Hacking

A hacker is someone who gains unauthorized access to a computer system. Many hackers just like the challenge of breaking through a computer security system but not all hackers are harmless. It must also be said that not all hackers are bad. Government and huge companies use hackers to maintain their security systems.

People normally confuse hackers with crackers. While hackers crack the code of passwords to hack into a security system, crackers crack the code of software to bypass its security mechanisms like copyright protection etc. Hacking and cracking are two different methods. Note that not all hackers are humans. There are also computerized hackers, but they are developed by human.

Society relies heavily on technology for many things, but our use of technology opens us up to become victims of cybercrimes, like computer hacking. Hacking has been in the information technology (IT) field for a while. People hack for a variety of reasons including ego, fun, knowledge, and profit.

Computer hacking can also lead to other constructive technological developments. Anti-virus is one of the significant developments. First of all, how does virus interrupt our computer? And how does anti-virus programme works? As all of us know, all the computer programmes are run by lines of codes. Virus programme has codes of looping where the loop never ends when user fell in it. This results in computer hanging. Some virus may not show significant effect in the early stages but slowly destroy the computer memory, programmes, motherboard and database. Anti-virus programme works by scanning the code in the documents, files and program. If faulty codes are found, it immediately alerts the users to take action. Usually, the best ways to remove virus is by deleting before it spreads.

In the movie “Skyfall” there are 2 types of hackers, Q as the defending side (good) and Silva as the attacking side (bad).  Q is trying to decrypt Silva's laptop which contains top secret information, is trying to break the algorithm done by Silva. In contrast, Silva’s algorithm attack back Q’s laptop. This same situation happened in real life too. If we as the users accidently click into some website or program, our computer might hang and could not be started if worst.

In a nutshell, bad hacker can be very dangerous. The best way to minimize our chances of being hack is visit websites where the security rating is higher and run programs which is original.

Goh Aik Wei

18165

Chemical Engineering Foundation