Introduction
Every profession has a code of ethics that are followed by its members in order to ensure self regulation. The code of ethics includes the values by which the members of a certain professional community must abide. These values are very instrumental in making the government and the public develop a level of trust for the specific profession. Codes of ethics differ with profession (Mizrach 2000, p. 1). One of the simplest and most informal of professional codes is the original Hacker Ethics. If a code of ethics is broken, the defaulting individual may be banned from practicing the profession. Violation of hacker ethics tend to lead to social ostracization. The existence of Hacker ethics in the computing profession leaves one wondering whether hacking is good or bad (Stone 1999, p. 1).
The definition of computer hacking
Computer hacking is, unlike other computer offenses, hard to define. In a general sense, computer hacking involves the intrusion of the computing privacy of other people, damage of the computing property of other people like files, software etc. or the theft of private information by unauthorized access to computer systems. Consider for example, a student logs in to the face book account of his/her classmate by trying different password combinations until the account opens (Erickson 2003, p. 1). This amounts to hacking since he/she accesses the computing resources of his/her classmate without the permission of the latter.
Another example could be a programmer who is hired to destroy files stored in a given computer by a client who wants to destroy evidence and commit frauds. This amounts to hacking since it is the destruction of computing resources of other people. Consider another example in which a programmer penetrates the system of a bank, creates ghost accounts and credits them with money. As evidenced in the examples above, hacking is mostly unethical (Harvey 2001, p. 1).
Two sides of hacking
Hacking has so much negativity attached to it for it to be termed as even remotely ethical. Hacking leads to unauthorized access of confidential information, destruction of personal resources for malicious reasons, acquisition of confidential information for use in committing crimes etc. It is therefore apparent that hacking is, literally, unethical. However, hacking can be used productively to benefit the owners of computing resources.
Consider for example a case in which confidential data is lost due to the security measures employed to protect it. In this case, organizational operations may be put to a halt until such data is recovered. Therefore, a computer hacker employed to recover this data will be acting ethically since the access to the confidential data/information will be authorized. From this argument, hacking is shown to be both productive and destructive depending on the ability and willingness of the hacker to abide to professional ethics (Bynum 2008, p. 1).
Conclusion
Hacking has a dual effect on the computing community. It can be both beneficial and destructive to the computing community. Most of the negativity associated with hacking is due to the fact that the ethics associated with this issue are not clear-cut. Computer professionals are therefore guided by blurred ethical guidelines whose non-compliance may not be taken seriously. With the growth in the use effectiveness of computer technology, clear ethical guidelines should be set out to guide computer professionals. On the other hand, it is of essence that hackers abide to the existing professional ethics and use their skills to benefit the computing society.
Reference List
Bynum, T. (2008). “Computer and Information Ethics”. Web.
Erickson, J. (2003). “Hacking: The art of exploitation”. Web.
Harvey, B. (2001). “What is a hacker?”. Web.
Mizrach, S. (2000). “Is there a Hacker Ethic for 90s Hackers?”. Web.
Stone, D. (1999). “Computer Hacking.”. Web.