Canty 1

Jeremiah Canty
Ms. Caruso
UWRT 1103
11/14/15
Hackers in todays society?
In the digital age cyber security holds a major role in society. It exist and effects every
part of our everyday lives, from the credit card that you used to buy gas with to medical bills and
e-commerce, cyber security plays the most important role. The people that can manipulate the
security of information virtually control it. Thats why it is so important to understand why
people have the urge to use computer hacking in beneficial or detrimental ways. This is why Ive
made a satirical advertisement. It is for those who are unaware of what hackers are capable of
getting their hands onto and what exactly motivates them. Hackers victims consists of mostly the
around people in their twenties. Its ironic, the people often recognized for being the most techsavvy generation, are the worst at keeping their personal data away from hackers. (Zipkin) This
is who my product is targeting, the young and the hopeless.
As computers become more essential to the functioning of our lives their potential for
stripping us of our privacy and autonomy increases exponentially. (Ermann) As well, more and
more incidents of computer crime and abuse are occurring according to the UK Audit
Commission. This is why a perfect place to have my advertisement would be on the side panel of
your computers while shopping for items on the web and on virus protection sites. Now that
surfing the web and ecommerce are trending the need for secure networks rises as well, and
thats where the ads would be in order to inform consumers.
Beyond this a survey was also conducted on the attitudes and awareness of society and it
aimed to address the issues of computer crime and abuse and the influence the media has over

Canty 2
individuals perception of computer crime and abuse. The 53 multiple choice survey was
conducted over a six month period and a total of 175 people responded to the survey. Over 80
percent of respondents felt that computer crime and abuse was a problem. When asked questions
related to describe a notorious hacker most replied that it would be a solitary, young, male who
lacked social skills; which is the stereotypical image of a hacker depicted by the media. Public
awareness though is a double-edged sword, on one side you have the media posting the title of
a computer hack as Virus terrorists plot to upstage millennium bug (NYTimes, 27 January
1999) and on the other you have people only focused in on the title of the work not the full
article itself, but this could be beneficial. These strong headlines may help to convince people
that they should do something about their own cyber security. (Dowland) When the Associated
Press, released an article with the a title like Hackers get 1 million miles for telling United
about IT security gaps you could say that they were trying to push others to increase awareness
of what hackers like, Jordan Wiens and his anonymous accomplice, did with United Airlines on
its bug bounty. However, it is likely that both serve to increase societies fear or mis- trust of
hackers.
Hackers, despite their media portrayal as anarchist outsiders, are a politically and socially
diverse community. The reason why hackers develop software varies, but one thing that Coleman
was able to identify as a motivation to developing is what she refers to as productive freedom.
Coleman explains that the term productive freedom is like an evolving work community in this
quote, This term designates the institutions, legal devices, and moral codes that hackers have
built in order to autonomously improve on their peers work, refine their technical skills, and
extend craft like engineering traditions. (Coleman 3) Hackers have a wide range of political
beliefs, life histories, and motivations for creating free software, but for certain their need to be a

Canty 3
way to control what their developing, because they can release diverse code without any type of
warranty.
Many hackers argue that they follow a rule that guides their behavior and justifies their
break-ins. This hacker ethic states, in part, that all information should be free. (Spafford) Due to
the freedom of the internet and General Public Licenses, which is a free software license that
guarantees coders the freedoms to run, study, share (copy), and modify the software, the
traditional uses of copyright become excluded. When I refer to free software I am referring to
freedom not price. The GPLs are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute,
but they dont have to necessarily be free. This is how the government can intervene, because it
is under the trade commission and FBIs jurisdiction. Cybercrime and cyberterrorism are
currently the FBIs number three priority, behind only counterterrorism and counterintelligence.
Just because its number three doesnt mean theyre fully equipped on the matter. According to an
article published in The Washington Post (17 May 2000) only 2 percent of US police personnel
were trained in cyber forensics. It is not completely relying on them either, a lack of industry
government collaboration also limits law enforcements ability to solve cybercrimes. They have
however come up with an equation to why a cybercrime occurs. If (where Mb equals the
monetary benets of committing the crime, Pb is the psychological benets of committing the
crime, Ocm equals the monetary opportunity costs of conviction, Ocp equals the psychological
costs of committing the crime, Pa equals the probability of arrest; and Pc equals the probability
of conviction) Mb + Pb > Ocp + OcmPaPc, cybercrime occurs. Monetary motives are becoming
more of the main incentive than just glory or some political motive. More so the psychological
benefits account for the fun or challenge in hacking rather than because of external prods,
pressures, or rewards. On the contrary the psychological costs are the internal fear of punishment

Canty 4
and guilt received for during the crime and the monetary opportunity cost is the fine received if
caught. However the arrest rates are very low so the benefits most of the time out way the cost.
(Kshetri)
Some hackers state that they break into systems to watch out for data abuse and to help
keep "Big Brother" at bay. In this case, the hackers are protectors rather than criminals. Again,
this assumes that the ends justify the means. Spafford said it best when he said that no break-in is
"harmless".
My satirical advertisement serves a purpose other than to be funny. It conveys the ideas
and thoughts behind a hacker as they evaluate a continuous decision on what their coding. The
product is intended to raise awareness of the cyber community as a whole. Im not accusing all
hackers of being fame hungry animals. I chose this genre because it is a clever way to expose
ignorant people to the brutal truth of what coders can be and that their not all Geek Squad. It
interprets that you need to be careful and protect yourself from computer abuse and crime all
within one image.

Canty 5
Works Citied
New:
1. Coleman, E G. Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2013. Print.
2. DOWLAND, P. "Computer Crime and Abuse: a Survey of Public Attitudes and Awareness."
Computers & Security. 18.8 (1999): 715-726. Print.
3. Ermann, M D, and Michele S. Shauf. Computers, Ethics, and Society. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003. Print.
4. Furnell, S. "Computer Hacking and Cyber Terrorism: the Real Threats in the New
Millennium?" Computers & Security. 18.1 (1999): 28-34. Print.
5. Kshetri, N. "The Simple Economics of Cybercrimes." Ieee Security & Privacy. 4.1 (2006):
33-39. Print.
6. Spafford, E H. "Are Computer Hacker Break-Ins Ethical?" Journal of Systems and Software.
17.1 (1992): 41. Print.
Old:
1. "Hackers Get 1 Million Miles for Telling United about IT Security Gaps."
<i>Usatoday</i>. The Associcated Press, n.d. Web.
New Non-Scholary:
1. Zipkin, Nina. "Which Age Group Is Most Likely to Be Hacked?"

<i>Entrepreneur</i>. N.p., 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.