Teenage Hackers Motivated By Morality Not Money, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 74
Teenage hackers are motivated by idealism and impressing their mates rather than money, according to a study by the National Crime Agency. From a report: The law enforcement organisation interviewed teenagers and children as young as 12 who had been arrested or cautioned for computer-based crimes. It found that those interviewed, who had an average age of 17, were unlikely to be involved in theft, fraud or harassment. Instead they saw hacking as a "moral crusade", said Paul Hoare, senior manager at the NCA's cybercrime unit, who led the research. Others were motivated by a desire to tackle technical problems and prove themselves to friends, the report found. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Hoare said: "They don't understand the implications on business, government websites and individuals."
No shit? (Score:3)
Seriously, how do these chuckleheads get funding for studying the obvious?
In other news, researchers are asking for funding to study whether water is wet or if the sun is hot.
Re:No shit? (Score:4, Informative)
Since a large number of "hand-wringing concerned citizens" are convinced that all hackers are in it for the money, then it's good to have research that confirms to non-techies what techies have always known at a gut level.
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It would be better if they were only after financial gain because every "moral crusade" waged throughout recorded history has left a trail of dead bodies.
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Since a large number of "hand-wringing concerned citizens" are convinced that all hackers are in it for the money, then it's good to have research that confirms to non-techies what techies have always known at a gut level.
What non-techies really need education in is what constitutes hacking vs simple fraud or other crimes committed via digital channels. But articles like this do nothing to help in that regard, they lump it all together as 'hacking'. Without knowing what hacking really is, there is no benefit is knowing why some do it.
Re: No shit? (Score:2)
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It's nice that it's obvious to you that "teenagers and children as young as 12 ... who had an average age of 17" are likely to be involved in a "moral crusade"?
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It's obvious to us because as a group here we were (or still are) these kids.
To the average LEO and politard this is very non obvious because (particularly in the politard's case) they can't fathom operating based solely on idealism and not greed.
politard: *any* career politician.
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It's it obvious? This seems to be implying that 4chan is full of SJW hackers and their useful idiot script kiddies. The justice they want might be justice for the oppressed straight white male, but none the less...
BrickerBot (Score:2)
Hey - kid who is bricking all the wildly insecure IoT devices that are part of the Mirai botnet that is taking major sites offline and costing the industry millions of dollars a month:
Stop. Don't. Come back. [youtube.com]
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It's hilarious since the Mirai kid created it to DDoS minecraft servers
so that he could sell them his anti ddos service. It was a racket.
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If Microsoft or Oracle did that it wouldn't be a racket. It'd be a smart and innovative business strategy.
No Shit, Sherlock -- back in the 80's we knew this (Score:2)
Ask any of us geeks that "cracked" copy protection. We ain't doing it for the free money or chicks. We're doing it because we love to explore, learn, and take back our rights.
The fastest way to motivate a geek is to tell him he can't do something.
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Ask any of us geeks that "cracked" copy protection. We ain't doing it for the free money or chicks
Speak for yourself.
A lot of people are motivated by 'morality' (Score:1)
Take the rookie cop for instance. Then they grow up and learn what it really takes to get ahead, much of which depends on what you were born with or into.
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So, when are they releasing you?
Priorities all screwed up (Score:2)
So their motivations are moral, based on at least their percetion of right and wrong, and "don't understand the implications on business, government websites and individuals" ? They're monsters!
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Yeah, why don't they understand that, when they force companies to upgrade their security to make their sites safer, it costs money!
Moral Crusaders (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm a lot more suspicious of moral crusaders than I am of criminals who are looking to make a buck or just make mischief.
I don't think I have to list the atrocities that have been committed in the name of a "moral crusade". If you really don't know what I'm talking about, then you are probably already a moral crusader.
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Well, the problem with moral crusaders is that they are easily manipulated by others. If you, for example, start a campaign to make people think that toilet paper is harmful to the planet, a moral planetary crusader can be easily made to attack toilet paper manufacturers. That does not mean the heart of the moral crusader is in the wrong place, however.
A teenage hacker, will experience a rush of "power" - they can suddenly do something that their peers cannot. To prove themselves, they demonstrate their
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I don't think I have to list the atrocities that have been committed in the name of a "moral crusade".
No, but I don't think you can discount the atrocities that have been committed in the search for a buck, either. Like Viet Nam, for example. Or the USA not entering WWII even after we knew that the holocaust was occurring, and continuing instead to sell fuel, Aluminum, and other critical war supplies to the Axis. Or Dioxin-laced agent orange from Monsanto. Or invading Iraq so that Halliburton could be awarded big contracts to pave it. Or...
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The Vietnam war had nothing to do with "the search for a buck". It was an ideological proxy war.
Or the USA not entering WWII even after we knew that the holocaust was occurring, and continuing instead to sell fuel, Aluminum, and other critical war supplies to the Axis.
Oh. Ohh. Tell me about your thoughts on JFK and who actually built the pyramids.
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Or the USA not entering WWII even after we knew that the holocaust was occurring, and continuing instead to sell fuel, Aluminum, and other critical war supplies to the Axis.
Oh. Ohh. Tell me about your thoughts on JFK and who actually built the pyramids.
Instead of crying about reality, investigate it with google, and you will find that it is very different from the way you thought it was. These are well-supported facts, so well-supported that there is really no point in posting citations. Any monkey could find them with google using only pieces of my sentence as keywords. You are dumber than a monkey.
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We're both old enough to remember that Vietnam, like most US wars, was sold to us as a moral crusade.
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We're both old enough to remember that Vietnam, like most US wars, was sold to us as a moral crusade.
Yes, but we're both wise enough to know that was a crock of shit, and that it was actually done for profit. I don't know whether that bolsters either of our points, though, or both, or neither.
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Of course. That's why I'm so suspicious of moral crusaders. Scratch one, and you'll find an opportunist underneath.
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The Holocaust, per se, was a product of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, by which time the US was at war with the Axis (for about a month and a half). The Nazis had already begun horrible atrocities against Jewish and Slavic populations, but I don't believe the extent was known for some time. Germany was considered civilized, and the extent of the atrocities was literally hard to believe.
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Well fine, this should cheer you up. By far the majority of people, children especially, will lie when caught doing something naughty. From denial, to blaming someone else, to claiming they weren't intending to do something that was that naughty. If you want to compile statics make sure the report states, the lies people and especially children will tell in order to try to minimise the nature of the offence they have been caught committing. No statistics on that, just common sense.
Idiotic school IT admins cause trouble. (Score:2)
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Now, I'm not saying he did or would, just that his unlimited data doesn't really mean anything in this context.
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That's kind of the point of TFA. Your nephew could have just been trying to break into the wifi to see if he could, or to show off. It is unlikely he would have been motivated by the "profit" of unfiltered Internet access.
Now, I'm not saying he did or would, just that his unlimited data doesn't really mean anything in this context.
What's more, there should be nothing wrong with a kid trying to hack WiFi to see if he can, provided he's not hacking something like grades or financial transactions or private counseling files. High School kids do stuff; criminalizing them for it is dumb. In a great high school, you would even have it set up so kids would feel comfortable talking to teachers about it.
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No offense, but your nephew is very possibly guilty of the offense, no matter how you try to frame it and how "darkly" the administrator talked. There are a variety of reasons he could have attempted something like that, eliminating one motive does not mean there are no other motives. This sounds like a classic presentation of "My snowflake doing something wrong? Impossible!" syndrome (MSDSWIS to its sufferers). If it were my child, I certainly would demand to see any evidence against him but I certainl
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_spoofing, what happened was a network security amateur was trying to convict a person of a crime committed by a mac address. No lawyers or courts or anything required, simply, go to that page, format and print it and tell the idiot to wake up to themselves. Hard copy required because obviously the fool does not understand computers.
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I would strongly suspect (from experience) that the kid did do it just for the challenge.
Of course they aren't, they live at home (Score:2)
1) They are afraid of worse consequences if they get caught hacking for profit, though in the US it doesn't seem to matter much to overzealous prosecutors
2) It's a better long-term investment to learn security now and get a high paying job later. These are just your "crazy teen years"
3) Most importantly, THEY DON'T NEED MONEY. Their meals and rent are covered
The prestige thing is probably a
I think I speak for all of us here (Score:2)
I think I speak for all of us here when I say: Duh?
I mean, I'm glad they've realized this, but rather disappointed they didn't figure it out, oh, 30 years ago, back when kids were hacking the phone system. I mean, even back then some of them "stole" quite a bit of value in the form of hours-long international telephone calls (which used to be really expensive, not like now), but clearly the monetary value was irrelevant, except perhaps as a way to keep score.
Some of those kids grow up and turn their ski
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So, not for moral reasons at all
RTFS:
I realize that reading the article is too much to ask, but reading the summary really isn't.
They don't understand the implications on business (Score:1)
[quote]They don't understand the implications on business, government websites and individuals[/quote]
I don't think that websites, the government, business or wealthy inviduals understand morals very well.
good job kids, you give me hope for the youngest generation
information was meant to be free. Hack the planet
Ironic? (Score:1)
"They don't understand the implications on business, government websites and individuals." ...Yeah, because businesses & government really care so much about people.
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Maslow, what happened to your hierarchy?