By Binneh S Minteh
In this information age of today, Networking resources such as ones computer equipment, software, and data that make up a network system,are mostly vulnerable to an attack, when proper networking precautions are not put in place. A successful break-in and unauthorized access toour network resources becomes very likely, and a particular vulnerability is most certainly exploited.
Benneh Minteh
The good questions are why an attack on a computer system, and are there people who would dear break
into a computer network resource? It is definitely not every community, where we can find all such people, but in most technologically advanced communities, people of such caliber
could always be found. These are the wicked and treacherous ones who learn to steal and see people’s information resources from very remote locations.
They are called hackers with different levels of experience. They use software’s that they authored and such software’s enables them to take advantage of vulnerable network resources. Some of them specialize in breaking into web servers and deface websites and pages, as the case with our enabled Freedom newspaper.
Others specialize in creating viruses, Trojan horses, and Bots, and whilst such intruders may have never seen or visited once website, they are still dangerous and can cause havoc to a web site.
They deploy malicious software components designed to attack network resources, giving them access to all the information in a network that is attacked. It is therefore paramount, for one to have a protection
against spy ware, Trojan Horses & Viruses installed in our network resources.
According to a survey by the Australian Institute of criminology; “Fifty one percent of respondents attributed at least one attack to indiscriminate action. Such attacks occurred simply because they were connected to the internet, making then vulnerable to hackers anywhere, or to automated hacking tools. Forty-one percent thought that hackers were utilizing system resources for personal use. The respondents attributed different motives for various hacking attacks: to demonstrate
skill (40%), malicious damage (34%), to anonymise further attacks (26%),financial gain (18%), unknown (18%), personal grievance (14%), political
hacktivism (9%) and competitor commercial attack (4%)”.With all these statistics, hacking is unauthorized access to computer systems that hinders not only operations, but performance of systems and damaging its content, therefore referred to as vandalism.
Many information analyst shows hacking as an intention to commit a serious crime, or to cause harm or inconvenience to a network resource. Grasbosky and Smith (1998:52-53) catalogue motives of hacking for the following reasons;
a)Monetary gain b)Intellectual challenge
c)Power d)Self-expression and peer recognition
e)Youth, frivolity, mischief or curiosity.
f)Attacking systems
g)Terrorism
h)Self justification through minimization of harm.
i)Testing computer security.
Kilger et al. (2004) summarize the motivations of hacking using the
acronym which is a play on the FBI acronym of MICE (money, ideology,
compromise and ego), which represents the motives for the commission of
espionage offences.
As the above motives of hacking may require a specific intent of criminal liability arising on the basis of harm, recklessness and
inconvenience caused, legislations put in place has therefore find hackers as criminals. According to the US Federal Anti-Hacking Laws:
“Section 1030. Fraud and related activity in connection with computers
(a) Whoever--
(1) having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or
exceeding authorized access, and by means of such conduct having
obtained information that has been determined by the United States
Government pursuant to an Executive order or statute to require
protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national
defense or foreign relations, or any restricted data, as defined in
paragraph y of section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, with reason
to believe that such information so obtained could be used to the injury
of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation,
willfully communicates, delivers, transmits, or causes to be
communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate,
deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted
the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains
the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the
United States entitled to receive it;
(2) Intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds
authorized access, and thereby obtains--
(A) information contained in a financial record of a financial
institution, or of a card issuer as defined in section 1602(n) of title
15, or contained in a file of a consumer reporting agency on a consumer,
as such terms are defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C.
1681 et seq.);
(B) Information from any department or agency of the United States; or
(C) Information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an
interstate or foreign communication;
(3) intentionally, without authorization to access any nonpublic
computer of a department or agency of the United States, accesses such a
computer of that department or agency that is exclusively for the use of
the Government of the United States or, in the case of a computer not
exclusively for such use, is used by or for the Government of the United
States and such conduct affects that use by or for the Government of the
United States;
(4) knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer
without authorization, or exceeds authorized access, and by means of
such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value,
unless the object of the fraud and the thing obtained consists only of
the use of the computer and the value of such use is not more than
$5,000 in any 1-year period;
(7) with intent to extort from any person, firm, association,
educational institution, financial institution, government entity, or
other legal entity, any money or other thing of value, transmits in
interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat
to cause damage to a protected computer;
Shall be punished. (