The process of hacking generally involves
the person gaining unauthorised access to a system. Sharma (2007) states that
the most capable hackers use an array of methods to copy files and manipulate
programs. These hackers can also be categorised as professional criminal
hackers, which can abuse their abilities to serve self-interested or corporate
purposes (Rogers 2002).
Being an avid video game addict, I have
been waiting for the release of the game Watch Dogs. The premise of the game is
that the player takes the role of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante hacker out to seek
revenge. One of the most interesting functions in the game is the fact that the
player is given the ability to hack the virtual world, you can access private
and personal information, hack into security cameras, control street lights and
even bypass the security of ATMs (We Live Security 2014). Mind you, all of this
can be performed with the character’s phone, definitely an app worth more than
99 cents. As much as I would like to give an in depth review of the game, the
main focus of this blog questions the dangers and the appeal of cybercrime. While it does take ages to hack entire city infrastructures in real
life the scary part is that the concepts explored in the game are highly
realistic (We Live Security 2014) and cybercrime could even be happening as I
am writing this.
How does this relate to the real world? Around
April 2014, experts have discovered a
“security flaw at the heart of the internet,
which may have been exposing user’s personal information and passwords to
hackers for the past two years” (Wakfield 2014).
 |
| Heartbleed virus |
The bug is called ‘Heartbleed’.
The software which is designed to encrypt data and ensure secure communications between the user’s computer and
the internet has been compromised, allowing potential hackers to listen in on
private conversations, steal data, money and user identities.
Sites like Yahoo and Facebook have been affected and required immediate
updates, while the Canada Revenue Agency had to “shut down their site as 900
taxpayer details have been exposed” (Lyne 2014). In a different case, London is the most surveyed
country, with security cameras at every corner. An implication from this is
what if a hacker does take control of the entire system? From what I gather,
the release of the game and the discovery of this virus are dead on.
 |
| Hacker |
This proliferation of cybercrime could be
the consequence of an expanding mediated world and to understand the crime one
has to find the motivations that drive hackers to do what they do. What I
believe best explains the motivations of cybercrime is rational choice theory in relation to this media technology (internet).
Hackers are smart and calculating with the crimes that they commit therefore
psychoanalysis of hackers is less useful. According to Goldschmidt (2005)
hackers can be motivated by the possibility of economic gain, revenge and a
curiosity to explore secrets through the virtual world. What is more poignant
is that in the cases of computer related offences “both the probability of
being caught and the severity of the punishment” (Sharma 2007, pg.15) are low,
which does little to deter these types of crimes. Another motivation could also
be that hackers are not physically committing traditional crimes (eg. Assault,
murder) therefore they do not feel the consequences of their crimes nor do they
admit to any harmful intentions, probably because they are so far away from the
scene of the crime. If they ever take the time to do it, people could learn how
to hack by following certain codes and tutorials from forums. The internet/new media is
filled with vast amounts of data and services that constantly ask for the
person to publicly display information about themselves, like social media
websites, which leave them vulnerable to the voyeuristic impulses of hackers.
So what does this mean? Although I am
generally not for the regulation of internet practices, if someone was
successful in exploiting the Heartbleed virus, then surely disastrous results
would arise. As we escape to the new worlds we are forever vulnerable in it. I
believe that as people become more proficient with their computers, and I am certain that the next generation will be, more people will find these
incentives relevant and therefore cybercrime will exponentially increase in
this anarchic virtual world. New media is paradoxical, it can make us feel unique and anonymous at the same time. In this sense, I feel that the media platform itself opens up new criminogenic factors but it has the possibility of self-governance. The presence of hacking demands improvement in technology and as this develops, so does the software for security measures, only time will tell where this media platform will go. On a side note, with games that glorify hackers by portraying them
with almost superhero like abilities, these can potentially amplify latent
motivations of crime and, who knows, in the future we might see people who
could shut off the entire city grid with just click of a button. It would still be
an awesome app to have though.
References
Lyne,
J. (2014). Heartbleed Roundup: Hacking Made Easy, First Victims Come To
Light And Heartbleed Hacker Arrested. [online] Forbes. Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameslyne/2014/04/17/heartbleed-roundup-hacking-made-easy-first-victims-come-to-light-and-heartbleed-hacker-arrested/ [Accessed 31 May. 2014].
Rogers,
Marcus (2002), “A New Hacker Taxonomy”,retrieved from http://homes.cerias.purdue.edu/~mkr/hacker.doc
[Accessed 31 May. 2014).
Sharma,
R. (2007). Peeping into a Hacker's Mind: Can Criminological Theories Explain
Hacking?. Available at SSRN 1000446.
Turgeman-Goldschmidt,
O. (2005). Hackers' accounts hacking as a social entertainment. Social
Science Computer Review, 23(1), pp.8-23.
Wakfield,
J. (2014). Heartbleed: Do you need to worry?. [online] BBC News.
Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26969629 [Accessed 31 May.
2014].
We
Live Security, (2014). Watch Dogs: How realistic is PS4 city-hack
thriller?. [online] Available at:
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/05/28/watch-dogs-realistic-ps4-city-hack-thriller/
[Accessed 31 May. 2014].
Images:
Video: http://youtu.be/XGZ1fwKcEmc
A well researched piece Sol. I'd never heard of this computer game before. Nice attempt at trying to understand the motivations behind hackers.
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