Spectrofon #23 20 июля 1997

From the world of bat - "From the satellite to the Mitnick - the typology of Hacker.

   We bring to your attention a reprint
of electronic journal Zhurnal.ru, dwelling in the Internet 
today. We believe that the published article significantly 
complement our long-standing dispute and debate about hackers, 
and some key moments, we think, to dot the i.

So, the word author.



(C), Mirza Babayev
(C) Zhurnal.ru


         From the satellite to Mitnick,

                   or

            Typology hackers


                       Michael A. Yakubov,

            who taught me a lot ...


      Tehnolingvisticheskie paradoxes



   Russian word "Sputnik" was incorporated in
1958 in English, was crossed with
with the word "beat" - and there were beatniks. On
shift "beat generation" were the carefree "flower children". 
Most of the hippies a negative attitude to computers, seeing 
they merely a means of centralized control. Those few who saw 
in them powerful force capable of transforming the world

according to the ideals of artistic freedom and
non-hierarchical, uncensored no

Censorship of communication began to work on this
transformation. Hippies are gone, and their
ideals in the future, laying the philosophical basis of cyber 
revolution. At the scene of history came a new breed of 
non-conformists: hackers.



   The word "hacker" can not be adequately translated into 
Russian - the first in because of its ambiguity. On the one 
hand, hacker - a criminal who illegally penetrating

in computer systems to steal or
modify the information contained therein. C
another hacker - it's just an expert on
computers and computer communications, for which his work - 
both hobby and work. Thus, the word "hacker"

combines at least two values ​​(one meticulous hacker counted 
as many as 69) - one painted a negative ("intruder"), the other 
- neutral or even hvalitelnoe ("ACC", "master"). 


   Sometimes these two values ​​are trying to breed, calling 
malicious hackers special word - "crackers." Let me explain 
this difference Example: If you watched the movie "Network"

the hacker is out there is Angela
Bennett, while "Praetorians" - the most that neither is on 
crackers. (Of course, it would be correct to write "cracker", 
but you have to maintain parallelism: the word "Hacker" has 
penetrated into the Russian language, as in time "sputnik" - in 
English, in addition, wants to avoid unwanted associations with 
a certain kind of cookie). 


   Flow lingvotehnologicheskih metamorphosis
(As is characteristic of any transformations)
closes on itself like a snake biting its tail. At a conference 
on computer security in March 1995 in Berlingame Cary Heckman 
likened challenge experts on security hacker Kevin

Mitnick, a situation which proved to be the United States after
Russian launch its satellite.


          Apology and debunking



   Thus, the verb "to hack" in relation to
Cases computer can mean two opposite things: to hack the system 
and repair it, "patch" it. Both of these actions suggest a 
common framework: understanding as the system is built, the 
ability to handle the huge array of program data. No 
coincidence that many sysops (system operators) - former hacker 
(in the second, "lomatelnom" sense). 


   The ambiguity of the term (or pseudo-word) "hacker" leads to 
paradoxes. "Hacker" - is a hero and a bully, and calculating 
the offender; master kiberrealnosti and the threat of a 
computerized society. Hence - the extremes in the assessment: 
hackers are either full of idealization (in

writings themselves hackers) or complete
stigmatization (in the writings of journalists, parasites of 
obsessive phobias layman). 


   Reality, as always - in the middle.
Roughly speaking, a "hacker in general" does not exist. There 
are real people playing with computers in a very different 
game. Motives for the game, its rules and results to which it 
leads, not reducible to any single formula, but constitute a 
vast field opportunities.



       Hacker - the engine of progress



   In 1984, Steven Levy, in his famous book "Hackers: Heroes of 
the Computer Revolution has formulated the principles of 
"hacker ethic", 

"Access to computers should be unlimited and total."

"All information should be free."

"Do not believe the authorities - the fight for 
decentralization. 

"You can create computer art and beauty."

"Computers can change your life for the
the better. "


   These statements go back, no doubt,
to communalism and freedom hippovskih
communes of the 60's (which also goes philosophy
hippie - ask Andrew Madison).


  Levy spoke about three generations of hackers



   The first arose in the sixties and early
seventieth in departments of computer
sciences in the universities. Using the technique
"Timesharing" These guys transformed the "public computer"
(Mainframes) into a virtual personal
computers, significantly expanded, thus, access to computers.


   Then in the late 70's, the second generation
takes the next step - the invention and
production of personal computers. These
Non-academic hackers were outstanding representatives of the 
counter-culture. For example, Steve Jobs, hippies, Beatles 
fans, who dropped out of college, when he was tired of 
learning, or Steve Wozniak, an engineer at Hewlett-Pakards. 
First, than to succeed in the "Apple", both of Steve's doing 
that collected and sold so-called "blue boxes" - devices 
allowing free phone calls. And their friend and collaborator in 
the early stages Lee Felsenshtayn, who developed the first 
portable computer, called Osborne-1 "was ever a radical of the" 
new Left "and his" subversive "articles for the famous 
underground newspaper" Berkeley Barb ". 


   "Ask not what your country can
do for you. Better to do something
himself, "- told the then young people, to paraphrase the 
slogan of the John F. Kennedy." Do your it "is easily 
translated as" Start Your Own 

business. "hated by wide circles of the establishment, the 
hippies were readily accepted into the world of small business. 
With them they bring honesty and ease in communication,

which proved to be attractive for both sellers and buyers. 
However, success in business, which brought many of them wealth 
and power at a young age, not necessarily accompanied by 
"escalating" their counter-cultural values.



   The third generation of cyber-revolutionaries,
Hackers early 80's, have created many
applied, educational and game programs for
personal computers. A typical figure
here - Mitch Kapor, a former teacher of transcendental 
meditation, who created the program "Lotus 1-2-3", which 
facilitated the success of a very IBM-PC-native. Like most 
computer pioneers, Kapor is still active. Foundation Electronic 
Frontier "(Electronic Frontier Foundation), founded by him in 
conjunction with lyricist of "Grateful Dead" successfully


impact on Washington's policy in respect of
civil rights in cyberspace.


   Over the years since the publication of the book Levy
came to power the fourth generation of revolutionaries, which 
depicts the achievements of Time Magazine Stewart Brand. They

transformed militaristic ARPAnet -
network, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the "total 
digital epidemic, now known as the Internet. Creating a 
non-hierarchical communication system, called Usenet and 
countless "boards ad "(BBS) - also to their credit. Following 
the same" hacker ethic "that and previous generations, they 
oppose commercialization of the Internet, creating

programs that are immediately accessible to anyone who they 
wish - so-called "freeware" or "shareware", vividly Recalling 
the "Diggers" 60, "undermines the capitalism, "free handing 
their property and goods. 


   Of course, - writes brand - not
everyone on the electronic frontier feels his
continuity with the Conroe cultural roots of the 60's. Can 
hardly be called a hippie Nicholas Negroponte, chief of the 
Laboratory of Mass Communications at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT) or a tycoon, "microsoft" Bill 
Gates. Nevertheless, the philosophy of the 60's keeps alive the 
creativity. Virtual reality - computerized sensory immersion - 
has received its name and was equipped with a primary 
technological base Dzheyronom Lanier, who grew up in New Mexico 
in the "geodesic yurt (Buckminster Fuller's invention, popular 
among the hippies), earned money playing the flute in the New 
York subway and up still wears long rastafarovskie

pigtails. The latest generation of supercomputers, allowing 
enormous amount of simultaneous connections, has been developed

and launches a brilliant
Hairy Nillisom Dunn, who set out to build a machine, "which

could we be proud of. "cryptography system called PGP (Pretty 
Good Privacy), which provides privacy for each user - the 
brainchild of a pacifist from the Boulder patlatogo Philip 
Zimmermann (Incidentally, for what he gave up his invention of 
the Internet, the U.S. authorities he wanted to solder term - 
there is a law prohibiting the export of strong cryptographic 
methods), and the sensational program "SATAN", allowing to 
identify holes in the protection of computer systems - the 
creation of an anarchist peevish Dan Farmer. 


   These are the "good hackers" driving the technological 
advances and use their knowledge and skills for the benefit of 
mankind. Them As usual, oppose the "bad" - who read other 
people's letters, stealing other people's programs and all 
available means harm the progressive mankind. About them

We'll talk next time.


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