Kevin Mitnick--Hackers and Information Security: Critical Issues

The increasing demand for technology in business and private life creates an area where information needs to be secure. The mythological hacker of mainstream media is long gone and replaced with the infoterrorist. Hackers have become the stereotypical outcast searching the net to reek havoc and steal information. This breed of hackers, phreakers, and crackers is a threat to corporations as well as private citizens who wish to protect their information. Security specialists, or anti-hackers, are therefore entering into important positions. In the case of Kevin Mitnick, it has brought about the monetary value of information (such as telecommunication code) and fear about how much hackers can do. The ethical hacker is now a security specialist, while all other hackers are a threat to everyone.

• In a society where mainstream culture raises hackers - the ones fighting the government - to mythical heroism, how do real hackers, phreakers and crackers fit into the schema?
• Are hackers a real threat to information security, in other words, is the ethical hacker obsolete?
• Who decides which information is privileged and which information is not?
• Should information be free?
• Is there a difference between the government searching individual and corporate information compared to an independent hacker? Who do we want to own the Internet? Who does own it?
• Should there be a war waged against hackers?

Copyright laws were created as a legal means to protect the right to copy printed material. They are laws which govern who can copy books, photographs, magazine articles and anything else which is written. They give the copyright holder the legal right to print, copy and otherwise distribute or give license to distribute to whomever they wish. These laws protect those who create written material, especially their right to profit from their work. In our age of mechanical reproduction, in the absence of copyright protection, printed words would lose their value. No one would ever profit by writing. Words would be cheap, or free, and novelists and columnists, photographers and artists, creative minds and their ilk would be entirely unemployed. So copyright laws have an important role. But with the dawning of our digital culture, the copyright laws currently on the books have become quickly outdated. When digital reproductions are identical to their source material and can be instantly sent to millions of people around the world, rights to copy and distribute are more important than ever.

• Should there be copyright laws or should information be free to everyone?
• What would be fair copyright laws?
• If you obtain a copy of something is compensation due to the author?
• If you obtain a copy of something and send a copy to your mother, is compensation due to the author?
• If you obtain a copy of something and distribute it to everyone you know, but don't profit from it, is compensation due to the author?
• If you do profit by it, is compensation due to the author?
• Where do you draw the line?
• If you write a book or a song, how would you want it distributed? How would you protect your rights to it?

The culture of the Internet is defined by its very lack of boundaries. Any initial attempt to govern cyberspace will be met with many difficulties and obstacles. With more and more people each day logging on, cyberspace has grown in astronomical numbers of new users. With each day, the limitless boundaries of cyberspace seem endless. This virtual reality of ecommerce; trading, shopping, etc. online beckons to people to explore new frontiers of technology and thought.

• Yet, what price will this new virtual environment take from our daily, physical interaction and connection with the rest of humanity?
• How will society be affected with the growing popularity of cyberspace and virtual living online?
• How can we create a system of laws to govern the Internet culture and its netizens?
• Is there even a system of laws possible to govern the seemingly infinite boundaries of cyberspace?
• What will the future hold for the new generation of virtual online users, who know no other form of contact?
• Will it even get to that point? Do we want it to?