Hackers: The Good and the Bad

Hackers are often described as those who manipulate computer codes with the sole purpose of causing mischief and/or chaos to the computer user being hacked. Hacking also involves the tinkering of computer hardware. In essence, anything that involves the modification of computer software or hardware for malicious purposes falls under the category of hacking. This, of course, is the negative view of hacking which is the connotation that most people accept about hackers.

Some renowned hackers in the last two to three decades include Tim Berners-Lee, who himself invented the World Wide Web and was the original author of the HTML code; John Carmack, who is a well-known game programmer, made famous by his work on 3D game graphics; and Shawn Fanning, the author of the famous (and infamous to some) music-sharing network Napster.

Hacking began very early in the electronics age of society. People who wanted to get something extra from their hardware, especially by way of performance, would change particular configurations to achieve this. In the computer industry, a hacker is described as someone who improves programs and systems by making small changes in programming. But they can also be seen as people who modify to exploit or to damage systems as well. In the field of security, a hacker is one who specializes in security work for computer systems, making them stronger and less penetrable by viruses or "bad hackers". "Bad hackers" refers to those with negative intent. One example of this kind of hacker is a man by the name of Kevin Mitnick, who at the age of 25 was able to steal software and damage computers through his own devices. He went to prison for his crimes.

The term brings out mixed reactions from the masses, negative more than positive. The original term was meant to describe highly skilled programmers, modifiers and computer security experts. But with the growing number of online cyber attacks by people with the same skills just mentioned, the hacker term has reached a definition that is at par with terrorism. Many cyber crimes acted out by hackers (most of them untraceable and unknown) include fraud, forgery, blackmail and theft. More often than not, however, hackers tend to write code that will help to damage a computer system, like those who make the scripts found in computer worms and viruses.

The most common hackers are the ones that help to make commercial software available and free to users. This kind of activity is known as software piracy. By giving people the opportunity to use commercial software for free, the people behind the software will not be able to profit out of something they have invested most of their time in developing. There are many sites today that encourage the downloading of pirated software, music and even movies. So many, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to gain control over them, let alone stop them from promoting such activities.

Hacking has been a very high-profile issue in the computer industry. This is because information loss in offices is becoming quite common. This tramples on the privacy of many employees and employers themselves. Laws are being written and proposed on how these crimes are to be dealt with.