I still haven't decided on my question so I'm just gonna research on number 6 for the time being. So Kwan Cheng (lecturer) told us that we have to look into both sides of the issue, instead of choosing which side you are on straight away. Personally, I find it really hard to do for this case.
6. Hackers are the heroes of the 21st Century. Argue for or against this statement.
Here's a really basic timeline of what happened to hackers since the 1970s.
MIT students > Phone Hackers (Phreakers) > Hacking Groups > Publication of 2600 (Hacker's Magazine > Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (Law) > Robert Morris Worms (crashed 6000 Net-linked government and university computers) > Operation Sundevil (to curb hackers) > Kevin Poulsen "wins" Porshe > Hacking became more dangerous > Kevin Mitnick caught (20000 credit cards numbers stole) > Increase of security products > Deniel of Service (DoS)
(Oracle, n.d.)
". . . One of the reasons that I support hackers is that they have been telling us for over 10 years that the emperor is naked. It's very erroneous to think of hackers as criminals--that's not the case. Hackers are more like astronauts pushing the edge of the envelope. Hackers have been identifying major vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and Sun products and Dell products and all kinds of computer and communications products. And nobody has wanted to listen. . . ." (Steele, n.d.)
The whole reason hackers were deemed as criminals was that media got in the way. The media did nothing wrong highlighting the people who hacked into governmental sites, causing mayhem through the internet. The community needs these information. However, it was always the bad that got enhanced, never was the good. Who fixed what the black hat hackers caused? Who told Microsoft and Dell of their security loopholes if none other than the white hats themselves? If they could be glorified even a little, chances of the grey or black hatters converting to white hatters would very much increase. How else did the entertainment industries do their celebrities recruitment.
"The big difference between today and yesterday is that, in the digital age, you're either on or off, you're either black or white, you're either fixed or broken. You crash, literally--by system, by industry, by society--in the event of major computer malfunctions. If the banking system suddenly goes down for 15 to 20 minutes, that's a trillion dollars of exchanges that will never be replicated. If more than two of the eighteen power generators in the United States burn out, we're out of spares. And if the German factory that makes them also burns out, then all of a sudden you're missing some critical pieces with which to help society run." (Steele, n.d.)
Robert D. Steele, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Open Source Solutions, Inc. (OSS).stated that we are currently living in an era whereby everything is rather absolute. If a system was unfortunately hacked by malicious hackers, chances of recovery would be very time consuming, unrecoverable too at certain points. This ended up being a pool of opportunities for hackers. Both good and bad. Precisely why the good hackers should be recognised and and acknowledged. Even more so when we are in the age where things crumple easier than anticipated because we humans enjoy taking things for granted. Technology isn't the only that got smarter, people too and really, the wise move is to fight smart people with smart people.
Reference:
Oracle. (n.d.) History of hacking. [Online] Available at: <https://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00460/hackingHistory.html> [Accessed on: 6 December, 2013]
Steele, R. (n.d.) Are hackers outlaws or watchdogs? PBS Frontline. [Online] Available at:<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hackers/whoare/outlaws.html> [Accessed on: 3 December, 2013]
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