Hacking has been around since the 1870's when the telephone was first introduced. In the late 1970's the PC was introduced, since then there has been a tremendous growth in scope and membership of the hacking population. This growth has brought on many changes in how our society deals with technology and security.
Hackers have been viewed in the past as nerdy, geeky harmless nerd, but this view has changed into a malicious techno criminal. The media has fueled the world's view of these cyber criminals in such a way that their activities, even though harmless at times, have been criminalized and when caught they are severely punished. .
Hackers are not criminal minded teenagers, who enjoy causing havoc by crashing computer system, but are people who want their ethics and motivation to be understood and viewed as legitimate. The real hacking community calls these teenagers who break into computer systems and crack software codes, "crackers". These are mainly adolescent males who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.
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Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Authoritarians believe in censorship and concealment and they do not advocate information sharing. Only type of cooperation they like is one that can be controlled.
A hacker has developed an instinctive resentment to censorship and privacy. And believe in the use of deception or force to drive responsible adults. And hackers are willing to act on this belief. .
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, the US government gave the Federal Bureau of Investigation full unrestricted power to gather and monitor anyone they suspect of having any terrorist ties or are engaged in any terrorist activity without having any evidence of such.