ENGS69 – Ethical and Legal Issues - Dartmouth College.ppt

ENGS69 – Ethical and Legal Issues Hacker Ethics/Morality Law and Law Enforcement Privacy vs. Security Definitions Ethics: “The science of morals; the department of study concerned with the principles of human duty. The moral principles by which a person is guided.” – Oxford English Dictionary Moral: “Of or pertaining to character or disposition, considered as good or bad, virtuous or vicious; of or pertaining to the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil, in relation to the actions, volitions, or character of responsible beings; ethical.” – Oxford English Dictionary Terms will be used interchangeably – basically, knowing the difference between right and wrong. What is a hacker? Hacker: “A person with an enthusiasm for programming or using computers as an end in itself.” Or, “A person who uses his skill with computers to try to gain unauthorized access to computer files or networks.” – Oxford English Dictionary The term is misleading and has been used to mean many different things by computer professionals, cyber criminals and the media. Self-described hackers – enjoy experimenting with technology and writing code. Media-labeled hackers (crackers) – break into systems, cause damage, and write malware. Ethical hackers – former hackers or crackers who have joined the security industry to test network security and create security products and services. Goodies or Baddies? Black Hats – break into systems, develop and share vulnerabilities, exploits, malicious code, and attack tools. Grey Hats – are in hacker ‘no-man’s land’, may work as security professionals by day and ‘hack’ by night. White Hats – are part of the ‘security community’, help find security flaws, but share them with vendors so that products can be made safer. There is a fine line between the ‘hats’ and the distinction often becomes blurred. Often a matter of perspective. Hacker Ethics Early hackers developed a code of ethics, which has been adopted in large part by computer professio