Philosophy of a Computer Hacker
Marion Thomas
"A hacker is a guru, a computer geek" who is highly proficient in computers and uses his or her knowledge to gain unauthorized access to computer data. According to hacker Winn Schwartau, computer hacking "is a healthy form of educational recreation" which can provide a hacker with the advanced computer skills necessary to procure a high paying job. According to Schwartau, "Many network system administrators, computer scientists and computer security experts first learned their professions, not in some college program, but from the hacker culture." Is computer hacking a crime? Members in American society believe computer hacking is a crime because it invades our rights to privacy. Knowing that a hacker could gain access in to our private Emails, credit card information, or personal dossiers leaves us leery of the hacker's intentions and distrustful of the effectiveness of our computers security.
The Mentor published "Hacker's Manifesto, or The Conscience of a Hacker," in the online hacker's Ejournal Phrack, on September 25, 1986, after his arrest for bank tampering on January 8, 1986. The Mentor, a teenage hacker, bitterly and invectively discloses how and why he began computer hacking. Bored with school, he began experimenting and delving into computer code and language and accidentally discovered the power of the computer world. Curious, he began exploring "the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud" (123). The Mentor believes that his explorative quest into the computer realm is an act of inquisitiveness, not illicit behavior. According to Schwartau, "The media hasn't helped. By labeling everyone with access to a keyboard and an attitude as a 'hacker' the term has developed incredibly pejorative connotations. If he's a hacker, he must be bad."
Another hacker who shares Shwartau's, and the Mentor's social philosophy is Carolyn Meinel. According to Meinel, "Hackers are not bad. Criminals are bad. Criminal hacking is bad. Hacking is not bad." The Mentor's omnipotent attitude, characteristic of teenagers today, sees nothing intrusive about acquiring unwarranted data and knowledge pertaining to strangers through computer hacking. The Mentor fails to acknowledge that privacy means freedom from intrusion in one's private life or affairs, and that private knowledge is personal. In the "Hacker's Manifesto," the Mentor attempts to rationalize his immoral actions by claiming that he hacks out of nothing more than sheer curiosity, and yet the reason he is arrested is for bank tampering. Imagine that.
Do I think that computer hacking is wrong? Yes I do. I do not believe that any person has the right to tamper with another person's personal information. There is absolutely no reason or excuse why a hacker needs to hack into a person's personal information.
Meinel, Carolyn P. "Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking." <http://www.infowar.com>.
The Mentor. "Hacker's Manifesto, or The Conscience of a Hacker." CyberReader. 2nd ed. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. 122-123.
Schwartau, Winn. "The Happy Hacker." <http://www.happyhacker.org>.
"Talkback: Central Comments." Lewke. <http://www.talkbackcentral.com>.
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