Exploring The Dark Side. Review of hacker sites - Essay Example

Indeed, as Gold (2001) argues, there is an overriding tendency to perceive of all hackers as intent on the accessing otherwise private information for the purpose of criminal use and profit. Certainly, a not insignificant percentage of hacks into corporate databases is motivated by precisely such an intent but an equally significant percentage is motivated by the intent to expose security flaws. The intent to expose, as Gold (2001) contends, is not accompanied by an underlying criminal or financial motivation but simply by the determination to prove that the security systems which companies have invested large amounts of money in are, indeed, flawed and easily penetrated by professional hackers.

Interestingly, the four sites mentioned appear to evidence Gold's (2001) argument. The technical information provided in these sites can be interpreted as hacking guidance information but, more significantly, it directs attention to existent security flaws and data vulnerability. In its announcement of a four-day hacker conference, the Cult of the Dead cow effectively evidences that hackers have a constructive role to play in the securitization of information. For example, the mentioned conference announcement is accompanied by a call for papers on network penetration, malware generation and, importantly, network security.

The implication here is that hackers are actively involved in the study of network security flaws, aspects of network vulnerability and information warfare strategies, as based on existent flawed security and suggest strategies for the resolution of these weaknesses and vulnerabilities. As may have been deduced from the preceding paragraph, Cult of the Dead Cow may be perceived of as a positive contribution to information assurance and the fact that this statement may be extended to embrace professional hacker communities per se, is established through a review of I Hack Stuff.

The latter site is extremely informative because it establishes the extent to which data and networks are vulnerable by illustrating how supposedly sensitive and extremely secure information, such as administrator login information, customer lists and websites' member databases, including passwords, may all be accessed through a google search. I Hack Stuff provides a long list of the google search terms that one needs to enter in order to access this information and upon experimenting with it, I discovered that the information is valid.

Certainly, the information which I Hack Stuff provides may be interpreted as an immediate and intolerable ethical violation insofar as it directs novices, or experimenters, towards the location of information which allows for the successful hacking of supposedly secure websites. Taken from another perspective, however, such information may be interpreted as a constructive contribution to data and information assurance. It exposes security flaws and