Hacking, cracking and just plain war

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Since hackers and hacking seem to be in the news more and more, I thought you might like a little information about the topic.

First of all, there are hackers and crackers, and an on-going controversy on which is which.  According to Wikipedia, in the computer security context, a hacker

...is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, or challenge.

On the other hand there is cracking -- modifying software

to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, usually related to protection methods: (copy protection, protection against the manipulation of software), trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.

A while back hackers were considered helpful, and functioned like ex-officio beta testers for the computer community, while crackers were considered malign.  The quote below is from a Wikipedia article discussing this continuing controversy:

Currently, "hacker" is used in two main conflicting ways

1. as someone who is able to subvert computer security; if doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker.
2. a member of the Unix or the free and open source software programming subcultures, or one who uses such a style of software or hardware development.

China and Korea have recently been fingered chief instigators in waging cyber war against the U.S. and European nations, as reported in this article in the New York Times, "Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S."  The U.S. is not entirely victim here, as reported by Foreign Policy, an online magazine, in the article "Inside the NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group."  (The reader comments on this article are most interesting.)

If you find this topic of interest, there's are detailed instructions on "How to Hack: 12 Steps" at wikiHow.  Udemy offers a number of hacking courses.
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I keep wondering if this post will qualify me for the NSA's watchlist.  No, wait...everyone is on that list.

-- Marge

There be unfriendly forces lurking

Funny, but the title "Hunt for Red October" has been coming to mind lately, then today I came across this headline "Red October Espionage Network Rivals Flame" at Information Week/Security.  In the article author Mathew J. Schwartz states:

Security researchers have uncovered an espionage malware network that's been operating undetected for at least five years and that has likely stolen quantities of data that stretch into the terabytes.

"The campaign, identified as 'Rocra' -- short for 'Red October' -- is currently still active, with data being sent to multiple command-and-control servers, through a configuration which rivals in complexity the infrastructure of the Flame malware," read research published by Kaspersky Lab.

Flame malware was discovered in 2012.  There is an interesting article by Kim Zetter at Wired with the title "Coders Behind the Flame Malware Left Incriminating Clues on Control Servers."  The article ranks Flame third after Stuxnet, then Duqu. 

Sidestepping the hacker vs. cracker debate, I submit that we're really talking about cyberwarfare, whether conducted by a loosely-knit group of collaborators or a country.  In this Wikipedia article is the following:

The Economist describes cyberspace as "the fifth domain of warfare."

In its article defining cyberwarfare, Rand states:

 Cyber warfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nation's computers or information networks through, for example, computer viruses or denial-of-service attacks.

That's not quite complete.  Classified information and corporations' intellectual properties are also being targeted as reported by the Los Angeles Times in "U.S. spy agencies to detail cyber-attacks from abroad" by Ken Dilanian, Washington Bureau.

Of course the U.S. and Israel are in the mix too (cartoon by Arend Van Dam at Political Cartoons).

In closing, seems to me -- if you use free antivirus software, it's that same as installing a fox in the henhouse.

-- Marge