...AND THE PAIN
One definition of the term 'Hacker' in computing terms is “someone who engages in illegal computer trespassing remotely via a network”. Due to the large volumes of information (be it personal or governmental) stored on computers today, there are those who seek to compromise it by hacking into those systems. They then either steal it, or disable the computers that contain the information so they become unstable or at the very worst unusable.Only last year, two university students from the USA, hacked into their campus computers database and gave themselves better grades. They faced a potential 20-year jail term.
In recent times and especially since the September 2001 terrorist attack in the USA, the internet has become an easy route for anyone wanting to help and aide these warring factions. In June 2002, the computer at the Chicago Laboratory was closed down after an Exeter University student sparked a full-scale alert. He found a flaw in the company’s computer system and decided to take advantage of it. Using the company’s network bandwidth he proceeded with the task of downloading and storing hundreds of megabytes of films and music. So this was a harmless activity that caused a major stir. Not so harmless was a one-time student from Shepherds Bush code-named Terrorist 007 who set out not only to radicalise the young online but also help them carry out terrorist attacks. He was caught and arrested in 2008 and labelled as one of the most notorious “cyber-jihadists” in the world.