Hackin the bad kind

[Gero50]

Hay people I was just wondering what your views on hacking and hackers are. An example would be someone hacks your computer and copies everything on it and then sells it. This is of course ileagal. I was just hoping some of us here on AF could provide their input on the subject.

As for me I hate people who's soul meaning is to reck someone's hard worked on websites and files.
What do all of you think.

[Eris]

I don't approve of it. It's unethical. Fortunately, I run a fairly tight ship, so while I do get a few hack attempts a day, nobody's gotten in as of yet.

[Gero50]

I don't approve of it. It's unethical. Fortunately, I run a fairly tight ship, so while I do get a few hack attempts a day, nobody's gotten in as of yet.

I have never been hacked before either but I know people that have and it sucked. Do you know anyone that has had that happen to them.

[Aku no Hikari]

I've never been hacked before, but I can imagine how it sucks to have your personal and private data exposed. I don't ethically approve of hacking to get someone's private data, do illegal things, or otherwise unethical actions. But I do think that hacking in general is cool.

A hacker isn't necessarily a bad person. Hackers are able to deal with technical problems more than normal computer users. Learning how to hack is a must if you wanna be a pr0.

Hacking isn't a bad thing. It's like any kind of science -- you can use it for good, you can use it for bad. It's only your choice.

[Eris]

I've never been hacked before, but I can imagine how it sucks to have your personal and private data exposed. I don't ethically approve of hacking to get someone's private data, do illegal things, or otherwise unethical actions, but I do think that hacking in general is cool.

A hacker isn't necessarily a bad person. Hackers are able to deal with technical problems more than normal computer users. Learning how to hack is a must if you wanna be a pr0.

Hacking isn't a bad thing. It's like any kind of science -- you can use it for good, you can use it for bad. It's only your choice.

There are basically two major (and exclusive) definitions of "hacker".

• A person who knows how to break into computers (and uses it for good or evil, see white hats and black hats). This is a misnomer that has gained such widespread use that it's no use to fight it any more, as the proper term for this group is "cracker."
• A person who is proficient in programming and (typically) part of the open source programming community. Example of use is that people who work on the Linux kernel are often referred to as "kernel hackers". It's really more like a lifestyle or subculture than anything else.

I consider myself a hacker in the sense of the second definition, but not the former.

[Anime Forum]

Well yes hacking is annoying and I have been hacked before so I know how it feels. On this chat site I go too, I was once hacked and my reputation was butchered, and the staff of the site never found how who did it.

I feel like if someone hacks someone else, I feel like the hacker should be hacked themselves and feel the pain of it.

And just today I had a virus brought onto my computer, quite an annoyance.

[Forgotten Show]

Eris, is snagging one's personal info to log into email accounts or forum-like websites considered cracking/hacking (honest question)? It kinda sounds like identity theft to me, or like poor-choice-of-passwords, but I'm curious nonetheless.


Bad Memory

[Diocletian]

I feel like if someone hacks someone else, I feel like the hacker should be hacked themselves and feel the pain of it.

An eye for an eye is a terrible method.

Personally, I think it's pointless and just makes no sense. What gain can you get from hacking someone? There are some scripters that believe that just because they can hack your mespace they are professional hackers. At that point, I stopped caring about such things. People know where you should and shouldn't go. If you're on youtube, you probably won't get a virus. If you're going to porn sites, expect a trojan.

[Cobra Commander]

I think it's a childish thing to do. I don't know how it's done, and no one has ever "hacked" any of my passwords. I do recall being attacked by someone while I was playing Jedi Knight back on the Zone, when that existed.

What worries me is the stuff I see on 4chan, where people claim to be able to find and expose personal information online. I don't post there, I just lurk, so I don't worry much about me. But if someone posts as an anon, and all they have as a reference is a number and time, how, exactly does it happen?

Or are they morons that simply share too much, don't keep myspace private, etc?

[Forgotten Show]

Personally, I think it's pointless and just makes no sense. What gain can you get from hacking someone?

If I told you that in the United States the US Government is the single most frequently compromised entity with regards to hacking, would you understand what can be gained from the practice?


Bad Memory

[Diocletian]

If I told you that in the United States the US Government is the single most frequently compromised entity with regards to hacking, would you understand what can be gained from the practice?


Bad Memory

I thought we were talking about the hot cheeto finger stained hacker, not the CIA hacker.

[sa5m]

Some hacking is good.
For example, some peoples' jobs are to try to hack into their company computers to see how strong their system is (so they can improve it).

But then again, if we didn't have bad hackers in the first place, we wouldn't need good hackers either.

[Eris]

Eris, is snagging one's personal info to log into email accounts or forum-like websites considered cracking/hacking (honest question)? It kinda sounds like identity theft to me, or like poor-choice-of-passwords, but I'm curious nonetheless.


Bad Memory

Actually snagging it is part of what is called information harvesting, which may or may not be used ethically. But since it doesn't involve actually breaking breaking any computer security, I wouldn't call it hacking. ... actually using the information harvested for the purpose of breaking into email accounts is hacking, though.

[Ranshiin]

There are basically two major (and exclusive) definitions of "hacker".

• A person who knows how to break into computers (and uses it for good or evil, see white hats and black hats). This is a misnomer that has gained such widespread use that it's no use to fight it any more, as the proper term for this group is "cracker."
• A person who is proficient in programming and (typically) part of the open source programming community. Example of use is that people who work on the Linux kernel are often referred to as "kernel hackers". It's really more like a lifestyle or subculture than anything else.

I consider myself a hacker in the sense of the second definition, but not the former.

tl;dr

I jest.

I've done my fair share of hacking (both computer hacking and program hacking), but I'd never do either with malicious intent.

Personally, I think anyone that hacks another user's system solely to ruin it, or to steal confidential information needs a knock upside the head and reminding that there are idiots. Of course, most of the time they're nothing more than so-called "script kiddies" that can't actually hack, but just got hold of hacking tools, which actually defies the purpose of being smart enough to brute-force access into another secured computer.


Of course, like I've said I've done my fair share of hacking (most notably the library and college) but not with intent to cause malicious harm - simply because the web-filter on Internet Explorer made the sites load slow, and Firefox dodged them. You might consider that to be compromising the system, but the fact is that I didn't access -one- illegal, poorly-secured site or any that the web-filter normally blocked. I just used it because Firefox was faster.

Most of the hacking I've ever done is to video games - and similarly those have been not for malicious intent (i.e. cheat highscores, "God mode") but actually purely for fun.
Me and about five of my friends played in a private server on GTA4 back when Rockstar Toronto permitted cheats on the PC version, so we could play amongst ourselves with our track-spawning and drift hacks. Did we ever cause any problems to Rockstar or other users? No. We stayed out the way, and when we were in actual servers, we played legit. I got plenty accused of being a hacker though, but that's because I was. (that, and I'm a good driver anyway, people used to think I used the speed boost cheat in ranked race matches -_-)

Dunno why I said that.

Anyway, that's my view on hacking. I personally don't mind hacking if the intent is not to wreck a computer. I've had my laptop hacked before though, so I know what it's like. -.-''

[Anime Forum]

An eye for an eye is a terrible method.

Personally, I think it's pointless and just makes no sense. What gain can you get from hacking someone? There are some scripters that believe that just because they can hack your mespace they are professional hackers. At that point, I stopped caring about such things. People know where you should and shouldn't go. If you're on youtube, you probably won't get a virus. If you're going to porn sites, expect a trojan.

Nah, in my terms an eye for an eye would be best.
On the site I go too, you pay for subscriber days/and powers which once your hacked they will steal them from you.

The staff can't always do stuff about this so its better sometimes to hack the person back and get your stuff you lost right back.

[★Kiwi-Berry]

Depends on what type of hacking your speaking of. I do not like those that only use their knowledge for the benefit of themselves and see no moral guidelines for destroying that of which belongs to someone els. But I do support the hackers that help society by developing new ways to protec people from the "bad kind". I also do not support DDOS attacks (if you have a good server that prevents DDOS attacks by declining any hand shakes after a certain amount helps a lot). But for those that cannot afford to upgrade their servers (costs like $200-400 I believe) are open to such attacks and it really sucks when it happens to them. Esepcially if the hacker is trying to exstort money out of them.

[KleinKiessling]

I knew a few people on an MMO I used to play (not going to name it, trying to avoid being redirected to the MMO forum) that got hacked. They had a bunch of money and valuable items, and they got hacked. The hackers took the money, sold the items, and probably messed with other stuff. It's kinda sad seeing your friends without any money or items. Also,

I think hacking is wrong; unless you're hacking a hacker. Some people delete hacker's accounts on forums, etc to clean the place up, y'know. Not all hackers are bad, some people use their knowledge for good. But that rarely happens, most people just hack because it's a personal issue between them in a person. As I say, revenge is wrong. I look down on hackers and the whole idea of hacking alike. Wrong, disgusting, and just plain out pitiful.