Computer Hacking is Ethical
Austin Ayers
English III Honors
Mrs. Mills
14 December 2012
Computer Hacking is Ethical Computer hacking is a term that most everyone in today’s society is familiar with. When the average person hears news about computer hacking, most likely they think about cyber-crimes, website defacements, or knocking various websites offline. This inaccurate description is just the image that today’s media creates. In reality, true hackers are much different. Computer hacking is not the only type of hacking in today’s society. Hacking actually originated from phreaking, which is the art of cracking a telephone network (“A Brief History of Computer Hacking”). Hacking is seen as being blackhat, or wrong, when hacking can also be beneficial to the world. There are different types of computer hackers: “Hacktivists,” ones who hack to express a political opinion, “Hobbyist” hackers, those who hack for enjoyment, and “Research hackers,” those who hack to learn about security and fix vulnerabilities (“License to hack? - Ethical hacking”). As mentioned before, the first computer hackers were not people who were hacking to earn some quick cash. In 1878, two years after the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, a group of teenagers who worked to maintain the New York switchboard were fired because they were interested in seeing how the phone connections were made and how the calls were distributed to specific locations. Their actions were essentially the equivalent of early computer hackers. These boys were trying to break into the telephone system to understand and see how the switchboard worked (“Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking”). Computers were not always in the easy to use, graphical interface they are today. Along the time period of the 50s, mainframe computers were very popular. Most universities and companies would have rooms dedicated to containing these mainframe1 computers, which were essentially a large chunk of metal locked away in a controlled
English III Honors
Mrs. Mills
14 December 2012
Computer Hacking is Ethical Computer hacking is a term that most everyone in today’s society is familiar with. When the average person hears news about computer hacking, most likely they think about cyber-crimes, website defacements, or knocking various websites offline. This inaccurate description is just the image that today’s media creates. In reality, true hackers are much different. Computer hacking is not the only type of hacking in today’s society. Hacking actually originated from phreaking, which is the art of cracking a telephone network (“A Brief History of Computer Hacking”). Hacking is seen as being blackhat, or wrong, when hacking can also be beneficial to the world. There are different types of computer hackers: “Hacktivists,” ones who hack to express a political opinion, “Hobbyist” hackers, those who hack for enjoyment, and “Research hackers,” those who hack to learn about security and fix vulnerabilities (“License to hack? - Ethical hacking”). As mentioned before, the first computer hackers were not people who were hacking to earn some quick cash. In 1878, two years after the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, a group of teenagers who worked to maintain the New York switchboard were fired because they were interested in seeing how the phone connections were made and how the calls were distributed to specific locations. Their actions were essentially the equivalent of early computer hackers. These boys were trying to break into the telephone system to understand and see how the switchboard worked (“Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking”). Computers were not always in the easy to use, graphical interface they are today. Along the time period of the 50s, mainframe computers were very popular. Most universities and companies would have rooms dedicated to containing these mainframe1 computers, which were essentially a large chunk of metal locked away in a controlled