Hacking has been at the forefront of controversy for the las

Hacking has been at the forefront of controversy for the last few decades. Some people consider it as ethical and others as unethical. What exactly is hacking? What are some examples of illegal and unethical hacking? Is it always illegal and unethical? Can you find some examples of hacking that may be considered illegal but ethical?

Solution

What is hacking?

hacking as identifying weakness in computer systems and/or networks and exploiting the weaknesses to gain access. An example of hacking is using by passing the login algorithm to gain access to a system

The person engaged in hacking activities is generally referred to as a hacker. This hacker may alter system or security features to accomplish a goal that differs from the original purpose.

Hackers employ a variety of techniques for hacking, including:

What are some examples of illegal and unethical hacking?

Theft of information

Theft of or denial of service.

Hacking into or damaging a computer’s hardware system

Is it always illegal and unethical?

No hacking is not always unethical. Hacking is of 2 types ethical hacking and unethical hacking .

Unethical is defined above.

Ethical hacking and ethical hacker are terms used to describe hacking performed by a company or individual to help identify potential threats on a computer or network. An ethical hacker attempts to bypass system security and search for any weak points that could be exploited by malicious hackers. This information is then used by the organization to improve the system security, in an effort to minimize or eliminate any potential attacks.

What constitutes ethical hacking?

For hacking to be deemed ethical, the hacker must obey the following rules:

1.      Expressed (often written) permission to probe the network and attempt to identify potential security risks.

2.      You respect the individual\'s or company\'s privacy.

3.      You close out your work, not leaving anything open for you or someone else to exploit at a later time.

4.      You let the software developer or hardware manufacturer know of any security vulnerabilities you locate in their software or hardware, if not already known by the company.

Can you find some examples of hacking that may be considered illegal but ethical?

As an Information Technology students, there are lot of things that we need to consider in the field of computing. As we learn about computers and how they works, we are also committed on ethical practices in computing. When we define computing it is the process of utilizing computer technology to complete a task. On the other hand, it is the use of computer to process data or perform calculations. In computing there are some ethical basis and issues. One example of computing issue is hacking. It is defined as gaining of access(wanted or unwanted) to a computer and viewing, copying, or creating data(leaving a trace) without the intention of destroying the data or maliciously harming the computer. In computing, hacking is considered as a crime. This act is illegal in the ethical manner in computing.

However, these are also acts of computing that is illegal but view as legal in ethical manner. One example is counterfeiting software, or a type of software piracy. Counterfeit software would include the illegal copying and distribution of commercial software on CD or DVD along with any accompanying manuals that the original legitimate software was sold with. Software piracy is scattered everywhere (e.g CD’s and DVD). People who counterfeit software sold it and they have benefit because of this also. We know in our mind that software piracy is illegal but as we look on the other side, we can say that it is ethical. How we say that it is ethical? we can say it is ethical because even we have benefited the product. In what way? the way that we want things to be easy(hassle-free). For example, when we want to watch a movie and we don’t have enough to pay for cinema, of course we will seek for alternatives, it is buying a DVD or a copy of the movie. Or else, renting a DVD in a store( store that also counterfeit movies!). Other than that, we can spend less money than watching it on cinema. The other example is hacking. You heard it right!, hacking is also considered as unethical but can be ethical. As i mentioned before it is a crime in the field of computing. Hacking is also the act wherein hackers gain information from someone. How is it possible that it is considered as unethical but at the same time ethical?. Think about this, there are people(hackers) that hacked for the good purpose of the organization. In organization, to hack a computer means vulnerability that is loop holes in a computer found by them they build by firewall. Consider a very example, the windows security an organization upgrade on the daily basis. The unethical side of hacking is that it is a serious issue because it includes credit card info, ID theft, and stealing personal information.