Some people say that the 21st century is the Dot Com era. It may sounds strange but if you look around you, you’ll find that it’s easy to find out the words-dot com. It is the indication that telling the address of somebody’s home page on the internet is very popular, for instance, www.yahoo.com, www.empas.com. Also, some companies use the word “Dot Com”, or the circle letters like, HansolM.com, n016,etc.. It shows us how much the internet is deeply related in our lives. Now, we can’t even think of world without the internet. However, as more people get used to the internet, illegal usage has appeared. They are the so called “hackers”.

Today, it seems like hackers are the Gods of the cyber world. There is nothing they can not do. One day without your notice, they can steal away all of your money from your account. And your secret e-mail can be exposed to them anytime they want. Also, they can float pornography into your home page, and they can even ruin national computer systems. Then, who are they, why they do such terrible things and what we need to do?

In the past, the hackers were not as mean as today’s cyber criminals. Several decades ago, hackers were people crazy about computer systems, organizations with a deep knowledge and expertise in computer systems. Originally the word hacker started from some M.I.T students and it’s a fact that their computer research made today’s advanced computers. But since the mid-80 things have changed. They started to attack computer systems illegally destroying programs or information datas ostentatiously, instead of performing computer research. Although they were regarded as legends, heros, even myths in the past they have become to be viewed more negatively today. But, all hackers are not the same. People have divided them into several categories in regards to their hacking methodology.

Categories
1. Crackers (System Intruders)
Most harmful hackers. Intrude and destroy somebody’s computer system.
2.Warez
They sell the latest software, game programs, and MP3 files on the internet. Means ‘Where is it?’ in colloquial style and distributes copied software and various hacking tools.
3.Trojan (Trojan Horse)
Computer seems normal and safe, but secretly the invaders take away information or data. These hackers were show in the movie “the Net”.
Additionally, there are more and more types of hackers like phone phreakers, virus writers, pirates, cyber punks, anarchists, inforwarriors, and people involved in net espionage and hackivism.

The mothods
1.Scavenging
Getting discarded things like program lists, data lists, and copied information in one’s computer trash bin. The FBI used these methods to arrest a soviet spy.
2.Trap Door
A programmer makes a secret path inside a program and steals the information. These days, the mass media has shown that Korea has lots of security holes in its networking. Actually in 1994, one hacker abroad attacked KRNIC to install a Back Door program. The government made a declaration of the accident that he selected Korea as a roundabout way to his actual goal. Experts say that this accident gave hackers a reason to become more interested in Korea, and it is expected that the number of intruders attacking Korean Network Systems will increase.

What have we got to do?
While hackers thread their way in the cyber world, what do we need to protect ourselves? Of course, there are some ways to protect yourself. But they’re just temporary measures. In the future, nobody knows what hackers will do, and their powers are getting bigger and more dangerous. So globally, people have to teach them affirmative ethics of hacking and bring them up as intelligent computer experts. Also, we need to bring up and pick out the young hackers. Like in the movie “Matrix”, when the world is in danger with computers, we may need their help. Don’t neglect their skills totally, let’s make it work. Maybe the hackers are the really that evil, but more like the Gods of the future like ‘Neo’ in the movie Matrix.
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