Hedging Against Hackers
A not so interesting article on 'The Mind of a Hacker' has an interesting comment for rebuttle at the end. The author, Monte Enbysk concludes with a series of ways to curb "hacking". His final point is as follows:
Educate young people on computer morals and ethics. As discussed in my virus writers column, Gordon believes strongly that today's young people need more guidance from parents and teachers on what's right and wrong on a computer. A greater emphasis now may mean fewer computer crimes tomorrow.
Monte misses the reason young people hack and among all his strategies to curb hacking, he misses how to stop young people from hacking the most.
If you really want to know why kids become "hackers" (or, more aptly crackers), just read the 1986 Hacker Manifesto. Monte you'd do well to heed:
"But did you, in your three piece psychology and 1950s technobrain, every take a look behind the eyes of the hacker?"
Now, the real reason a kid would pick up hacking:
"I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert."
I'd argue on this and other evidence that the reason young people hack is because they are bored with the limited sets of knowledge they encounter in formal and informal education. They are bored with a lack of flexibility and lack of exploration in studies. I don't know if I'd call it smarter per se, but it is a significant difference than students who relish memorizing times tables and repeating them like drones for gold stars.
Here's the real prevention:
The way to prevent these kiddies from becoming crackers is to provide them with learning environments that are flexible, challenging and rewarding. As this pertains to computers to computers I say teach them to become programmers! But that's my occupation so I'm slightly biased. Returning to the point, provide them a good learning environment. Instead of a teacher assigning vocab words for pop quizzes, why not a classroom game of Balderdash? Why not studying etymology? Instead of memorizing mathematical formulas, why not try to calculate PI the way an early civilization like the Egyptians might have?
So instead of making your young one's education like an extended trip to church preaching right and wrong ad infinite, challenge them, give them so much to chew that they don't get distracted by cheap thrills. It's a bit harder, it takes more energy, but it's worth it. It's lazy people who write articles like Monte, but enterprising ones who create things like Slashdot.
Caveat: I'm speaking specifically of young and restless people who hack. A different (and I agree stern) approach should be applied to terrorist groups and rogue nations that employ cracking as a tool.
5:15:48 PM 
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