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Hackers. Criminals or Explorers?

CthuliganCthuligan Registered User new member
edited July 2007 in Debate and/or Discourse
I am personally of the opinion that, like any other group, hackers have good and bad people drawn into them
Though I personally try to stay white hat, I find it hard not to leave ethics and morals to die in prostitute alley
so I can only imagine how a person without such scruples resists temptation.

Cthuligan on

Posts

  • BuchwaldBuchwald Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    in this new dark age of man, beware the roaming hacker gangs!

    Buchwald on
    "That theory is just the looniest of a whole bunch of complete nonsense that is spouted by Amanda Winn Lee and her cohorts in the Audio Commentary."
  • JinniganJinnigan Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    i'm not sure hackers in the sense you're thinking of really exist anymore.

    Jinnigan on
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  • FeralFeral ＭＥＭＥＴＩＣＨＡＲＩＺＡＲＤ interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Jinnigan wrote: »
    i'm not sure hackers in the sense you're thinking of really exist anymore.

    They never really existed, not in the way they're commonly imagineds. They're like ninjas and pirates and cowboys, a whole lot of legend surrounding a little bit of truth.

    Feral on
    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • SceptreSceptre Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Feral wrote: »
    Jinnigan wrote: »
    i'm not sure hackers in the sense you're thinking of really exist anymore.

    They never really existed, not in the way they're commonly imagineds. They're like ninjas and pirates and cowboys, a whole lot of legend surrounding a little bit of truth.

    So, enlighten us then, how DID they exist?

    Sceptre on
  • BuchwaldBuchwald Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    I'm lead to believe that they were MIT chumps who built a model train switcher back in the 50's by "hacking it together"

    Buchwald on
    "That theory is just the looniest of a whole bunch of complete nonsense that is spouted by Amanda Winn Lee and her cohorts in the Audio Commentary."
  • FirstComradeStalinFirstComradeStalin Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Nowadays it seems like the majority of hackers are just shmucks out to steal people's identities and steal some money. They're criminals, plain and simple. There's really nothing "good" that can be done with hacking that isn't using your knowledge of it to stop other hackers. If there is, I'd like to know what that is.

    FirstComradeStalin on
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  • fjafjanfjafjan Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Well it's a destructive thing, you can use it against "bad people". So if you fuck up the site and servers of some nazi people I'd say that is a "good hacker". or steal their money and give it to charity. I imagine the percentage of "good hackers" to be very low.

    fjafjan on
    Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
    - "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
  • kaz67kaz67 Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    fjafjan wrote: »
    Well it's a destructive thing, you can use it against "bad people". So if you fuck up the site and servers of some nazi people I'd say that is a "good hacker". or steal their money and give it to charity. I imagine the percentage of "good hackers" to be very low.

    While I am not too fond of neo Nazis, I think stealing their money and ruining their sites still makes you kind of an asshole.

    kaz67 on
  • dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    meh many white hat hackers i know do it for the challenge of breaking securities and they report the holes which they find to the companies that usually run the site. (most are paid to do this of course)

    dlinfiniti on
    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
  • fjafjanfjafjan Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    kaz67 wrote: »
    fjafjan wrote: »
    Well it's a destructive thing, you can use it against "bad people". So if you fuck up the site and servers of some nazi people I'd say that is a "good hacker". or steal their money and give it to charity. I imagine the percentage of "good hackers" to be very low.

    While I am not too fond of neo Nazis, I think stealing their money and ruining their sites still makes you kind of an asshole.

    Well if you steal their money for your own good, yeah, asshole, but I couldn't care less if someone fucks their site over.

    fjafjan on
    Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
    - "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
  • JohnnyCacheJohnnyCache Starting Defense Place at the tableRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    The thing is, "hacking" is really just a sort of specialty area of networking in general. The idea that there are these "hackers" out there with high-level criminal abilities but no skills that could find them a legit job, or that there's something deeply political or philosophical about breaking into computers, it's pretty thin.

    The MIT/Bruce Sterling tinkering hacker certainly exists, but he's smart enough to tinker with his own shit, and there's no reason "whitehats" (i've always thought those were some dumb terms, btw) can't scan and notify without an actual break in...

    JohnnyCache on

    I host a podcast about movies.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited July 2007
    I'm a hacker.

    I write quick hacks every now and then.

    Right now I'm hacking together stuff in Second Life.

    Yep, I do plenty of hacking.

    Echo on
  • FeralFeral ＭＥＭＥＴＩＣＨＡＲＩＺＡＲＤ interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Sceptre wrote: »
    Feral wrote: »
    Jinnigan wrote: »
    i'm not sure hackers in the sense you're thinking of really exist anymore.

    They never really existed, not in the way they're commonly imagineds. They're like ninjas and pirates and cowboys, a whole lot of legend surrounding a little bit of truth.

    So, enlighten us then, how DID they exist?

    See Cache and Echo's posts above.

    Even then, most black-hat hackers are actually confidence men, using low-tech social engineering techniques to obtain whatever their target information is.

    Feral on
    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited July 2007
    Feral wrote: »
    Even then, most black-hat hackers are actually confidence men, using low-tech social engineering techniques to obtain whatever their target information is.

    Always great when they trade ultra-secret passwords for a Twinkie.

    Echo on
  • FeralFeral ＭＥＭＥＴＩＣＨＡＲＩＺＡＲＤ interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    edited July 2007
    Echo wrote: »
    Feral wrote: »
    Even then, most black-hat hackers are actually confidence men, using low-tech social engineering techniques to obtain whatever their target information is.

    Always great when they trade ultra-secret passwords for a Twinkie.

    I'd totally trade an ultra-secret password for a Twinkie.
    It wouldn't be a real password, though. Which is okay, because a Twinkie isn't real food. So it all works out in the end.

    Feral on
    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2007
    "Explorers"?

    wtf?

    The Cat on
    tmsig.jpg
  • ElkiElki get busy Moderator, ClubPA Mod Emeritus
    edited July 2007
    Finding rare 01 combinations is always an adventure.

    Elki on
    smCQ5WE.jpg
  • IShallRiseAgainIShallRiseAgain Registered User regular
    edited July 2007
    The Cat wrote: »
    "Explorers"?

    wtf?

    Porn?

    IShallRiseAgain on
    Alador239.png
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