| Hackers: |
| The Spies of the Future |
| The point of this page is not to demonstrate
how to, but to increase awarness about the dangerous pastime of
Hacking. Most people don't realize how just surfing on the Internet
can result in an Inbox full of junk mail.
I am not what people call a nosy neighbour. But without moving from my desk, where I fiddle around on my computer all day, I've learned what my neighbours paid for their houses, whether they have financed or bought, how many bathrooms they have in there upstairs floor, and what their annual income is. I know their birthdays and their Social Security Numbers. I also know their driving record. An if I dug a bit deeper, I could find many of their legal and business work. Do you find this disturbing? You might, but listen well. For what I am to tell you may make you jump. None of this information is considered private on the Internet. All of it, and much more, is available to anyone with a computer, a modem and a bit of "know-how". What do the people of the world know about you? Plenty. It doesn't matter if you use a fake name or an alias. It isn't you who is giving them the information. In fact the people who are giving the information away are probably the people you trust most. The Goverment and many transactions with buisnesses. Using Visa or Mastercard often gives away personal info without you knowing it. The companies sell your name and they make a bundle doing so. This all legal on the Net, well, at least its not clearly illegal. In a sense, getting information off the net is almost like doing it in the real world. With a little bit of money, and a trip to the right city and country, you can get copies of many publicly filed records. Pc's are everywhere. The Internet is connecting millions of them. Business and government records are now routinely stored on computers. The government is desperate for new sources of revenue. In short, the marketplace for online information, and the desire for it are happening roughly at the same time. Who wants this information? Private investigators, lawyers, employers and landlords so they can do a "routine" check before you come for a job interview. The number one person who wants this information about you, are marketers to sell-preferably in very very large quantities. They're using cyberspace to snap up email talks, chats, advertisements, and what are always trying to do, sell you stuff. Forget the old "Paper or plastic" routine at the grocery store. Now you might be walking past the clerk, and. . ."Excuse me Mr. Andrews, but the the computer says that you normally buy Twinkies and Coke on Fridays, did you forget them?" Its not very far fetched. In fact, many stores are only one step away from such personal shopping, as they put it. Some of the supermarket efforts to get to know you better are appealing but scary, some stores are already bribing the customers by giving them a free loaf of bread, or a cake in return for information in the form of a survey. A car company such as BMW or Mercedes would love to know the names of buyers of GM pickups. Of course you can still pay cash, at least for now. Hundreds of online researchers will gather information for you, on you. In other words you hire someone to research a topic for you, but after paying you find your mailbox full mail form Gordon Corp., some big computer disk company. Some people are willing to get information for you, if you provide a bit of info. Ever wonder why after you buy some software on the Internet, you start getting a mail box full of advertisements? It's called Spam and many servers and hosts will go to drastic measures in order to stop Spam. Some hosts even will delete the profiles of customers if the same message is sent to hundreds of people, hundreds of times daily. Spam is advertisements, or e-mails that you don`t want or need. If a news group, or a company starts sending repetitive advertisements that you have requested not to get, the company is Spamming, and sometimes complianing to the host Internet Service Provider will help to clear it up. During the dark days of the Cold War, when the world trembled at the sight of ariel photos of Nuclear Missile sites in Cuba, when secret agents slipped back and forth through the Iron Curtain, The United States' most effective spy may have been the most unexpected: A repairman for Xerox. He planted secret cameras in photocopiers all over the world. What I am trying to say is that maybe your aunt, the man in black across the street who is always on his computer, or maybe your boss at work is actually a spy of the future... a hacker. Welcome to the information age. |
| There Are many pages that have lots of information about hacking and
how to stop it. Visit these sites:
Privacy concern Groups http://www.aclu.com
http://www.ameri.com
http://www.anonymizer.com
|