Hacking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Hacking - Essay Example e first technology for hacks was determined; a single whistle from the box ‘Cap n’ Crunch’ was being used for making long distance phone calls free of any charge (Himma, 2007). In 1981, Ian Murphy hacked data of AT&T and changed the clocks so that people could avail late night discounts and he was the first hacker to be convicted of felony charges. At the same time, Kevin Mitnick was the leading hacker who hacked into IBM, DEC and Pacific Bell. In the late 1990s, the biggest hacking cases were reported such as Gary Mackinnon who was convicted of military crimes in US, Albert Gonzalez got the biggest jail sentence for stealing about two hundred million debit and credit numbers that cost losses of about  £200 million (Ward, 2011). According to Sengupta, Mazumdar and Barik (2005), the hackers can be classified into four various generations. The first one was defined as technology-oriented and smart programmers, computer scientists and students from MIT as they hacked for professional and academic curiosities. The second comprised of hackers who were the technological radicals that developed the blue boxes for giving long distance calls on phone without any charges. The third generation constituted of people who were young and loved computer and personal computer games. The latest generation comprised of hackers who were involved in criminal activities that were triggered by power, revenge, greed or other cruel intentions. Hacking is defined as a way of gaining unauthorized access to the data that is stored in a computer. Hacking activities creates many problems for the users and users have a risk when dealing with IT systems for conducting money transaction. Risks are also present with the information of the user. In addition to getting access to valuable data and information, hacking includes invasion or attack on the people’s confidential information; majority of the people doing online transactions especially E-commerce are concerned about the