller suggested to him that
Vaylarial came and testified himself. After retiring
guy salesman called the police and Mayer, also known as
a hacker nicknamed "Peter 1, was arrested less than a day. He 
was accused of trying to use someone else's credit card and

Police confiscated his hundreds of floppy disks, trying to
"Search." "We printed out the contents of only one file to
Within three hours, "- complained the policeman told reporters.
This file contains at least 10,000 names, with numbers
credit cards, the dates of expiry, address,
phone numbers and driver's licenses.

Soon became known for another incident. The guy has reserved for
telephone in the hotel space, giving your credit card number.
Only when he moved out, the hotel manager on duty said,
that a credit of $ 500 per room has been made on his own
card. After reading soon in the newspaper about "Peter 1, the 
Administrator remembered, as if on the day the young man a 
hotel reservation my room was a failure in the system of their 
computer and would like to know the police not whether it is 
connected to "Peter 1. Alas, the police did not know. Officials 
of the hotel nevertheless asserted: they robbed hacker, because 
they hired antihaker proven design loan through a telephone 
modem, and not from a terminal at the hotel as is customary. 
Police in the same way to bind it "Peter 1 with 9 computer 
theft at Washington University. Police found unlikely that 
hackers could break in the university. They could, and would 
like to, but Police could not imagine how you could do it.


It came before that adolescents in the United States played - 
who are more crack the computers of government agencies. 
Thirteen young hackers have been accused of hacking into the 
computer at the University of Washington and causing costly 
damage to the file system. One of them, the student school for 
14 years from New York, except that was suspected of blocking 
the computer's Air Force Pentagon. Hacker nicknamed "Zod" guess 
the password, which gave students University legal access to 
the system and took over her control by downloading the 
computer program of its own, through you and others could 
illegally enter there. Thanks to him crowd of fifty hackers 
broke into the university system, modifying and deleting users' 
files. "Zod" was tracked down through the telephone network 
system administrator. Arrests and searches were made 
immediately at 17 locations, where police confiscated on $ 
50000 computers and equipment. Most hackers penetrate a system 
of pure curiosity and the satisfaction of guessing passwords. 
"Zod" among them, but the consequences of his actions proved to 
be disastrous. 

Actions hackers often discredited government services
security. Samples of insecurity of computer systems from
Hackers are free of charge and younger
American students free access to military
computer network, if only he had stopped to block
the work of its hub processor, and the demonstration of
correction of the satellite's orbit by NASA made by fans of the 
club CCC (CCC (ChaosComputerClub) - the club of European 
hackers.) In 1986. Then the police investigation of Amsterdam,

collaboration with a team of intelligence and geographic 
division science at the Free University has led to the arrest 
of the two hackers. They are invading computer systems caused 
damage of more than a hundred thousand Dutch guilders. 
25-year-old computer engineer named Fidelio and a 21-year-old 
student named Wave, have been the first hackers, who were 
arrested in the Netherlands. From UNIX operating system your 
computer, they were able to access to other computers in the 
United States, Scandinavia, Spain and Italy, where he stole 
passwords, programs, and private technical data.


Losses from computer crime is difficult to estimate, but one
million dollars, stolen by a computer with Jerry Schneider
billing for the payment of telephone conversations in the 60's,
long since surpassed a hundredfold, and deleted from the record 
books Guinness. A few more brief examples. In 1987,

opened multi-million theft from a computer firm
Folksvagenverk. Recorded nearly ended in success
an attempt by hackers to steal 15.2 million dollars
State lottery fund in Pennsylvania. Three
cancer patients have died due to modification of the program
Radiological install the incident, asking them 100 times
higher doses of radiation.

If events in distant countries are represented as soft
landscape, covered with mist, then what is happening at home 
blinds the proximity of contrasting bright colors. Therefore, 
about Russia is very hard to write without bias. In the former 
Soviet Union the situation many complicated than in the West. 
Although our computer-related crime born only in the late 
seventies, but fell on fertile Russian soil, where there are no 
laws restricting it, quickly has grown into an avalanche, 
threatening to wipe out the rudiments of information 
industries. In 1991, Vnesheconombank with computer stolen $ 
125,000. Only in September 1994 in OPERA Savings Bank of Moscow 
found more than a hundred billion rubles fake e-vouchers and 
arrested three hacker. Unknown Hackers year earlier tried to 
steal a computer network Central Bank of 68 billion rubles. 
Total according to Central Bank of Russia quarter revealed the 
fictitious electronic payments on tens of billions of rubles.




                          P.S. These are the cakes with the 
kittens ...