User:Zt14427

There is a certain allure to computing which is difficult to replicate in other environments. In many respects computing is always "real" rather than merely an example or model, though there is equally always the hope for more power and greater facilities to do bigger and better hacks. Whereas in other endeavors the development of a project such as a hot-rod car or a trip to Hawaii costs real dollars, computing costs nothing - it is a utility. Driving a hot-rod on a dirt strip is also fraught with real physical danger, while hot-rodding a computer is safe. The computer does not hit back even when the worst of effects are programmed. Even the non-hacker and the non-programmer are effected by the computer. With the advent of e-mail systems, one can easily recognize the change in personality with comes from a non-evasive form of communication[5]. Persons who are puppydogs in face-to-face communication become wolves when they do not have to look into the eyes of the receiver and are not threatened physically by their textual combatant. Levy (1984) suggests that there is a "code of ethics" for hacking which, though not pasted on the walls, is in the air:

Access to Computers - and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works - should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!

All information should be free.

Mistrust Authority - Promote Decentralization.

Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.

You can create art and beauty on a computer.

Computers can change your life for the better. -- RANKS Benign - the hacker whose intentions are purely educational

Unsavory - the intruder whose intentions are not necessarily malicious but whose very presence can be negative

Malicious - the intruder whose primary intention is to cause the system to crash or to wreck havoc in its operation while Landreth [9] suggested they could best be categorized by their activities:

Novice - the user whose first steps into the world of electronic tripping are tentative and exploratory, and whose intentions are merely to emulate those who he believes have gone before

Student - the visitor who has a fair knowledge of the means of access and whose new intentions are to learn more about the system under scrutiny without plans to change anything or to leave anything behind

Tourist - having discovered all there is to be known about his local systems decides to visit similar systems worldwide

Crasher - the hacker whose challenge is to defeat a system by bringing it to its knees

Thief - the system intruder whose intentions are to retrieve from the systems he can access data and programs that he can put to his own use (including providing the stolen information to others)