Do Hackers Serve a Purpose ?

The Media played a major role in changing the word hacker is a Computer Criminal. They created a negative connotation of the word. They do serve for a purpose even it's for good or bad. 'Anonymous' is a hackitvist group. They come up for good cause. there is a lot of group like 'LulzSec', who attacks for fun or earning name.

A Recent study states about the term hacking is like this:

30% Do not know at all

5% know Exactly What it is

65% Have Wrong Idea.

It's kind of like a yes and a no. Like Hari P.K stated, it all depends on the intent. There are lots and lots of hackers who want to commit crimes and succeed in doing them but you have the hackers who are in a position to stop the others who want to cause harm.

Sometimes hackers are needed to stop criminal activities then you have the others who's only intent is to commit crimes for personal gain.

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I Agree with Hari Prasad..It depends on the individual how they going to utilize their skill and knowledge.

Hacker is a perfect tester for Software security feature. I hope its good if there is a hacking phase in software development and delivery cycles with a group of hackers to check the possibilities of hacking a software in different perspective and to fix them before going market/production.

Yes they serve a purpose,One or other way they comes out with differant threats that means how to exploit common weakness in the security of a target system,application,network etc.So later in future we can understand that and harden our assets..

what i can say in one word is... Hacking is negative side of software developments and innovation..so Hackers are key regulator of the  software innovation  in negative sense.

Look some years down the line and you will find yourself in midst of good hackers and bad hackers...Technology expands with the increase of Internet securty...everything that grows needs security...security term comes for hackers...Every new and innovative technology needs protection..but hackers grow to break the protection..Its like a Relationship developes more better after a fight among two lovers... so technology too developes more among the hackers.

Agree with Mr. Subhendu.He is absolutely right that if there were no hackers then there wouldn't be much emphasis on security of the system......moreover everything has pros and cons and as I have mentioned in my previous posting......we shouldn't just relate hacking to a negative aspect...it can also be used in a positive way,as in today terrorists are also using technology to carry out their operations so if our national security team can somehow hack their systems then that would be very beneficial in failing their operation and save our country from the ruthless attacks.What do you guys say?

ya i agree wid u

Deepesh ji you have certainly put forth your argument very strongly and i cannot help but to agree with you.Certainly hackers are the persons who have given birth to so many softwares and the term 'Hacker' should not be just referred in the criminal context.

I agree with Mr.Sathish.First of all not all hackers are criminals and also as sathish said if there are no hackers then there woud be no emphasise on security and many people will then lose their jobs.But more than anything else the term hacker should not be associated with the negative side only, hacking can be used in a positive manner also.What do you guys think?

To be true if there were no hackers then there would not have so much discussion about security.It is only due to them that we are developing new technologies and security measures.Yes sometimes they cause damage.but the above is true too.As said to "catch a thief you have to think like a thief".Thats the same in case of hackers.just think if there is a thief in your locality and he is following a same way of stealing things then after sometime you or your locality can block that way and will be preapred for that.But what if the thief comes with a new way of stealing...then you would have no knowledge of what he is going to do..rght???

Avik,

Even security professionals need to learn the essence of hacking to be able to design countermeasures.  A simple example would be: An antivirus company needs to be able to hack the virus / malware itself to be able to understand the repercussions of the code.  Only then, they will be able to design a cure for the malware.  Your definition resembles "crackers" rather than hackers.  Hackers are intellectual beings who have gained more knowledge than the common user to be able to detect vulnerabilities.  From there, he can either choose to damage or construct.  The choice is purely individual.  The term hacker cannot be used to generalize criminal activities.

What Is a Hacker?

The Jargon File contains a bunch of definitions of the term ‘hacker’, most having to do with technical adeptness and a delight in solving problems and overcoming limits. If you want to know how to become a hacker, though, only two are really relevant.There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term ‘hacker’. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker.
The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. But in the rest of this document we will focus on the skills and attitudes of software hackers, and the traditions of the shared culture that originated the term ‘hacker’.

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker’ to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.

The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.

The Hacker Attitude

1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.
4. Freedom is good.
5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.

Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. To be accepted as a hacker, you have to behave as though you have this kind of attitude yourself. And to behave as though you have the attitude, you have to really believe the attitude. But if you think of cultivating hacker attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in the culture, you'll miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you — for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. As with all creative arts, the most effective way to become a master is to imitate the mind-set of masters — not just intellectually but emotionally as well.

Last, but, not the least, The entire Open Source Community has originated from a community of HACKERs.

This argument is quite long, and though it gets to the point very firmly, and shows a logical seperation between the Hackers and the Crackers,  the only reason, I've taken the pain is because, I am aware that the reader either Codes, or, believes in Coding, or because, the reader just don’t add-up to the zillions of Source-Control repositories of crappy code, already out there. Moreover, deep inside your mind, amidst your busy schedule and gallons of responsibilities, you feel, if only, I could be a part of the Most Happening Thing in the S/W world, albeit at the cost of your True & Valuable Efforts!

Deepesh.

@avik:
This topic is 'Do hackers serve a purpose'

It has nothing to do with public perceptions, mixed or otherwise or script kiddie behavior, nor is anyone trying to glamorize it. From a security perspective, yes they serve a purpose.

I Strongly disagree with Avik Bhattacharya. Being from Ericson, I am sure he has internal security/pen testing teams. If there are no hackers, then atleast quite a few people in his team would lose their jobs.

@Avik: You seem to have some preconceived notion about hackers - there are different types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28computer_security%29#Hacker_attitudes

The one you're slagging is explicitly the malicious type (Black Hat, cyberterrorist) - Also, it's the script kiddie type of hacker that doesn't really innovate. The White/Grey/Black Hats are pretty innovative. White Hat hackers sole intention is not to cause damage, but find holes where others *can* cause damage, and alert the company before any serious damage is done (by the malicious set of hackers)

that's an understatement.