Business Report Project

Hacking in Today’s World 8

Introduction

A hacker is a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data according to Google. Hackers have become a well-known group in our society and most people have an idea of what they do. From light hearted hacks to huge security risks hackers are a hot topic to discuss. Original hackers go back as far as 1878; of course these hackers did not use computers, but all the same started an ever increasing venture. Today companies like Sony, Amazon, and Walmart have fallen victim to hackers losing both small and large amounts of money. Does this make hackers the enemy or should these companies be thanking them?

A Brief History of Hacking

Originally hacking did not have such a negative connotation. The word “hack” referred to someone who was interested in how something worked. The first hackers were a group of young men, who worked for the switchboard company, who were more interested in how the system worked than connecting calls. Hacking only progressed from there; as one would assume hacking started with the telephone. Hackers would use an audio tone “to open a telephone line and begin making free long distance calls.”(Devitt) Some of the people who helped hack telephone systems are very popular to us today, for example Steve Jobs. These hacks, although technically stealing, would seem to be harmless.

As time moved on and technology grew into computers people began to develop “hacks” in order to increase productivity since time was limited and costly spent on a computer. These “hacks” created were to push the machine and let the programmer get the most use out of the computer/system. Hacking later developed a negative connotation when people started using hacks to break into systems for personal gain or with destructive behavior. Government had to step in and start passing laws to prevent the problems that came along with hacking, but had a hard time since most hackers were juveniles. It also progressed into people hacking into potentially dangerous systems like NASA and the Korean Atomic Research Institute.

Today we still have hackers known as white hat hackers, who typically are security experts who are considered “ethical” and use their skills to test systems to improve them, but we also have black hat hackers. “Black hat hackers are also known as crackers or dark-side hackers. The general view is that, while hackers build things, crackers break things.”(Google) As for many things, there is always a gray area. Most hackers are a little bit of both black hat and white hat hackers and have even been known to be called “hacktivists”. The individuals called hacktivists are people who use the act of hacking or breaking into a computer system for a politically or socially motivated purpose. In the end even though hacktivists are trying to right some of the wrongs of the world it is still on their own agenda at times.

Methods of Hacking

Methods of hacking range from spamming to viruses to Trojan horse programs. The idea of hacking is simple you simply have to be creative, but it can be very time consuming. Some hackers use existing code or script to hack into a computer. These individuals are called script kiddies, and though they are smart, they lack the ability to create their own script or code, and that is why they are required to use established code. Spamming is another method which overloads a system with data in order for the hacker to bypass or distract the system and get in. Other methods of hacking have been known to be harmful and that is why virtually every computer has some kind of virus protection. In this day and age no one surfs the web without virus protection. The risk is just too great.

How Hacking Effects Business Today

Today hacking affects many businesses both big and small. Hacking can extend from a company’s website being unsecure to someone breaking into their servers and stealing sensitive information. When this happens to a company it can be devastating. An example of a business being affected by hacking is the story of Sony over the 2014 Christmas holiday. Sony was threatened before the release of the movie The Interview. The movie was supposedly offensive to some hackers in North Korea and because they were offended they decided to take it out on Sony. The hackers took out Sony’s communications within the company for days and then started to make terroristic threats if the movie was released to theaters. The threats and lack of communication made problems for Sony and in the end they were very limited for the release of The Interview. They were able to generate some revenue for the movie by using other means such as streaming and the internet. The movie cost about 44 million in production, this figure does not include publicity efforts for the movie, but on the opening weekend they only reported 15 million from streaming and 2.8 million from theaters that actually released the movie. For me this could only mean the company lost big on the movie since projections for the movie were much higher. Unfortunately for Sony this was not their first big experience with hackers, and I can only assume it will not be there last, but I can ask why haven’t they learned for the experiences?

When a company is hacked it also gives their clients a sense of unease. Since hacking is so well known and most of the populations knows what can happened if their personal information is stolen to know a company has been hacked can lead the client to no longer do business with the company and even lead away future clients. The company’s credibility becomes damaged from the hack creating more loss. The loss is not only from losing clients, but because the company has to spend more money to repair the image of the company.

Conclusion

Hackers have become part of our society and they can harm both the individual and any big company if the hacker puts their mind to it. Hackers are not to be considered a bad thing. The hacker not only provides a means to seek justice with motivations like hacktivism, but they also can show a company their weaknesses and in the end make the company improve their security and their business. At this time hackers are a necessary part of the world we live in. “By exposing flaws in other people’s systems and forcing companies to be responsible, hackers do something most of us would like to do, but can’t: they make the internet (among other things) a safer, more secure place for everyone.” (Devitt)

References Bort, Julie. Business Insider. 26 December 2014. 16 January 2015. Cornell, Scott. The Effects of Computer Hacking on an Organization. n.d. 16 January 2015. Devitt, Michael. A Brief History of Computer Hacking. 18 June 2001. 16 January 2015. Google. n.d. 16 January 2015. Lanz, Michelle. How did 'The Interview' Fare at the Box Office and on Video-on-Demand? 29 December 2014. 31 January 2015. Passeri, Paolo. 2014 Cyber Attacks Statistics (Aggregated). 13 January 2015. 31 January 2015. Robb, David. Sony Hack: A Timeline. 22 December 2014. 16 January 2015. Silver, Nate. Killing 'The Interview' Could Cost $100 Million. 17 December 2014. 31 January 2015.

Index

Black Hat Hackers 2

Hacktivist 3

Script Kiddies 3

Sony 1, 4

White Hat Hackers 2