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HACKERS Hackers are very knowledgeable computer users who use their knowledge to invade other people's computers. There are ethical or invited (also called white-hat) hackers and those who are uninvited. The ethical ones are hired by organizations to come in and test their networks. They identify vulnerabilities and fix them so that those with malicious intent can't breach the network.  Uninvited Hackers Uninvited hackers break into computers and networks without permission. This group is further divided into those who "just look around" and those who do damage. The non-malicious hackers usually see themselves as a very elite cadre of information seekers. Some even believe that it's their responsibility to find security holes and report them. Many people would argue that it's not OK, at least in the physical world, to break into a building just because you find a door or window unlocked, even if all you do is look around and don't take or break anything. Those who are malicious hackers do damage like stealing files or spreading viruses or defacing Web sites. Their reasons and methods are varied as is their attitude towards hacking. At Riptech's Web site (and many others) you can find out more about hackers. Virus Exploits If you go the Symantec Security Response Web page, you can see evidence of some of the devastation that the malicious hackers have caused. This page shows all the viruses that are currently floating around cyberspace and provides updates to antivirus software to catch and clean viruses. Hacker Help Sites There are thousands of sites on the Internet that help hackers do their dirty work. It's actually quite a vast community. One of the most well-known hacker sites is The Hacker Quarterly where hackers can learn about hacking exploits. If hackers don't know enough to create their own viruses, they can go to many hundreds of sites that have off-the-shelf scripts or viruses that they can use if they know enough to click and point. Virus Hoaxes One of the frequent exploits of malicious hackers is to save themselves the work of creating an actual virus by creating a virus hoax. That means that instead of actually creating a virus, a hacker spreads a scare about a nonexistent virus and causes people to spend time trying to find and fix the problem. Sometimes a virus hoax tells you to delete a file because of a virus, but in fact, the file may be a system file, necessary for your computer to function. By deleting it, you're causing yourself more problems. At TLC you can find out about virus hoaxes. Other sites that can help you determine whether viruses are hoaxes or not are: |