Advantages and Disadvantages of Hacking - Essay Example

The paper "The Basics of Business Hacking" is a worthy example of an essay on information technology. Hacking can be referred to as the act of gaining unauthorized access to the private computer so as to accomplish a personal objective outside of the creator's original intention. For years this act has been considered illegal but many organizations do it today for personal security reasons. The individual who is consistently involved in hacking activities and has accepted hacking as a philosophy and lifestyle of their choice is referred to as a hacker.

Computer hacking is the most common form of hacking in the present age, especially in the arena of computer security, but hacking may exist in many other methods, such as mobile phone hacking, brain hacking, among others. There are various forms of advantages and disadvantages of hacking (Engebretson, 2013 p., 15). One advantage of hacking is that it can help to retrieve information in a computer where the password was lost. In such a scenario hacking is essential in obtaining the information.

Secondly, hacking gives a signal or a lesson to organizations and individuals that technology is not 100% secure and caution should be taken at all times (Engebretson, 2013 p., 34). Closely related to this fact is that hacking may be beneficial to an organization in determining how good security is on their network, PC among others. Thus, hackers can assist institutions to determine which of their computer security measures is more effective, the ones that need updating, and the ones that pose a little deterrent to harmful intruders.

Through this, the data from these tests permit management to decide on where and how to make improvements in their information security (Grand, 2006, pg.43). Likewise, the organization can protect its computer system from attack by understanding how to attack it themselves. This practice allows an organization to understand how various nefarious hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in their computer systems. Most importantly is the benefit that hacking does to banks and other financial institutions.

Hacking provides security to banks and other financial establishments. However, there are numerous disadvantages that can be associated with hacking a system. First hacking by itself is illegal in many countries and whether it is done for good intentions should be avoided as it depends on the trustworthiness of the hacker (Grand, 2006, pg.52). Secondly, criminals may be at will to use it to benefit their criminal activities. It is a fact that the biggest demerit of hacking is it is illegal. One can get put in jail for a lifetime because of hacking and a felony on one's record .

hacking is cheating others that are very wrong. Thirdly, through hacking vital information can be stolen by an unknown party. Fourth, hacking may allow room for network blockage, and this may be well with an organization particularly those involved in numerous operations (Engebretson, 2013 p., 25). The final disadvantage is that through hacking, one gains unauthorized access to the private computer; hacking normally involves stealing one's secret by breaking security such as free internet, free calls, stealing personal mail and many more.