The Value of Hacking
“The difference between right and wrong is rarely black and white. When it comes to the big moral issues around Internet privacy – from government surveillance to Facebook privacy – you might have your own strong opinions. But there are two sides to every story” ("What Are the Moral Issues with Internet Privacy?"). This struggle between good and bad is clearly present within the subject of computer hacking. Computer hacking first gained popularity in the 1960’s through phreaking, in which individuals studied and experimented with telecommunication systems. With the massive number of people who got involved in the hacking scene, trouble ensued. Some issues that arose were based upon the morality and legality of this deed. These problems came to light on a wide scale when six bills regarding computer crime were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1983 (“Hacker (computer Security)”). Since then, the concern regarding this extreme manipulation of code has continued to flourish, which has overall made the idea of hacking very threatening. Countless companies have been created to help people protect themselves from hackers, such as anti-malware companies that create software that wards off hackers and VPN databases that provide users with untraceable Internet Protocols (addresses that serve to identify devices and their locations). Society’s fear of this online tactic is not completely unwarranted either, for multiple scandals have taken place in the public eye, such as the Sony hacking that exposed confidential information from the company’s celebrity sponsors. Or the Target hacking, in which the credit card numbers of numerous Target customers were extracted from the store’s purchase databases. However, the negative connotations associated with hacking have left the positive impacts of hacking buried. Hacking has and can be used to bring about beneficial change to the world. While a multitude of harmful results can culminate from hacking, the resulting antipathy from the negative effects have in many ways shielded the useful and justifiable reasons behind hacking, such as fighting malicious forces, improving security and quality of items, exposing secrets, and learning.
Hacking is an advantageous method that can be utilized by large organizations, such as technology companies, governments, or hacking groups to combat viscous forces. For instance, the particular hacking group known as Anonymous have been utilizing hacking in order to fight the rising power of ISIS. This militant group, known for bringing death and destruction across the world, is currently fighting to gain a worldwide caliphate in which all of Earth’s citizens would be muslims and would be controlled by one government. Posting videos on Youtube, chatting on the deep web, Anonymous’ network have officially declared cyberwar on ISIS through Operation Ice ISIS. One cyber-breach that Anonymous accomplished includes attacks towards ISIS’ members social media accounts. An article on the The Independent, a well known online news site, regarding Anonymous’ plans states, “More than 1,500 Twitter and Facebook accounts have been taken offline since the hacktivists launched their fight against ISIS supporters” (“Operation Isis: Anonymous takes down Twitter and Facebook accounts associated with extremist group”). Initially, the removal of the terrorist social media accounts, made possible through Anonymous’ network of skilled cyber-security experts who , may seem inconsequential to some, but this attack specifically inhibited one of ISIS’ main tactics: online recruiting. ISIS utilizes social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to lure people, specifically youth, into fighting for their cause (“The Twitter jihad: ISIS insurgents in Iraq, Syria using social media to recruit fighters, promote violence”). By shutting down the accounts, Anonymously effectively hampered ISIS’ ability to gain strength. Although the use of hacking to combat harmful forces has been very prevalent within the 21st century, the first instance of hacking initially developed for this cause within the 1930’s. World War II was in the process, and America was fighting against Germany. At this point in time, the Holocaust, a mass genocide of Jews, was occurring in Germany. One effort that was made to defeat Germany was Poland’s hacking of Nazi Germany’s military computer (Covaleski 11-12). Regarding what the Polish coders did, “The hackers determined how the machine encrypted the messages, and the discovery later helped the British military decode German messages in World War II” (Covaleski 12). With this code-cracking achievement, Britain’s ability to understand Germany’s messages allowed the Allied Powers to prepare for German attacks well before they occurred, and to attack Germany’s weaknesses.
Additionally, hacking is effective tool for increasing the security and quality of different types of software, consoles, and websites. Regarding the heightened security that hacking can produce, this improvement is generally accomplished through the discoveries of holes. Holes in code refer to sections of programs that do not provide sufficient protection for the available lines of code. Because these lines of code are not properly guarded, they are more vulnerable to outside access. A specific name is coined to individuals who perform this ethical deed: white hats. According to techopedia.com, a site that supplies the world with all things tech, “White hat hackers use their skills to improve security by exposing vulnerabilities before malicious hackers (known as black hat hackers) can detect and exploit them”(“What is a White Hat Hacker?”). Whitehats can be seen across many platforms, big and small. For instance, many white hats hack their own governments’ data sources in order to prevent enemy countries from obtaining the classified data. Similar to raising the security of computer programs, hacking can also improve the quality of these programs. Various forms of code-caused enhancement exist, for development can increase efficiency, or just simple enjoyment. A case in which the amusement of a console was increased occurred when George Hotz hacked an item that has brought joy and entertainment to millions of people: the PS3. The PS3 is a gaming console that users can use to play a variety of games, such as sports games, dance games, and war games, to communicate with friends, and to explore virtual reality. Hotz’s reason for the hacking was simple, he wanted to, “…allow people to install other operating systems on their console and play homemade games…In addition…the hack would allow people to play older PS2 games on their consoles” (“PlayStation 3 'hacked' by iPhone cracker”). Hotz’s dream of a gaming console that could run operating systems, accept old games, and use homemade games was achieved when he gained access to the PS3’s memory CPU (a computer’s main processing unit) (“George Hotz”).
Hacking can be used to enact justice and fight immorality through the extraction of information from large organizations. Hacktivists are people who perform this form of data manipulation. Some of the most famous hacktivist groups include Anonymous and Lulz Security. The general goal of hacktivists is to, “Target large businesses and groups to uncover classified documents and publicize materials that these organization would not release on their own…” (Covaleski 54). One case in which hacktivists brought forth confidential information from a large group was when Anonymous hacked the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK is an extremist group that has been known for bringing great harm to colored people in order to promote white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration. Brought upon by the death of Michael Ferguson, and the KKK’s support for the officer that murdered the young man, the hacktivist group forged out to build, “…resistance against the violence and intimidation tactics leveraged against the public by various members of Ku Klux Klan groups throughout history”(“Anonymous Reveals Full List Of Alleged KKK Members”). To bring about this upheaval, Anonymous members went through public data, police reports, and KKK interviews, and compiled enough information to obtain the contact information of over one thousand KKK members (“Anonymous Reveals Full List Of Alleged KKK Members”). After 11 months of research, Anonymous leaked all of the information, presenting to the world the names, emails, and phone numbers of countless individuals who had been involved in the evil organization. Another example of this justice-lead hacking is Project Chanology. Project Chanology was another Anonymous attack, however this time the target was the Church of Scientology. As stated in multiple interviews Anonymous members made, the removal of the church from the web because the group’s new goal because, “…The church attempted… to remove the video [one published by Anonymous] from the Internet. In doing so, they raised the ire of Anonymous, which saw these attempts as a form of censorship”(“How Anonymous Works”). As a result, Anonymous performed daily DDOS attacks on the church’s website and held protests outside Scientology buildings (“How Anonymous Works”). By fighting back against the organization’s attempts to suppress information, Anonymous’ hacking resisted the church’s attempts to extinguish a vital part of the first amendment: freedom of press.
The process of gaining access to foreign data sources and manipulating code to produce particular output provide for a learning experience that cannot be obtained through traditional computer science courses. Educating students on hacking provides for a variety of topics, such as, “ ‘The techniques and tools to detect and evaluate… vulnerable points of known exploits in network and operating systems…" (“Teaching hacking helps students, professors say”). However, because hacking is feared by many people, and educating students on this topic is widely disputed. The refusal to allow students the lesson plans and material to learn how to hack is similar to the burning of books in Fahrenheit 451. Within the novel, books are not allowed to be kept nor read because they are considered catalysts for tyranny. Books are viewed in such a negative light because they contain ideas and knowledge, which can be used by citizens to create their own opinions, which leaves room for disagreement and rebellion. Similarly, hacking is a device that can also be used for upheaval. However, by taking away these powerful mediums, the positive aspects are lost. This misfortune can seen when characters in the book are described as mindless robots who lack any unique thoughts because of the nonexistence of challenging material. “The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning. There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea…”(Bradbury 76).
Although teaching students how to hack may allow for those individuals to acquire more skills, a common concern of teaching this principle of computer science is that it will lead to more online violence. The internet is huge, and black hats, vengeful hackers who strive to bring devastation to the web, do exist. By teaching beginning coders how to hack, these students are granted new programmers an invaluable, but risky tool: empowerment (“Computer Hacking and Ethics”). This gift can be a double-edged sword, but according to Brian Harvey, a strong supporter of the value of hacking for computer scientists, teaching hacking allows students to truly understand the power of computer programming, and leads to more aware and responsible programmers (“Computer Hacking and Ethics”). Harvey, who was a lecturer for the University of California Berkeley’s computer science division, stated, “It's hard for a young person to understand the chain of reasoning from the abstract corporate owner of a computer system to the actual human beings whose lives are affected when that system breaks down. It's easier to understand the issues when the users are one's friends and classmates, and the social effects of malicious password hacking are immediately apparent” (“Computer Hacking and Ethics”). With this gained insight, hacking allows students to test new ideas and tricks, granting them the path to establish for themselves how hacking can hurt people.