Is it just me or has the old fashioned hacker disappeared? Perhaps I am using the wrong words here. In days gone by hackers tended to be split in two defined groups, the malicious hackers who found it amusing to destroy/damage systems, and then there were those who at least utilised their skills for some purpose i.e. security lapses etc, at least they did not trash Mr Joe Publics machine for the sake of it. The latter though seem to have disappeared and the people involved seem to be more interested in trashing/bugging/spying on systems etc. I have recently been such a victim of an attack, what exactly is the point, I don't have anything of any value to anybody, certainly nothing to hide? I guess it is just 'vandalism' in the IT age but what is exactly the root of the problem? Surely people clever enough to write viruses and the like in the first place should be doing something a little more constructive. Guess I'm just p****d off at the moment :-) I would like to hear of any other views on this. Global

I respect the question, but since people DO this stuff, (and people have ALWAYS done nasty and anti-social stuff,) a better question might be: why do we PERMIT this stuff. Computer crime (downloading, spam, fraud, destruction of computer and business systems, pointless and malicious computer vandalism) gets treated as child's play because it's done with computers. It's as if things aren't taken seriously as long as they're done with computers, over the internet. Perhaps some day some crackpot hacker will launch a nuclear missle strike on Glasgow or Moscow, prompting people to understand that computers are part of the real world.

Blackhat and Whitehat hackers are still both very present and active, however due to the press bias, you'll almost exclusively hear of the blackhatters only, especially when a crime is committed, it making the front page news and all. Network security, admins, network engineers could all "possibly" (should be) whitehatters, as the saying goes "know your enemy." Besides, penalties can be stiff these days for electronic crime, so there may be an impact there and the script kiddies are growing as more "self kits" are available to them to do malice. Use to be, a hacker HAD to know programming languages to build such creatures. I think the source of these people is just pure evil, nothing more than plain vandals. Either they are sadistic, bored, malcontents, maladjusted or for whatever reason do not fit into society's picture anywhere, at least not anywhere they can be productive AND where they feel comfortable. And there is an extreme sense of control as you could imagine, seeing your crime all over the front page of the news, then playing with authorities to try and catch you, if they can. Do not read too much into their crimes, they are not necessarily geniuses bent on evil destruction or smart gone bad; they are just destructive, plain and simple, like the playground bully, only more reckless and more dangerous.

Bullys maybe be more dangerous in a physical form but into this modern society a stolen credit card number can ensare someones life... The ability to send fake emails or rob someone of their email account and then to send a message to another user can cause impacts that change many peoples lifes. Computers are being taken seriously now. These script kiddies with their newbie kits and their trojans are just barley noticed or watched for... like a mugger in new york city. If this mugger went to ooo lets say to microsoft and went to mug bill gates he would be in big trouble ( probley put to death from bribary ) . If you went to go hack into microsoft or the government they'd do the same thing.

I imagine with so many free, off - the - shelf and powerful Trojans available today, a great many who use them to infect others are just youngsters wanting to open their victims cd drawers and other relatively harmless stuff. A power thing, perhaps. Many have the capability to both view and capture remote desktops too, so would appeal to voyeurs the world over. There's plenty of scope for the malicious and criminals too, they can delete nearly everything they want as well as upload as well. For anyone involved in illegal activities on the Net themselves, those who view and/or download the most depraved forms of pornography, for example, would be very compromised by the Trojaner and become a prime candidate for blackmail.

I can tell you why, it's because they are nasty sad w*nkers.

There is nothing more interesting than discovering and manipulating the intricacies and limitations of a system. Any kind of system - an Apple II, the Linux kernel, a LAN, POTS, an encryption scheme, or the Internet itself. But a hacker has to know his/her environment. He/She has to know the programming language, whether it be dial-tone frequencies or Scheme or a shell. Hackers are all independent. That is not to say they are anti-social, do not share ideas, or are general rogues. They avoid groupthink, follow their own ambitions and interests, and seek to better understand and manipulate the environments they find. Some hackers find in their knowledge a superiority that leads to destructive actions. They are still respected, not for their actions, but their abilities and comprehension of what they exploit. Others use their knowledge for selfish ends. These can be political, social, etc. There are countless others who simply do not belong to a definition other than hacker. But there is a small, incredibly unique group that has never amassed and never will. This group of hackers, not really a group - more like a class - represents the positive drive of creativity, learning, and knowledge. They are really just generous, each in their own way. These hackers give in ways largely unseen - sometimes through programs, other times in ideas or solutions. They also tend to leave you alone. Therefore, you are likely to never think about them.