This discussion will analyze the psychological profiles of script kiddies and crackers with supportive examples. The conclusion will address why these individuals do the things they do, what drives them, and why is there a mixed reaction from the public.
Script kiddies are individuals who are less technologically sophisticated than "crackers" and whose targets tend to be random without significant malicious premeditation. Comparable analogies are juvenile delinquent crimes, such as spray painting random cars or damaging mailboxes in a local neighborhood. "A script kiddie is not looking to target specific information or a specific company but rather uses knowledge of a vulnerability to scan the entire Internet for a victim that possesses that vulnerability" (Webopedia.com, 2003). Some script kiddies know what they are doing and leave back doors on systems so that they can further exploit them at any time while others know just enough to operate the tool they are using for exploitation. They are high school students who are bored with life or have a need to "get away" from their current social, economic, or emotional problems. "It is a way to escape a lot of the bullshit that I get in real life, because I do not have that much going on" said one teenage Web vandal known on the Internet as "Artech" during a recent Internet chat with ZDNet News. (Lemons, 2000). .
The methodology of script kiddies is simple. More often than not there is no elaborate planning or pre-meditated malice involved. Script kiddies tend to randomly select their targets and decide on how they desire to exploit discovered system vulnerabilities "on the fly". Just as juvenile delinquents randomly spray paints cars, script kiddies randomly exploit system security. The acts consist of web page defacement, inconveniencing users with annoying messages, and adding distracting nuisances (such as noises and pop-ups), among other tactics.