Hacking Crime or Craft
Hacking Crime or CraftComputer hackers in today's world are becoming more intelligent. They are
realizing that people are constantly developing more hack-proof systems.
This presents the hackers with a bigger challenge and a bigger thrill. The
government is realizing this and is working on making harsher laws to,
hopefully, scare the potential hackers. With the increase in hacking and
hacker intelligence, governmental regulation of cyberspace hasn't abolished
the fact that it's nearly impossible to bring a hacker to justice. Kevin Mitnick,
a hacker who has yet to have a harsh punishment when caught, can somehow
lower his punishment for his hacking crimes down to a couple months
probation. When Kevin was seventeen, he was caught for breaking into a
phone center in Los Angeles. He was tried and sentenced to three months
stay in a juvenile detention center and a year probation. Kevin is a very
intelligent man. He could use his computer skills in a good way by stopping
other hackers. He didn't, so he faced the law many times. In all those times,
he never spent more than a year in prison (Shimomura 1). Kevin was also a
Phreak; a phone freak. He studied the phone system. He soon knew how to
make free phone calls from payphones and how to crash a system. Kevin
Mitnick has yet to be harshly punished for these crimes, which are very
numerous (Shimomura 1). Another major player in the hacking industry is an
unidentified man, identified by his pseudonym, or nick-name, Deth Vegetable.
His group of hackers, Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), is one of the oldest
hacker organizations still in effect today. He is the leader and founder of (Cult
of the Dead Cow). Cult of the Dead Cow is a leading group in the hacking
industry; another leader that has fun with what they do. (Vegetable 1). They
are a notorious group of hackers who have a couple problems; one of which
is drugs. At a convention that the cDc holds for "some of the most notorious
hackers from around the world" (Vegetable 1), one of the members of cDc
said "Drugs and hacking go hand-in-hand" (qtd in Vegetable 3). Deth
Vegetable said "Taking Drugs is like hacking your brain" (qtd in Vegetable
3). This is the way hackers are, they have fun in hacking, and the more they
hack, the more fun they have. "If hacking is taking an electro-chemical
computing device and altering it for your own enhancement, then taking XTC
[, a type of drug,] is doing the same for your brain. At least that's the
rationalization" (Vegetable 3). Hacking is just another way to receive a build
up of adrenaline in the body. Hackers will receive the thrill and chills of the
rebellious act and then have all...
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