Hacking: Past, Present, and Future

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Hacking has been in existence for more than a century. It all began when a group of teenage boys who were interested in knowing how the telephone worked than in making proper connections and directing calls to the correct place. Originally, hacking was not even seen as a negative connotation with which we associate the term with in today’s world. The term "hack" is a shortcut that would modify and improve the performance of a computer's operating system that would take less time to complete. (http://findarticles.com) This all started way back in 1971 where people began to hack into everything from phones, to bank accounts and then to computers. What's ironic is that two men by the names of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who later founded a company called Apple Computers in 1977, were originally two members of the Homebrew Computer Club of California. They began making "blue boxes", devices to generate different tones to help people hack into the phone system. The real meaning of hacking is to expand the capabilities of any electronic device; to use them beyond the original intentions of the manufacturer. (http://www.hackingalert.com/hacking-articles/history-of-hacking.php) Although the idea of hacking is somewhat private to the public, it is now unfortunately becoming more widely known because it is continuing to disrupt society and the technology world. There is this idea that computer hacking back in the day would not become what it is now days. However, if hacking continues to escalate then there will be nothing further to do. There will become this continuing cycle of more advanced individuals who will find ways to hack into the computer systems each and every year technology becomes more advanced. When the issue of s... ... middle of paper ... ... 5) Schwartau, W. (2000). Cybershock Surviving, Hackers, Phreakers, Identity Thieves, Internet Terrorists, and Weapons of Mass Disruption. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. 6) Stratford. (2008). Hacker Ethic. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/cyberwarfare_101_what_makes_hacker_tick 7) Fotinger, Christian S, Ziegler, Wolfgang Understanding a hacker's mind – A psychological insight into the hijacking of identities. Retrieved November 16, 2008, from Safetybelt Web site: http://www.safetybelt.at/download/danubeuniversityhackersstudy.pdf 8) Personality Characteristics. Retrieved November 16, 2008, from Chester County InterLink Web site: http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_66.html 9) Hackers’ psychological profile hacker definition. Retrieved November 16, 2008, from Your Dictionary Web site: http://www.yourdictionary.com/hackers

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