Essays

Last year, two Cloverdale teenagers pleaded guilty to federal charges. What did they do that the FBI raided their homes and seized their computers? They hacked into Pentagon computer systems.

These two teenagers, Machiavelli and Too Short, were also suspected of breaking into computer sat universities, government agencies and military bases. This example and many others fallow the increase of hackers and their crimes over the years.

In another story that is similar to the story thong Machiavelli and Too Short, from a BBC News lorry, Hackers target Naas and Pentagon, an international group of computer hackers broke into Pentagon computer systems and also seedily had stolen key software from Naas.

The group consisted of eight Americans, five British and two Russians. They called themselves the “Masters of Downloading.” They were considering selling the information to international terrorist groups or foreign governments. The number of hacker related rimes seems to be increasing year by year. Theft on the internet is costing companies billions, and the high-tech industry is struggling to stop it.

According to Michael Meyer's Crimes of the “Net", last year roughly $2 billion worth of software was stolen over the internet last year. Also that year, the leader of an international piracy ring operating out of Spain, pleaded guilty to a brand of fraud destined to become commonplace.

According to U.S. investigators, they stole 140,000 telephone credit-card numbers. Hackers used the numbers to make a total of$140 million worth of long-distance phone calls. Now, the question is who is really at loss here. The answer is simple.

Companies like GTE, AT &T, Bell Atlantic and MCI. Because of these hackers, those companies lost a lot of money. What actions must be taken to stop these thieves? According to the hackers, they call what they are doing sharing. Hackers are criminals that steal from others to better themselves. They are leeches, feeding of father peoples' personal items. People have to become aware of the risk they face with hackers. A software and phone card isn’t the end of the stealing hackers. Everything from computer parts to flowers and teddy bears are at risk to hackers. With the increasing technology, the abuse is almost endless.

According to David Leibowitz at the Recording Industry Association of America, before long “you wall be able to download an entire album in seconds." How scary is that? Imagine what could happen if that was possible.

Hackers would be making mass amounts of that record and bootleg it for a higher price. That is insane. Once again, they are stealing someone’s hard work and making a profit for themselves. Tickers have a different mindset than many people. They only look for what is better for. -Them, not for others.

How do you stop these people from hurting ionone else? "Operation Sun devil" seeped the nation with computer seizures on May 8. "Operation Sun devil" was a crackdown on the traditional hackers of the digital underground. The credit card theft and telephone code abuse the investigation took a full two years.

According to police, the hackers were often referred to as "gangs, racketeers, corrupt-organizations and organized crime figures.

The boards that the police confiscated contained files for scanning telephone codes, credit card numbers, cracked passwords, anarchy files, porn files and so forth. They also contained many illegal documents; "Operation Sun devil" was the largest crackdown in history.

Forty-two computer systems were seized. Twenty five of them were running boards. The team at the Phoenix Secret Service office had alit of at least three hundred boards that deserved of search and seizure warrants.

More secret operations like "Operation Sun devil “must occur to further prevent the destruction of the hackers. The government must put forth more money to form more secret operations to stop the attack. Hackers are dangerous and when they attack, they have intent to punish.

My family fell victim to a hacker. My dad's cell phone was bugged. That means that his cell phone number was copied and the hacker uses the cell phone number to place calls. He made, calls all over the United States. When my dad got his monthly bill, he was astonished when he saw the total for the month being over seven hundred dollars.

He was dumbfounded, not knowing what was going on. It was obvious that it wasn't him or anyone in our family that did it. When he called the telephone company to report it, they didn’t sound surprised. They said that people's cell Phone’s get cloned all of the time. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Things like this happen every day.

My dad was just driving home from work one day, talking to my mom on his eel] phone and bam. Without him knowing some guy cloned his Phone number and decided to call every state in the country. How nice of a person is that? Phone embers aren't even the end of the list of what hackers steal.

Electronic items have been known to vanish as will Telephones, televisions, answering. Machines, Sony Walkmans, computers and trapezoid compact discs are among others things that Live fallen victim to the racketeers. That is why more operations must be formed preventing further. More raids must form. Like "Operation Sun devil", typical raids are-similar.

According to Bruce Sterling, a typical police raid would go something like this. Police storm in, the suspects are removed and all computer systems are taken so the suspects will have no chance to purge or destroy the evidence.

Then, the suspects are presented with the\vibrant and warned that anything they say. Might be used against them. With the over whelming success of "Operation Sun devil”, it is a complete mystery as to why there aren’t more operations like this. People have to beware, because the personal information that they hold might not be as safe as they think.

Ordering items out of a clothes catalog isn't safe. my moire. When you give the company your credit card number, hackers can hack into that company’s computer system and steal people' credit card numbers. Then, for a while it is like Christmas for them. Also, you have to be careful when you order items off of the internet. Some of the places on the internet are scams setup by hackers to obtain credit card numbers or they can access the numbers by hacking into the companies’ computer system. then in turn, they by items for them. It's a win situation for the hackers if they don't or until they get caught.

How can we as Americans feel safe when people are able to hack into top secret government files and hack into Naas’s main computer system? Serious steps must be taken to avoid future run in’s with hackers.

With operations like "Operation Sun devil", the hacker crackdown has begun and it is long overdue. These criminals have affected too many people’s lives and it is about time that they are stopped.

According to Harper's Forum, Is Computer Hacking a Crime?, hacking has dated back to1970, when John Draper discovered the toy whistle he found in a cereal box could simulate the tone needed to make free phone calls.

That was twenty eight years ago and hacking has become worse each year. A simple message to everyone -who reads this: Beware and be careful. Always watch yourself when you deal with hackers’.

Right now, a hacker could be hacking into top-.Tat government files and we wouldn't even how. From firsthand knowledge, falling victim to is a hacker is frustrating and confusing, even mindboggling. Take the proper precautions so it doesn’t happen to you.