Who is a hacker

Hacker  is someone who  seeks to understand computer, phone or other systems strictly for the satisfaction of having that knowledge, who  wonders how things work, and have an incredible curiosity. They will sometimes do questionable legal things, such as breaking into systems, but they generally will not cause harm once they break in. They enjoy  learning details of a programming language or system and actually doing the programming rather than theorizing it .Hackers appreciate someone else’s hacking .

Hacker ethic is the generic phrase which describes the values and philosophy that are standard in the hacker community. The early hacker culture and resulting philosophy originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1950s and 1960s. The term 'hacker ethic' is attributed to journalist Steven Levy as described in his book titled Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, written in 1984. The guidelines of the hacker ethic make it easy to see how computers have evolved into the personal devices we know and rely upon today.

Free and open source software is the descendant of the hacker ethics that Levy described. The hackers who hold true to this hacker ethics—especially the Hands-On Imperative—are usually supporters of free software and/or open source software. This is because free and open source software allows hackers to access the code used to create the software to improve or reuse it. In effect the free and open source software movements embody all of the hacker ethics.

Some of the ethics and beliefs are as follows :

• 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!  
  Levy believes that access gives hackers the opportunity to take things apart,
   fix, or improve upon them and to learn and understand how they work. This gives
  them the knowledge to create new and even more interesting things Access helps  the expansion of technology.
• All information should be free. 
  In the hacker viewpoint, any system could benefit from an easy flow of information, a concept known as transparency in the social sciences. Information needs to be free for hackers to fix, improve, and reinvent systems. A free exchange of information allows for greater overall creativity.
• Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
    The best way to promote the free exchange of information is to have an open system that presents no boundaries between a hacker and a piece of information or an item of equipment that he needs in his quest for knowledge, improvement, and time on-line. Hackers believe that bureaucracies, whether corporate, government, or university, are flawed systems.
  
  
  
• Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not criteria such as degrees, age, race, sex, or position.
  Inherent in the hacker ethic is a meritocratic system where superficiality is disregarded in esteem of skill. Levy articulates that criteria such as age, sex, race, position, and qualification are deemed irrelevant within the hacker community. Hacker skill is the ultimate determinant of acceptance. Such a code within the hacker community fosters the advance of hacking and software development.
  Testament to the hacker ethic of equal opportunity, L. Peter Deutsch, a twelve-year-old hacker, was accepted in the TX-0 community, though was not recognized by non-hacker graduate students.
• You can create art and beauty on a computer.          
  Hackers deeply appreciate innovative techniques which allow programs to perform complicated tasks with few instructions. A program's code was considered to hold a beauty of its own, having been carefully composed and artfully arranged. Learning to create programs which used the least amount of space almost became a game between the early hackers.
• Computers can change your life for the better.
  Hackers felt that computers had enriched their lives, given their lives focus, and made their lives adventurous. Hackers regarded computers as Aladdin's lamps that they could control. They believed that everyone in society could benefit from experiencing such power and that if everyone could interact with computers in the way that hackers did, then the Hacker Ethic might spread through society and computers would improve the world. The hacker succeeded in turning dreams of endless possibilities into realities. The hacker's primary object was to teach society that "the world opened up by the computer was a limitless one" 

Submitted by ,

Prajul Bagri 

CH09B045

Risks and responsibilities

Risks and Responsibilities

After the end of World War II, the involvement of scientific research in military purposes increased substantially . as the Nuclear era emerged from WWII all the nations started developing systems for the security purposes .One such example is the missile warning systems

The Cold war saw the development of faster and advance systems to make the country stronger and thus security wise stable . the development of Whirlwind system and SAGE missile warning systems were the forerunner in the development . all the countries starting building up weapons , defense  systems and so on for the purpose of National security . lots of funds were allotted top the scientific development for military purpose .

In the contemporary context  , the alarm warning systems for missile poses a lot of risks for the world . the greatest risk is when the system gives false alarm and thus may lead to more misunderstanding and war . In 1983 ,Lt. Colenel Stanislav Petrov was the officer incharge of the warning system monitoring station outside Moscow for Soviet Union . One fine warning he got signals indicating 5 ballistic missiles have been launched by US .The tensions between the states was already present and this false alarm could have resulted in a war .Petrov thought that had America launched a nuclear attack against Russia ,missiles would have been raining down not just 5 thus considered that it is a false signal ,thus saving the world of another devastating war .

The risk is in this system is that ,it may give wrong signals and this has happened many times till now , but for national security this is required .In this nuclear era , one needs to be quick and well prepared for any disaster .The responsibilities involved is that proper testing of these systems , so that the risks can be minimised .The Whirlwind computers developed during cold war is a classic example o risk involved in any systems The duplex computer enables us to keep the data safe even if one of the computers gets damaged or destroyed the other can take over . this kind of computer systems is used in banks all across the globe .Some of the extra risks involved in the alarm warning systems is the human error or any software failure which can lead to false signals or no signals at all  

references:

Risk Digest 

Wikipedia

Submitted By ,

Prajul Bagri 

CH09B045

The Hacker Ethic

Hackers

These are people who attempt to penetrate security systems on remote computers. This is the new sense of the term, whereas the old sense of the term simply referred to a person who was capable of creating hacks, or elegant, unusual, and unexpected uses of technology. A hacker is a person who breaks into computers and computer networks, either for profit or motivated by the challenge. The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground but is now an open community. In the words of Brian Harvey, of UCL, Berkeley, “A ``computer hacker,'' then, is someone who lives and breathes computers, who knows all about computers, who can get a computer to do anything. Equally important, though, is the hacker's attitude. Computer programming must be a hobby, something done for fun, not out of a sense of duty or for the money. (It's okay to make money, but that can't be the reason for hacking.)”. There are specialties within computer hacking. An “algorithm hacker” knows all about the best algorithm for any problem. A “system hacker” knows about designing and maintaining operating systems. And a ``password hacker'' knows how to find out someone else's password.

The Hacker Ethic

Every profession or trade tends to have an ethical code which suggests that it is capable of self-regulation of its members. The code demonstrates the shared core values necessary for people to practice within the professional community. And it enables the public and the government to have some degree of trust for the profession. Hackers have their own ‘code of honour’- the ‘Hacker Ethic’. The original Hacker Ethic was sort of an impromptu, informal ethical code developed by the original hackers of MIT and Stanford (SAIL) in the 50s and 60s. These "hackers" were the first generation of programmers, employing time-sharing terminal access to 'dumb' mainframes, and they often confronted various sorts of bureaucratic interference that prevented them from exploring fully how technological systems worked. The ethic reflects their resistance to these obstacles, and their ideology of the libratory power of technology. The idea of a "hacker ethic" is perhaps best formulated in Steven Levy's 1984 book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Levy came up with six tenets:

1. 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!
2. All information should be free.
3. Mistrust authority - promote decentralization.
4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as age, race, or position.
5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
6. Computers can change your life for the better.

PHRACK, recognized as the "official" hacker newsletter, expanded on this creed with a rationale that can be summarized in three principles ("Doctor Crash," 1986). [1] First, hackers reject the notion that "businesses" are the only groups entitled to access and use of modern technology. [2] Second, hacking is a major weapon in the fight against encroaching computer technology. [3] Finally, the high cost of equipment is beyond the means of most hackers, which results in the perception that hacking is the only recourse to spreading computer literacy to the masses

Although hackers freely acknowledge that their activities may be occasionally illegal, considerable emphasis is placed on limiting violations only to those required to obtain access and learn a system, and they display hostility toward those who transgress beyond these limits.

The question of hacker ethics was brought to the fore during the trial of US Judge Ronald C Kline in 2002-2005. Kline stood accused of downloading child pornography to his home and courthouse computers. The evidence against him hinged on the credibility of a Canadian hacker named Bradley Willman, who claimed to have stolen an electronic diary from his computer. Kline's defence attorneys attacked the hacker's credibility, saying that taking the judge's diary was illegal and suggesting that the hacker was working on behalf of law enforcement at the time. Defence attorneys also raised the possibility that the hacker could have doctored the diary and computer images that form the bedrock of federal prosecutors' case against Kline. Finally, after a long drawn out legal battle that lasted 4 years, Kline was put behind bars in 2006, with Willman judged to have been acting independently of any government agency.

The case of the United States vs Kline is just one of many instances of hackers helping to put criminals behind bars, and it stands as a shining example of how hacking can be used to make the world a better place.

Govind Menon

CH09B022

References:

www.vachss.com

www.metnews.com

www.cs.berkeley.edu

Panopticon

What is the ‘Information Panopticon’? Explain with reference to the use of ICT in the organisation of work since the 80s.

The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham is credited with the idea of a Panopticon, which was a kind of prison constructed in such a way so that all the prisoners felt that they were being monitored at all times when in fact they were not. The idea was that "total" surveillance would eventually eliminate undesired behaviour. While Bentham's idea was literal, it has since become a metaphor for any type of system in which surveillance can or is total. The information panopticon represents a form of centralized power that uses information and communication technology (ICT) as observational tools and control mechanisms.

The call centre has become the paradigmatic workplace of the twenty-first-century service economy in the way that the car factory was emblematic of twentieth-century industrialism. This is so for a number of reasons, including the rapid growth of call-centre employment; it is a form of work that has become ubiquitous in the modern economy. It is also because call centres embody some of the main themes that have arisen in research and discussion of work in recent years. The combination of information and communication technology used in call centres means it is possible for managers to monitor remotely worker performance and productivity, embodying the themes of panopticon control and surveillance. This monitoring ranges from keystroke counting, telephone service observation whereby statistics are gathered on the duration, time between, and number of calls, telephone call accounting, "peeking" on to workers computer screens and into electronic mail, to the use of "active" or "magic" badges that can keep track of an employee's movements and locations. Increasingly, computers are being used to set tasks and performances for all levels of worker.

Today, close to a billion workers are surveilled electronically in workplaces all over the world. Management often views surveillance as an attempt to achieve certain organizational goals better by more fully utilizing time and other resources. But from the employees’ perspective, surveillance can also be understood as an attempt to create new power relationships based on an electronic version of Bentham's panopticon.

But surveillance still has negative effects on employees.  The main  reason  not  to  engage  in  surveillance  is  because  it  affects worker behaviour.

This can  be related to the workplace setting, when employees feel as though they  need  to  act  one  way  at  work  and  another  at  home,  and  it  leads  to  confusion.  If there were no surveillance tactics, workers could act as they  normally would without  the  pressure  to  act  in  a  specific manner  all  the  time. 
It has been noted  in surveys  that employees who are monitored  by  computers  are  more  likely  to  suffer  from  health,  stress  and  moral  problems. 15 For example, one  investigation compared survey responses  of  50  clerical  employees whose work was monitored  by  computer with  responses  of  94  non-monitored  employees who  performed  comparable  jobs.  Self reported stress was higher  among  the monitored workers. Also  in  another  study  762  telecommunications  workers,  who  were  monitored  reported  feeling significantly higher  levels of  tension, anxiety,  anger, depression, and  fatigue  then non-monitored employees.

The bottom-line is that constant surveillance - or at least the perception of constant surveillance - "coerces by means of observation."

Govind Menon

CH09B022

References:

 Communication work and electronic surveillance: A model for predicting panoptic effects Communication Monographs -1996, Author: Carl Botan

Panopticon Dreams:

The Nightmarish Effects of Workplace Surveillance 

-BRITTANY MEIER

ELECTRONIC MONITORING IN THE WORKPLACE:
POWER THROUGH THE PANOPTICON

-MICHAEL LEVY