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Computer technology and network connections have grown to become a staple in our lives today. With the increased usage and dependability on computers, it's logical the crimes associated with them would rise in popularity to match this growth in usage. As a result, hacking has become a prevalent issue, and most of the time the consequences of a hack have adverse results to the victim.

Hacking has a long history dating back to approximately the 1960s. At the time, the term "hacking" was denoted as a positive one since computer usage was not widespread and the people involved with computers typically were interested in how technology works. The growth and integration of technology into most facets of our information dependent society has changed the dynamics and over time the term "hacking" has taken on a negative connotation due to bad publicity and the increased occurrence of computer crimes.

When trying to determine why hackers hack, it's important to differentiate there are two types of hackers nowadays, each with different motivators. In the computing community, it has been tried to distinguish "good" vs. "bad" hacking by referring to the "bad guys" as crackers. However, the term is pretty interchangeable these days, and society pretty much refers to any unauthorized computer entry as a hack.

So why do they do it?
Crackers ("black hats") typically break into systems to do damage and/or commit crimes. They install tracking software, viruses, Trojans and numerous other kinds of Malware. Hackers ("white hats"), on the other hand, normally do it for intellectual stimulation, utilizing their skills to identify "vulnerabilities in systems and improve security" (Baase, "A Gift of Fire"). Usually their objective is to discover weaknesses so fixes can be implemented.

The primary difference between the two kinds of hacking is one appears to do it for altruistic reasons to benefit the good of the whole, while the other is doing it for criminal reasons and personal gain. The crackers typically release malicious code they've stolen or downloaded off the Internet to find unprotected computers. Hackers, on the other hand, have the knowledge and are usually high-skilled.

Motivators for hacking include financial gain, notoriety, and personal satisfaction in knowing they have this power over others; there is the claim from some they do it for selfless reasons to try and assess vulnerabilities in order to combat computer crimes. The latter can have positive results if it encourages strengthening systems and educating about computer security; however, there is a lot of controversy as to whether or not this is ethical, despite its claims of unselfish purposes.

There is a definitive difference between the two types of hackers and the motivators are what distinguish them. Both kinds of hacking have significant issues attached to them; since cracking is associated with criminal activity and intentional harm being invoked, therein lays the difference. This type of hacking for personal profit has obvious consequences, but hacking for the intellectual reasons still has significant costs as network administrators use up a lot of time and energy trying to deal with an unauthorized entry as they don't know when an entry is trying to do harm or not. When unauthorized entry is discovered, it takes up time and resources to identify the source.

Hacking can be harmful regardless of the motivators, and it is an activity we, as a society, will continue to have to be vigilant about.

Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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