the world of the electron and the switch: Misunderstood Guardians of the Digital Age 01110100011010000110010100100000011101110110111101110010011011000110010000100 00001101111011001100010000001110100011010000110010100100000011001010110110001 100101011000110111010001--[fiber]--110010100100110111101101110001000000110000 10110111001100100001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110011011101110110 Hackers are perceived in to the world as destructive, stealing credit cards and defacing websites everywhere, but is this stereotype true? Hackers have been confused with crackers for as long as hackers can remember, and this misconception is leading to the destruction of the hacker culture. Many people don't know the difference between a hacker and a cracker, a white hat and a black hat. This ignorance of such an important chapter of the history of cyber-space may lead to the destruction of computer sciences as we know it. Before attempting to understand the role of hackers in today's society, we must find out what a hacker really is. "Hacker" is a term for someone who explores and learns as much as they can about something, not necessarily computers. This means that, for example, Stephen Hawkings is a physics hacker. This may leave some people baffled, "how does this account for the destruction that computer 'hackers' leave?". Well, this can be easily answered. Computer hackers don't destroy. They build, and they explore. They are the ones who made the internet, they are the one's who made computers, they are the one's who painstakingly made the programs you run. These are the real Computer Hackers. On the other hand, there are Crackers who destroy. They don't care for learning, they care about making money, or destroying, all to boast to their friends or for material gain. There are also kiddie-scripters, who care even less about learning; they just download a program and use that to "hack" a computer. Crackers and kiddie-scripters are the ones you see on television being arrested under the false name of "hacker". They are the ones giving hackers a bad name. In addition to these categories, there are also black hats, and white hats. White hats gain access into a system with their own knowledge, then report the security hole and help fix the problem. Black hats gain access into a system, again with their own knowledge, but then they destroy. White hats and Black hats are in a constant war with each other, but without this war internet security wouldn't be as strong as it is now. Modern hacking started in a form called Phreaking. Phreaking was the exploration of the telephone system, back up to when telephones were invented, but it really took off in the 60s. One milestone in Phreaking was when John Draper (aka: Cap'n Crunch) found out that you could become an operator, or have unlimited access to the telephone exchange system with a simple whistle from Captain Crunch Cereals. Although the process known as blue boxing was useless in the 1980's when the phone system "Ma Bell" was replaced with a newer, computerized version, phreaking was still alive and the legacy of Ma Bell left a path for hackers to continue their learning. This change to a newer phone system is when most phreakers moved towards learning computers. This change created infamous hackers such as Kevin Mitnick (aka: Condor) who was almost never unsuccessful in penetrating a system. His arrest for hacking many systems and owning a Red Box (a newer phreaking tool) landed him in the middle of a human rights battle. But the switch to a newer telephone system isn't what had initially started computer hacking. Computer hackers started, not surprisingly, at MIT. This was back in 1970 when computers weren't at all powerful. The reason these hackers hacked was to gain access to more powerful computers, so that they could perform more complicated mathematical equations. Around the late 80s, early 90s, phreaking was slowly fading away (although it will still be alive until phones are done away with) and hacking moved into it's hayday. With this it also brought a massive amount of kiddie-scripters (also called "lamers"). But nontheless, publications such as 2600 (which is named after the frequency of the tone AT&T used to use for long distance call access) and phrack were born, and more and more bulletin boards were devoted towards hacking. The hacking culture became more diverse and widespread. The biggest change to hacking occurred when the Internet became popular, around 1995. This increased the size of the hacker community by bringing whole new things to do. Now the world is at our fingertips, and the cyber space became the hacker playground, and the hacker School. Most people when thinking about hackers wonder why they can't just all be put away? What do hackers actually do for society that makes them remotely necessary? Todays' society has become more and more technological, and is relying more and more on tools from cyber-space such as the internet, e-mail, and much more. Who made those tools? Who made the internet? Who made computers? Who pushes the technology to it's limits, bringing more and more knowledge to our hands. All of this is done by hackers. For example Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were notorious hackers in the 70s and they banded together to form Apple Computers, one of the worlds largest computer companies. In addition, white hat hackers keep the internet safe. They are the vigilantes of cyber space. They find possible security faults and help repair them. If there were no hackers then security would be at a minimum and anyone would be able to access and change anything they wanted to. True hackers keep security on it's edge and keep the internet alive and well. Hackers have been misrepresented ever since the computer hacking culture started. Instead of being known as the creators they are they are known as destroyers and are confused too often with black hat hackers and kiddie-scripters. These false accusations could lead to the downfall of the hacker culture and destroy the internet and general computing. The hacker culture has grown from a few kids learning about phone lines, to millions of people worldwide acting as vigilantes of the internet. Hackers have a deeper understanding about the technological world we live in which makes them precious to our new society. Without them we would live in a world without technological progress and with chaos in cyberspace.