Hackers

Hackers

Hackers

Not too long ago, on March 7, 2008, four high school students were arrested on suspicion on hacking their school network. What did these 4 students exactly do? They were able to hack into their schools network, and change around 60 student’s grades. Investigators estimated the financial loss to the school district at more than $190,000, making the case a possible felony (1.).   The school technology director also told investigators that nearly 80 computers on the school campus had malicious applications. Malicious applications are anything from viruses to key loggers. A key logger keeps a log on everything that you type; it hides it in a secret text file that only you know where it is. The loss to the school district because of all this is around $191,400, but the documents do not explain on how the school got to that amount of damages. This case maybe ruled as a second-degree felony. A second-degree felony carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison.  
According to Michael Meyer's Crimes of the "Net", last year roughly $2 billion worth of software was stolen over the internet last year. Also that year, the leader of an international piracy ring operating out of Spain, pleaded guilty to a brand of fraud destined to become commonplace. According to U.S. investigators, they stole 140,000 telephone credit-card numbers. Hackers used the numbers to make a total of $140 million worth of long-distance phone calls. Now, the question is who is really at loss here. The answer is simple. Companies like GTE, AT &T, Bell Atlantic and MCI. Because of these hackers, those companies lost a lot of money.
What actions must be taken to stop these thieves? According to the hackers, they call what they are doing sharing. Hackers are criminals that steal from others to help themselves out and others. They are leeches, feeding off other peoples personal items. People have to become aware of the risk they face with hackers. Software isn't the end of the stealing...