Mashell Chapeyama
Ethics and social responsibility
Topic: Ethics and hacking
Year 2012
Level: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Key words: computer hacking, ethics

Hacking

In this discussion I will talk of hacking as it relates to computers and technology. The term hacking and the practice of hacking originated at Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT). In this regard, hacking dealt with exploration of equipment and infrastructure, for the love of exploration or for learning or showing one’s cleverness. The students and other intellectuals wanted to learn more about things; they wanted to find ways of solving some problems or challenges which they found in life. So they became more devoted to this practice of exploring things, especially in areas which they had a lot of experience and expertise. The hackers experimented with computers and they even experimented with building or other infrastructural components. May people agree that it is very difficult to come up with a concise definition of hacking. However from my reading the simplest interpretation of hacking is that it is the act of observing some weakness in systems and finding ways to overcome such problems or challenges. A computer hacker in this respect would mean a person who has skills in computers who want to identify some problems and weaknesses in the computer system and then devise solution to such problems, for the purpose of learning or just challenging the existing system. The problem with hacking is that in most case it gets into other people’s privacy. Hacking can instead of solving some problems may lead to damage of property or equipment. It may also infringe the copyright laws of the country or bypassing the administration rules of certain institutions. Hacking can be done to all electronic gadgets or equipment that store information or messages. The phones like the internet can be hacked. ATMs and aviation systems can be hacked. Hacking can also entails having to create new systems such as software.

Hacking is not always bad. Firstly that is so because hacking has brought a lot of good innovation that the human race has benefitted from. From the research that I carried out the World Wide Web work has come into existence as a result of hacking. The internet is a result of hacking. Some programs such as antivirus wares have come as a result of hacking. Hacking, from one sources I read, deals with positive things in that it is a process of building things or systems. People tend to confuse hacking with crackers. Crackers are the people who break up systems. These ones deal with computer programs and system with a bad motive. Hackers have good agenda in their exploration. The motive with which a person becomes a hacker is the one that tells if it is good hacking or bad hacking. The example I can give to hacking is about a knife. A knife is good if it is used for good use such as in cutting meat or vegetables. On the other hand the knife is bad if it is used for killing people. Therefore the motive of each form of hacking tells whether that type of hacking is good or bad. So hacking is not always bad. Some form of hacking is acceptable or good. An example is a form of hacking that is used to develop antivirus software. Hacking can be used as a means for social awareness or activism. For example hacking can be used to track the activities of possible terrorist groups. It can be used to track some conmen. In such way it is ethical. It is good for the general good of most people. However in some cases it is not ethical, for example if it is used to track a person’s financial transactions and bank accounts. In this case it is very bad and dangerous.

Reference

http://www.computerworld.com http://www2.fiu.edu http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu
http://pdf.textfiles.com/security.com