The profile of the hacker

An American sociologist set out to restore the image of hackers, judging that the perception that has prevailed in society about them is misleading. By studying their culture he came to the conclusion that their "real selves" are far from what most people imagine. We often see them hacker as catatonic geniuses, he states in his related article, but a more accurate description of them is probably that they are talented, if sometimes malicious, craftsmen.

"The hacker is presented in a way as an underground digital being lurking out there ready to empty your pockets." explains in press release ο Kevin Steinmets, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at the College of Arts and Sciences of the State University of Kansas. "But hacking is far more than that. It may also involve programming free or open software access, hardware hacking and various security hacking, among others ".

One of Mr. Steinmetz's subjects of study is hacking culture and technological crimes. In this context, he wanted, as he says, to investigate exactly what a hacker is and what hacking means. To do so proceed to analysis various elements but also in an ethnographic study meeting hackers, spending time with them and interviewing them. The answer he came up with is that hacking is a late modern criminal art.

"The hacking emerged as a computerized, technology-oriented culture that was a bit malicious but essentially concerned with programming" he says. "It has evolved over time to eventually become a subculture with great diversity, yet we, as a society, only focus on this one enclave that emerged from within its domain better safetys. These hackers are a small but vocal minority, as one hacker once told me”.

Mr. Steinmetz studied various characteristics of hackers: their opinions about the private sphere and personal data, their family and social background, and their perceptions of government and authorities. The main observation he made through this study was that there is a similarity between hackers and craftsmen. Specifically, as he says, a hacker and a craftsman share the following common features:

• They have a particular mindset.

• They emphasize skill.

• They show a sense of ownership for the tools and objects of their work.

• Their social and learning structures are corporative.

• They show a deep sense of commitment.

• They put more emphasis on procedure rather than the result.

• They have a common phenomenological experience.

• They have a moment of delinquency.

"Hacking wants craftsmanship and also resembles a craftsman's job" says the professor. "Perhaps the best way we can understand it is a deceptive, technological art".

According to Mr. Steinmetz's research, the term "hacking" was at some point separated from the original subculture in which it was born. Hacking, he says, started in the 1950s and 1960s through a group of people who were interested in technology and computers. Today it includes, among other things, the "hacking" of phones and other devices or the breach of security systems. In political debates or in the media informationOften the term hacking is referred to based solely on the result, such as e.g. breaking into a network, credit card fraud or other similar stereotypes, the professor points out. But such reports overlook, he adds, the fact that hacking is more about the process than the result. Without this key characteristic of "mastermind," he argues, a person who commits certain technological crimes is not necessarily a hacker.

"If some people engage in this kind of behavior simply because they are seeking a particular result, my research shows that they can not be considered as hackers" underlines. "To be a hacker you have to have the characteristics of a craftsman - you have to like his job and be dedicated to it".

The study was published in the British Journal of Criminology, under the title: "Craft (y) ness: an Ethnographic Study on Hacking".

Source: tovima.gr