In computer science, hacking is a behavior to gain
unauthorized access to data or system which is help by another people or organization.
And hacker is the name for these people who are good at hacking. Sometimes
hackers are esteemed as fighter to challenge monopoly while sometimes they are
accused of crime. In my opinion, hacking is a double-sword; it could be used as
a workaround for solving some problems, while many hacking behaviors are dangerous
or even illegal, and should not be encouraged.
Many computer geeks are keen on hiking and take it as a
spirit to challenge monopoly. One example is the popular “jailbreak” kits for
Apple’s mobile operation system iOS. Since Apple’s iOS restrict iPad and iPhone
users to use APP only bought from Apple’s store, many people don’t like this monopolistic
like behavior and some of them took great efforts to hack the iOS system and developed
a more open software environment freely for other users to let them download App
not only from Apple store, but also from some unauthorized sources. After long
term lawsuit, this hacking behavior is now taken to be legal in U.S.A. and has benefited
many people. However, it might not be taken as a standard way to solve such
kind of problems. Jailbreak iOS did give user more freedom while also brought
with security issues and service issues. More malwares are easily to be
installed on these jailbreak devices since they are not authorized by Apple.
And Apple will not provide service to the problems caused by jailbreak.
Reference from: http://www.dazeinfo.com/2012/02/02/apple-ios-jailbreaking-is-it-fair-for-the-company-study/
Hacking also has its dark side. Hacking bank’s computer
systems and use other people’s credit card information stored in bank server to
make personal benefit is the same as robbing a bank. Many people are doing
similar hacking to illegally obtain other people’s private information due to
profit purpose. These hacking behaviors should be accused of crime and will not
be permitted. Even the purpose of hacking behaviors is not for personal profit,
releasing private data of other people or organization to public without
authorization could be a very dangerous behavior. A tragedy happened to Aaron
Swartz is a warning for all of these hackers. Based on the purpose to make
knowledge freely open to public, Swartz hacked MIT network in 2010 and downloaded
nearly 5 million articles from JSTOR, one of famous digital archives of scholarly
journals in the world and then put all these paper online for public free
access. Many people adore him as a fighter to knowledge monopoly while the lawsuits
against him finally pushed Swartz to commit suicide. Although I highly respect
Aaron’s good wish, I don’t think such kind of hacking should be encouraged
anymore. We should find a better way to achieve the same purpose without
hacking.
