3.4 Hackers

Computer hackers are people who attack or try to gain control over computer systems. For example, a hacker may steal passwords and other secret information, disrupt systems and networks, threaten or vilify others, invade privacy, break into other systems, vandalize, make political statements, or use your computer to set up servers to distribute copyrighted or illegal information. Frequently, experienced hackers will attempt to gain access to a number of systems at once so that their activities are harder to trace. They may not be stealing your password to access your research data; instead, they merely want to use your computer as a launching point for attacking another computer.

Especially challenging is the fact that hackers invent programs that do their dirty work automatically, and they share these programs with other hackers. A hacker might start a program that searches every system on the Internet for a particular security hole. When the program discovers a machine with that hole, it compromises the machine, installs "backdoors" for future access, and then it proceeds to check other machines. Fortunately, there are several groups of "good guys" who publish information about these activities and how to "patch" the holes. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at Carnegie-Mellon is likely the most famous.