HACKING
AREAS
Hacking may refer to:
Computer security hacking
Hacking taxicab
Joke thievery
Raising a bird of prey (in artificial nest)
Illegal methods used in football
COMPUTER HACKING
What’s on computers in internet?
• Banking, Taxes, Medical Records, Personal details
• Cookies! Browser History!
• Password file??
How do they get in?
• Viruses/Trojans
• Spyware
• Keyloggers
• Remote Control
TERMINOLOGY USED
Hacker:
• A proficient computer user
• A computer user engaged in illegal activities
Cracker:
A computer user engaged in illegal acts.
Software pirate:
Copies software illegally
Phreaker:
A telephone services thief
Hackers Have a Subculture!
Conferences
Newsletters and news groups
Fairly close in age (teens to low 20s)
Shared experiences, shared roots, and
shared values
Own myths, heroes, villains, folk epics, in-
jokes, taboos, and dreams!
HACKER GOALS
Corporate Databases
espionage
Info warfare
Software theft
Web site defacing Hacktivism
ISPs Computer time
• DDOS Theft of intellectual
• Access
property
Credit cards
• Riding the Bullet
Computer control
• Home computers
• Business
Two Reputed Types to Exist
“White Hats” “Black Hats”
Refrain from
Malicious
damage
Help to fix/patch
Release viruses,
security problems exploit security
Report “black holes
hats” Steal assets
Free testing and
“Gain root”
security
assurance.
WHO IS HACKER?
Hacker(computer intruder) is a person who
delights in having an intimate understanding of the
internal workings of a system, computers and
computer networks in particular.
Script Kiddie
Black hat hacker
White hat hacker
Grey hat hacker
Blue hat hacker
Academic hacker
HACKER HISTORY
First appeared at 1960s
Hacking done mostly for fun
Hackers started speaking to each other via
the ARPANET
A worldwide hackers’ community
RECENT ATTACKS AND HACKS
Hackers changed a Department of Justice
web site to display a swastika and the text
to read, “the U. S. Department of
Injustice.”
“Coolio” (?) shut down e-commerce sites
by bombarding them with thousands of
DOS messages
Titan Rain and Moonlight Maze attacks on
American computer systems.
CORPORATE HACKING
For a report, employees of CNET, Inc.
broke into web sites for Booksite and
Upside and obtained:
• Credit card lists
• E-mail lists
• Subscribers
Published an article after security was
fixed
Appropriate for demonstration purposes?
STUDIES
The Pentagon estimates that 65% of its
30,000 computers can be hacked
• Is attacked 1,000 times a day
95% of all attacks are successful!
5% are detected
.025% are reported up the chain
COMMERCIAL STUDIES
Intrusion Detection, Inc. study of Fortune
1000 companies
• 23% of users did not have passwords or had
guessable passwords
• 14% of accounts were inactive
• 27% of sites had first line security detection
systems turned off
COMMERCIAL STUDIES
National Computer Security Ass’n
• A consultant was asked to study security
problems at a large company
• In three days, he acquired 300 MB of sensitive
data
• Simply asked executives about the company,
web searches
SOLUTIONS
• Never click on links from unknown senders
• Practice safe browsing
• Use good passwords!
• Never do sensitive transactions on Library,
Hotel, and other unknown PCs
• Don’t make your Laptop be an AP (No Ad-
Hoc!)
• Secure your wireless – Encrypt! Address
Filter!
• Make sure you’re on the right network!
• Backup your data – Securely!
ISSUES
Are current laws adequate to Cyberspace?
Are hackers to be thanked or punished?
Should the acquisition and distribution of
information that disrupts others be illegal?
How much surveillance is too much?
