Summary

Hacking is an activity which has long been tied with ethical and legal complications. The term has evolved to have both ethical and unethical connotations, which can be confusing to the uninitiated. Hacker subculture has a myriad of terminology, sometimes with subtle variations, and this chapter identifies the main subcategories of hackers. The methods used by hackers to infiltrate systems will also be briefly examined, along with the motives for the activities. The question of whether or not hacking can be an ethical activity, and how it should be dealt with by the legal system is considered in this chapter.

Consideration is also given to the international legal perspective. The evolving hacker ethic is described and examined, and the justifications provided by hackers are investigated.

Understanding cyber-criminals’ motivation can help to improve security measures, and describes the motivations that could underlie attacks by insiders in organizations. These include economical profit, revenge, personal interest in a specific file, and external pressure from people or organizations outside of the company (such as organized crime or a family member). Some motives cited by hackers for their behaviours include feelings of addiction, the urge of curiosity, boredom with the educational system, enjoyment of feelings of power, peer recognition in the hacking culture and political acts.

Motives

There are different major categories in which hacker gets motivated to perform such malicious act. An attack is usually motivated behind like political activism, mischief, hoaxes, vendetta, hacker ethics, terrorism, hatred and vengeance. Political activism in which hacker perform harmful hacks due to a political issue, this is usually categorized as a “hacktivism”. Vendetta attacks where hacker are usually oriented based on family problems or closeness like a friend.

Hacking is considered common and such that teenager these days are starting to hack. Types of hacker like penetration tester, black hatters and white hatters; some are to help improve the security of the system. Psychologists conclude that most of the hacking motivation comes from personal gain purposes and can be acts of revenge. Characteristics are psychological like happiness and self-motivation also affect every time a hacker hacks down a system is one of the desire on what drives them to perform such acts. Flow experience characteristics like curiosity (sense to find out more), control (power and sense of control over things), concentration (such that the activity dissolves all current worries and bad thoughts) and intrinsic interest. Applying these characteristics of flow experience as to why people hack allows psychologists analyze emotions and the mind of a hacker.