The Pros and Cons of Hacking

"During a three-day period in February 2000, some of the most high-profile sites on the World Wide Web were temporarily knocked out of service."(Issues and Controversy) This quote is one of the many that show the down side to hacking. A hacker is a person who takes pleasure in understanding the internal workings of a systems. This does not necessarily classify hackers as bad. There are good hacking and bad hacking. But on the subject of hacking, its unclear whether or not they are truly good or bad. Not every single hack is bad.

From the computer stand point, a hacker is a person who wants " to gain access to a computer illegally." (Webster Dictionary). But that is only one part of the definition, but this is the definition most people associate hacking with. The other part of the definition is "to write computer programs for enjoyment." (Webster Dictionary). Most just classify these kinds of people as programmers, but truly, if you can make a program, you are a basic at hacking. That’s one reason why not all hacking is bad.

"Hacking includes a wide range of activities, from writing software, to practical jokes, to exploring roofs and tunnels of the MIT campus." (Stallman). Now when have practical jokes ever gone to far to be considered bad. Look at the group of people called Improv Everywhere. They’ve done large scale practical jokes ranging from freezing at the grand station (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo), to creating a giant bulls eye in the middle of a park. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkVTg6TT2XE). This group of actors and volunteers stage huge events to just have fun. If the definition of hacking is about practical jokes and this group isn’t considered bad but actually very popular, then the group of hackers that like to have fun by playing jokes on people cant be considered bad too.

Going on Stallman’s definition of hacking, writing software can be seen going both ways of good or bad. This is why software creating is a tough choice to decide on whether it is good or bad. On one side, you see that people can use the hacking software for malicious use. But on the other side, hackers are great at making computer software, since the knowledge they have for hacking enables them to make the best defense against those attacks.

Then there is the definition of whether hackers and crackers should be associated with each other.