6 minute read
Hackers have always been considered as a headache and criminals, but is it still relevant? Instead of accepting them as a threat, it is time to turn hackers to a valuable employee. Future presents us legal hackers as beneficial[nbsp]part of society.[nbsp]
The line between
hero and criminal
The Internet presented an enormous amount of opportunities and innovations. But at the same time, Internet created a new type of crime – cyber one. People all around the globe started to master HTML coding and commit forgeries online. At first, the online act were untraceable, but governments have developed their own cyber security teams in response. Just the same way as it was happening in the world with anything new, interesting and innovative. So the people who own the knowledge of HTML coding are automatically entitled to be dangerous or even criminals, as they have an opportunity.
Cyber attacks are a usual and frequent crime nowadays. In fact, Cisco reports stopping an average of 320 million cyber attacks a day. So do not think if it happens to you or your company, everyone will undergo the cyber attacks. The right question is Will your security system withstand?
“We are afraid of what we do not understand” – describes the world attitude to hackers at the beginning of 21st century. As states Isaac Newton’s the great law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite.” That’s how the profession of Ethical Hacker was born. Ethical hackers look for the holes in companies’ security systems. Such practise does not prevent, but prepares the security system for the cyber attacks and determines it’s weak points. The service is rather expensive as you have to financially motivate the hacker only to determine the holes in the system, not to actually get the documents. Can we call it hacker against hacker job? Not exactly. Ethical hackers demonstrate and fake the real cyber attack in order to evaluate the level of company’s defence.
Hacking contest
as math olympics
While many argue whether computing should be taught in schools, Ýmir Vigfússon, is an Icelandic hacker and a computer security expert, have founded an intensive Computer Security course and yearly hacking contest in Iceland. And he was right, computing will be one of the main subjects. Moreover, already today there are schools with computing orientation (click to read more about future of computing learning).
After defending his Ph.D.. in Computer Science from Cornell University, USA, Ýmir returned to Iceland in 2011. And he noticed a surprising thing: the state of security in Iceland has not been changing together with the development of the Internet. “It was like Icelanders believed that their geographical remoteness is an effective protection against the forces of the Internet,” recalls Ýmir. Therefore, in order to change the situation he started Computer Security courses. He wanted to transfer the hacker’s mindset onto people around him. Understanding of virtual security is essential for humanity, especially for people who are on the top of the decision-making process. Courses have been extremely popular and effective, and, as a result, Ýmir organised a hacking competition for his students. The most interesting part is the final stage of the contest. In final, participants were hacking each other on the stage in from of 500 people. In addition of being fun and educative, the competition is a great way to raise the awareness of cyber security importance and to understand the danger of cyber attacks.
Brain with
golden mindset
Yes, hackers are the future. Just think about it. The hacker knows the virtual world like his ten fingers, the attitude is to find new ways is a dream of any executive. Hacker’s life philosophy is to solve the problems. Every act is programmed to break the wall. The questions they ask are: How can I get in, Are there security walls, Can I break them or go around them?
Hackers are going to change the world. Moreover, they will have a huge power. This profession will be a legal requirement for many entities as audit is nowadays. Similarly, hacking will play a security role, gaining info about cyber systems and the online records of a company and business. In addition, there will be a lot more new professions requiring superior knowledge of computers and cyber world.
For instance, already today there is a new generation of marketers – growth hackers. They do not work in a traditional way using traditional channels. According to Andrew Cher, “Growth hackers are a hybrid of a Marketer and a Coder”. The evolved understanding of online marketing, implementation of A/B testing and constant optimisation is a daily job for growth hacker and usually used for startups. One of the great examples of growth hackers job is Airbnb. Their strategy was far from traditional – their users form was easily copied to Craigslist’s form. As Craigslist has no API, Airbnb developers used reverse engineering to automate the process. This step led to a great exposure of Airbnb’s offers and its success is easily shown in graph:
Hackers’ approach can reinvent the world. How? The answer is hiding in the way of thinking. When a hacker gets an object or program, he does not think what is it, he thinks what can I do with it. This approach is the best when it comes to solving and reinventing daily objects. Let’s take HealthCare as an example. Present new viruses, like Ebola, as a program code to someone proficient in computers. Or better organise a competition like Pwn2Own in order to break the virus. The future of hacking is promising for both, hackers themselves and society.
