Ethical Hacking Evolution
The first hackers appeared in the 1960’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and their first victims were electric trains. They wanted them to perform faster and more efficiently.
During the 1970’s, a different kind of hacker appeared: the phreaks or phone hackers. They learned ways to hack the telephonic system and make phone calls for free. Within these group of people, a phreaker became famous because a simple discovery. John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, found that he could make long distance calls with a whistle. He built a blue box that could do this and the Esquire magazine published an article on how to build them. Fascinated by this discovery, two kids, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, decided to sell these blue boxes, starting a business friendship which resulted in the founding of Apple.
By the 1980’s, phreaks started to migrate to computers, and the first Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) appeared. BBS are like the yahoo groups of today, were people posted messages of any kind of topics. The BBS used by hackers specialized in tips on how to break into computers, how to use stolen credit card numbers and share stolen computer passwords.
In 1986 the US government realized the danger due to hackers it passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, making computer breaking a crime across the nation. During the 1990’s, when the use of the internet widespread around the world, hackers multiplied, but it wasn’t until the end of the decade that system’s security became mainstream among the public and need for ethical hackers was felt.
Hacktivism
It is the act of hacking a website or computer network in an effort to convey a social or political message. It is an Internet-enabled strategy to exercise civil disobedience. The person who carries out the act of hacktivism is known as a hacktivist. Hacktivists engage in disruptive activities to highlight political or social causes. Acts of hacktivism may include website defacement, denial-of-service attacks (DoS), redirects, website parodies, information theft, virtual sabotage and virtual sit-ins. Hacktivists voice public opinions and stances regarding any repressive legislation hindering and they also educate the public on perceived regulatory injustices and encourage response.
