Proceedings of the 13th National Computer Security Conference, 
Washington, D.C., Oct., 1990, pp. 653-664.


          Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computer Systems

                         Dorothy E. Denning
           Digital Equipment Corp., Systems Research Center
               130 Lytton Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301
                 415-853-2252, denning@src.dec.com
                          

Abstract

A diffuse group of people, often called ``hackers,'' has been 
characterized as unethical, irresponsible, and a serious danger to 
society for actions related to breaking into computer systems.  This 
paper attempts to construct a picture of hackers, their concerns, 
and the discourse in which hacking takes place.  My initial findings 
suggest that hackers are learners and explorers who want to help 
rather than cause damage, and who often have very high standards 
of behavior.  My findings also suggest that the discourse surrounding 
hacking belongs at the very least to the gray areas between larger 
conflicts that we are experiencing at every level of society and 
business in an information age where many are not computer literate.  
These conflicts are between the idea that information cannot be owned 
and the idea that it can, and between law enforcement and the First 
and Fourth Amendments.  Hackers have raised serious issues about 
values and practices in an information society.  Based on my findings, 
I recommend that we work closely with hackers, and suggest several 
actions that might be taken. 

                          
1.  Introduction
 
The world is crisscrossed with many different networks that are used 
to deliver essential services and basic necessities -- electric power, 
water, fuel, food, goods, to name a few.  These networks are all 
publicly accessible and hence vulnerable to attacks, and yet virtually 
no attacks or disruptions actually occur.

The world of computer networking seems to be an anomaly in the 
firmament of networks.  Stories about attacks, breakins, disruptions, 
theft of information, modification of files, and the like appear 
frequently in the newspapers.  A diffuse group called ``hackers'' 
is often the target of scorn and blame for these actions.  Why are 
computer networks any different from other vulnerable public networks?  
Is the difference the result of growing pains in a young field?  
Or is it the reflection of deeper tensions in our emerging information 
society?

There are no easy or immediate answers to these questions.  Yet it 
is important to our future in a networked, information-dependent 
world that we come to grips with them.  I am deeply interested in 
them.  This paper is my report of what I have discovered in the early 
stages of what promises to be a longer investigation.  I have 
concentrated my attention in these early stages on the hackers 
themselves.  Who are they?  What do they say?  What motivates them?  
What are their values?  What do that have to say about public policies 
regarding information and computers?  What do they have to say about 
computer security?

From such a profile I expect to be able to construct a picture of 
the discourses in which hacking takes place.  By a discourse I mean 
the invisible background of assumptions that transcends individuals 
and governs our ways of thinking, speaking, and acting.  My initial 
findings lead me to conclude that this discourse belongs at the very 
least to the gray areas between larger conflicts that we are 
experiencing at every level of society and business, the conflict 
between the idea that information cannot be owned and the idea that 
it can, and the conflict between law enforcement and the First and 
Fourth Amendments. 

But, enough of the philosophy.  On with the story!


2.  Opening Moves

In late fall of 1989, Frank Drake (not his real name), editor of 
the now defunct cyberpunk magazine W.O.R.M., invited me to be 
interviewed for the magazine.  In accepting the invitation, I hoped 
that something I might say would discourage hackers from breaking 
into systems.  I was also curious about the hacker culture.  This 
seemed like a good opportunity to learn about it.

The interview was conducted electronically.  I quickly discovered 
that I had much more to learn from Drake's questions than to teach.   
For example, he asked: ``Is providing computer security for large 
databases that collect information on us a real service?  How do 
you balance the individual's privacy vs. the corporations?''  This 
question surprised me.  Nothing that I had read about hackers ever 
suggested that they might care about privacy.  He also asked: ``What 
has (the DES) taught us about what the government's (especially NSA's) 
role in cryptography should be?''  Again, I was surprised to discover 
a concern for the role of the government in computer security.  I 
did not know at the time that I would later discover considerable 
overlap in the issues discussed by hackers and those of other computer 
professionals.

I met with Drake to discuss his questions and views.  After our 
meeting, we continued our dialog electronically with me interviewing 
him.  This gave me the opportunity to explore his views in greater 
depth.  Both interviews appear in ``Computers Under Attack,'' 
edited by Peter Denning [DenningP90].

My dialog with Drake increased my curiosity about hackers.  I read 
articles and books by or about hackers.  In addition, I had discussions 
with nine hackers whom I will not mention by name.  Their ages ranged 
from 17 to 28.

The word ``hacker'' has taken on many different meanings ranging 
from 1) ``a person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems 
and how to stretch their capabilities'' to 2) ``a malicious or 
inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around 
... possibly by deceptive or illegal means ...'' [Steele83].  The 
hackers described in this paper are both learners and explorers who 
sometimes perform illegal actions.  However, all of the hackers I 
spoke with said they did not engage in or approve of malicious acts 
that damage systems or files.  Thus, this paper is not about malicious 
hackers.  Indeed, my research so far suggests that there are very 
few malicious hackers.   Neither is this paper about career criminals 
who, for example, defraud businesses, or about people who use stolen 
credit cards to purchase goods.  The characteristics of many of the 
hackers I am writing about are summed up in the words of one of the 
hackers: ``A hacker is someone who experiments with systems... 
(Hacking) is playing with systems and making them do what they were 
never intended to do.  Breaking in and making free calls is just 
a small part of that.  Hacking is also about freedom of speech and 
free access to information -- being able to find out anything.  There 
is also the David and Goliath side of it, the underdog vs. the system, 
and the ethic of being a folk hero, albeit a minor one.''

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation who calls 
himself a hacker according to the first sense of the word above, 
recommends calling security-breaking hackers ``crackers'' 
[Stallman84].  While this description may be more accurate, I shall 
use the term ``hacker'' since the people I am writing about call 
themselves hackers and all are interested in learning about computer 
and communication systems.  However, there are many people like 
Stallman who call themselves hackers and do not engage in illegal 
or deceptive practices; this paper is also not about those hackers.

In what follows I will report on what I have learned about hackers 
from hackers.  I will organize the discussion around the principal 
domains of concerns I observed.  I recommend Meyer's thesis [Meyer89] 
for a more detailed treatment of the hackers' social culture and 
networks, and Meyer and Thomas [MeyerThomas90] for an interesting 
interpretation of the computer underground as a postmodernist rejection 
of conventional culture that substitutes ``rational technological 
control of the present for an anarchic and playful future.''

I do not pretend to know all the concerns that hackers have, nor 
do I claim to have conducted a scientific study.  Rather, I hope 
that my own informal study motivates others to explore the area 
further.  It is essential that we as computer security professionals 
take into account hackers' concerns in the design of our policies, 
procedures, laws regulating computer and information access, and 
educational programs.  Although I speak about security-breaking hackers 
as a group, their competencies, actions, and views are not all the 
same.  Thus, it is equally important that our policies and programs 
take into account individual differences.  

In focusing on what hackers say and do, I do not mean for a moment 
to set aside the concerns of the owners and users of systems that 
hackers break into, the concerns of law enforcement personnel, or 
our own concerns as computer security professionals.  But I do 
recommend that we work closely with hackers as well as these other 
groups to design new approaches and programs for addressing the 
concerns of all.   Like ham radio operators, hackers exist, and it 
is in our best interest that we learn to communicate and work with 
them rather than against them.  

I will suggest some actions that we might consider taking, and I 
invite others to reflect on these and suggest their own.  Many of 
these suggestions are from the hackers themselves; others came from 
the recommendations of the ACM Panel on Hacking [Lee86] and from 
colleagues.  

I grouped the hackers' concerns into five categories: access to 
computers and information for learning; thrill, excitement and 
challenge; ethics and avoiding damage; public image and treatment; 
and privacy and first amendment rights.  These are discussed in 
the next five subsections.  I have made an effort to present my 
findings as uncritical observations.  The reader should not infer 
that I either approve or disapprove of actions hackers take.   


3.  Access to Computers and Information for Learning

Although Levy's book ``Hackers'' [Levy84] is not about today's 
security-breaking hackers, it articulates and interprets a ``hacker 
ethic'' that is shared by many of these hackers.  The ethic includes 
two key principles that were formulated in the early days of the 
AI Lab at MIT: ``Access to computers -- and anything which might 
teach you something about the way the world works -- should be 
unlimited and total,'' and ``All information should be free.''  In 
the context in which these principles were formulated, the computers 
of interest were research machines and the information was software 
and systems information.  

Since Stallman is a leading advocate of open systems and freedom 
of information, especially software, I asked him what he means by 
this.  He said: ``I believe that all generally useful information 
should be free. By `free' I am not referring to price, but rather 
to the freedom to copy the information and to adapt it to one's own 
uses.''  By ``generally useful'' he does not include confidential 
information about individuals or credit card information, for example.  
He further writes: ``When information is generally useful, 
redistributing it makes humanity wealthier no matter who is 
distributing and no matter who is receiving.''  Stallman has argued 
strongly against user interface copyright, claiming that it does 
not serve the users or promote the evolutionary process [Stallman90].  

I asked hackers whether all systems should be accessible and all 
information should be free.  They said that it is OK if some systems 
are closed and some information, mainly confidential information 
about individuals, is not accessible.  They make a distinction between 
information about security technology, e.g., the DES, and confidential 
information protected by that technology, arguing that it is the 
former that should be accessible.   They said that information hoarding 
is inefficient and slows down evolution of technology.  They also 
said that more systems should be open so that idle resources are 
not wasted.  One hacker said that the high costs of communication 
hurts the growth of the information economy.

These views of information sharing seem to go back at least as far 
as the 17th and 18th centuries.  Samuelson [Samuelson89] notes that 
``The drafters of the Constitution, educated in the Enlightenment 
tradition, shared that era's legacy of faith in the enabling powers 
of knowledge for society as well as the individual.''  She writes 
that our current copyright laws, which protect the expression of 
information, but not the information itself, are based on the belief 
that unfettered and widespread dissemination of information promotes 
technological progress. (Similarly for patent laws which protect 
devices and processes, not the information about them.)  She cites 
two recent court cases where courts reversed the historical trend 
and treated information as ownable property.  She raises questions 
about whether in entering the Information Age where information is 
the source of greatest wealth, we have outgrown the Enlightenment 
tradition and are coming to treat information as property.  

In a society where knowledge is said to be power, Drake expressed 
particular concern about what he sees as a growing information gap 
between the rich and poor.  He would like to see information that 
is not about individuals be made public, although it could still 
be owned.  He likes to think that companies would actually find it 
to their advantage to share information.  He noted how IBM's disclosure 
of the PC allowed developers to make more products for the computers, 
and how Adobe's disclosure of their fonts helped them compete against 
the Apple-Microsoft deal.  He recognizes that in our current political 
framework, it is difficult to make all information public, because 
complicated structures have been built on top of an assumption that 
certain information will be kept secret.  He cites our defense policy, 
which is founded on secrecy for military information, as an example.

Hackers say they want access to information and computing and network 
resources in order to learn.  Both Levy [Levy84] and Landreth 
[Landreth89] note that hackers have an intense, compelling interest 
in computers and learning, and many go into computers as a profession.  
Some hackers break into systems in order to learn more about how 
the systems work.  Landreth says these hackers want to remain 
undiscovered so that they can stay on the system as long as possible.  
Some of them devote most of their time to learning how to break the 
locks and other security mechanisms on systems; their background 
in systems and programming varies considerably.  One hacker wrote 
``A hacker sees a security hole and takes advantage of it because 
it is there, not to destroy information or steal.  I think our 
activities would be analogous to someone discovering methods of 
acquiring information in a library and becoming excited and perhaps 
engrossed.''  

We should not underestimate the effectiveness of the networks in 
which hackers learn their craft.  They do research, learn about 
systems, work in groups, write, and teach others.  One hacker said 
that he belongs to a study group with the mission of churning out 
files of information and learning as much as possible.  Within the 
group, people specialize, collaborate on research projects, share 
information and news, write articles, and teach others about their 
areas of specialization.  Hackers have set up a private system of 
education that engages them, teaches them to think, and allows them 
to apply their knowledge in purposeful, if not always legal, 
activity.   Ironically, many of our nation's classrooms have been 
criticized for providing a poor learning environment that seems to 
emphasize memorization rather than thinking and reasoning.  One hacker 
reported that through volunteer work with a local high school, he 
was trying to get students turned on to learning.

Many hackers say that the legitimate computer access they have through 
their home and school computers do not meet their needs.  One student 
told me that his high school did not offer anything beyond elementary 
courses in BASIC and PASCAL, and that he was bored by these.  Hans 
Huebner, a hacker in Germany who goes by the name Pengo, wrote in 
a note to the RISKS Forum [Huebner89] : ``I was just interested in 
computers, not in the data which has been kept on their disks. As 
I was going to school at that time, I didn't even have the money 
to buy my own computer.  Since CP/M (which was the most sophisticated 
OS I could use on machines which I had legal access to) didn't turn 
me on anymore, I enjoyed the lax security of the systems I had access 
to by using X.25 networks.  You might point out that I should have 
been patient and waited until I could go to the university and 
use their machines.  Some of you might understand that waiting was 
just not the thing I was keen on in those days.''  

Brian Harvey, in his position paper [Harvey86] for the ACM Panel on 
Hacking, claims that the computer medium available to students, e.g., 
BASIC and floppy disks, is inadequate for challenging intellectual 
work.  His recommendation is that students be given access to real 
computing power, and that they be taught how to use that power 
responsibly.  He describes a program he created at a public high school 
in Massachusetts during the period 1979-1982.  They installed a 
PDP-11/70 and let students and teachers carry out the administration 
of the system.  Harvey assessed that putting the burden of dealing 
with the problems of malicious users on the students themselves was 
a powerful educational force.  He also noted that the students who 
had the skill and interest to be password hackers were discouraged 
from this activity because they also wanted to keep the trust of 
their colleagues in order that they could acquire ``superuser'' status 
on the system.

Harvey also makes an interesting analogy between teaching computing 
and teaching karate.  In karate instruction, students are introduced 
to the real, adult community.  They are given access to a powerful, 
deadly weapon, and at the same time are taught discipline and 
responsibility.  Harvey speculates that the reason that students 
do not misuse their power is that they know they are being trusted 
with something important, and they want to live up to that trust.  
Harvey applied this principle when he set up the school system. 

The ACM panel endorsed Harvey's recommendation, proposing a 
three-tiered computing environment with local, district-wide, and 
nation-wide networks.  They recommended that computer professionals 
participate in this effort as mentors and role models.   They also 
recommended that government and industry be encouraged to establish 
regional computing centers using donated or re-cycled equipment; 
that students be apprenticed to local companies either part-time 
on a continuing basis or on a periodic basis; and, following a 
suggestion from Felsenstein [Felsenstein86] for a ``Hacker's League,'' 
that a league analogous to the Amateur Radio Relay League be 
established to make contributed resources available for educational 
purposes.  

Drake said he liked these recommendations.  He said that if hackers 
were given access to powerful systems through a public account system, 
they would supervise themselves.  He also suggested that Computer 
Resource Centers be established in low-income areas in order to help 
the poor get access to information.  Perhaps hackers could help run 
the centers and teach the members of the community how to use the 
facilities.  One of my colleagues suggested cynically that the hackers 
would only use this to teach the poor how to hack rich people's 
systems.  A hacker responded by saying this was ridiculous; hackers 
would not teach people how to break into systems, but rather how 
to use computers effectively and not be afraid of them.
In addition, the hackers I spoke with who had given up illegal 
activities said they stopped doing so when they got engaged in other 
work.
 
Geoff Goodfellow and Richard Stallman have reported that they have 
given hackers accounts on systems that they manage, and that the 
hackers have not misused the trust granted to them.  Perhaps 
universities could consider providing accounts to pre-college students 
on the basis of recommendations from their teachers or parents.  
The students might be challenged to work on the same homework problems 
assigned in courses or to explore their own interests.  Students 
who strongly dislike the inflexibility of classroom learning might 
excel in an environment that allows them to learn on their own, in 
much the way that hackers have done.  


4.  Thrill, Excitement, and Challenge 

One hacker wrote that ``Hackers understand something basic about 
computers, and that is that they can be enjoyed.  I know none who 
hack for money, or hack to frighten the company, or hack for anything 
but fun.''
  
In the words of another hacker, ``Hacking was the ultimate cerebral 
buzz for me.  I would come home from another dull day at school, 
turn my computer on, and become a member of the hacker elite.  It 
was a whole different world where there were no condescending adults 
and you were judged only by your talent.  I would first check in 
to the private Bulletin Boards where other people who were like me 
would hang out, see what the news was in the community, and trade 
some info with people across the country.  Then I would start actually 
hacking.  My brain would be going a million miles an hour and I'd 
basically completely forget about my body as I would jump from one 
computer to another trying to find a path into my target.  It was 
the rush of working on a puzzle coupled with the high of discovery 
many magnitudes intensified.  To go along with the adrenaline rush 
was the illicit thrill of doing something illegal. Every step I made 
could be the one that would bring the authorities crashing down on 
me.  I was on the edge of technology and exploring past it, spelunking 
into electronic caves where I wasn't supposed to be.''

The other hackers I spoke with made similar statements about the 
fun and challenge of hacking.  In SPIN magazine [Dibbel90], reporter 
Julian Dibbell speculated that much of the thrill comes from the 
dangers associated with the activity, writing that ``the technology 
just lends itself to cloak-and-dagger drama,'' and that ``hackers 
were already living in a world in which covert action was nothing 
more than a game children played.''

Eric Corley [Corley89] characterizes hacking as an evolved form of 
mountain climbing.  In describing an effort to construct a list of 
active mailboxes on a Voice Messaging System, he writes ``I suppose 
the main reason I'm wasting my time pushing all these buttons is 
simply so that I can make a list of something that I'm not supposed 
to have and be the first person to accomplish this.''  He said that 
he was not interested in obtaining an account of his own on the system. 
Gordon Meyer says he found this to be a recurring theme: ``We aren't 
supposed to be able to do this, but we can'' -- so they do.

One hacker said he was now working on anti-viral programming.  He 
said it was almost as much fun as breaking into systems, and that 
it was an intellectual battle against the virus author.


5.  Ethics and Avoiding Damage

All of the hackers I spoke with said that malicious hacking was morally 
wrong.  They said that most hackers are not intentionally malicious, 
and that they themselves are concerned about causing accidental 
damage.  When I asked Drake about the responsibility of a person 
with a PC and modem, his reply included not erasing or modifying 
anyone else's data, and not causing a legitimate user on a system 
any problems.  Hackers say they are outraged when other hackers cause 
damage or use resources that would be missed, even if the results 
are unintentional and due to incompetence.  One hacker wrote ``I 
have ALWAYS strived to do NO damage, and to inconvenience as few people 
as possible.  I NEVER, EVER, EVER DELETE A FILE.  One of the first 
commands I do on a new system is disable the delete file command.''  
Some hackers say that it is unethical to give passwords and similar 
security-related information to persons who might do damage.  In 
the recent incident where a hacker broke into Bell South and downloaded 
a text file on the emergency 911 service, hackers say that there 
was no intention to use this knowledge to break into or sabotage 
the 911 system.  According to Emmanuel Goldstein [Goldstein90], the 
file did not even contain information about how to break into the 
911 system.  

The hackers also said that some break-ins were unethical, e.g., 
breaking into hospital systems, and that it is wrong to read 
confidential information about individuals or steal classified 
information.  All said it was wrong to commit fraud for personal 
profit.

Although we as computer security professionals often disagree with 
hackers about what constitutes damage, the ethical standards listed 
here sound much like our own.  Where the hackers' ethics differ from 
the standards adopted by most in the computer security community 
is that hackers say it is not unethical to break into many systems, 
use idle computer and communications resources, and download system 
files in order to learn.  Goldstein says that hacking is not wrong: 
it is not the same as stealing, and uncovers design flaws and security 
deficiencies [Goldstein89].

Brian Reid, a colleague at Digital who has spoken with many hackers, 
speculates that a hacker's ethics may come from not being raised 
properly as a civilized member of society, and not appreciating the 
rules of living in society.  One hacker responded to this with ``What 
does `being brought up properly' mean?  Some would say that it is 
`good' to keep to yourself, mind your own business.  Others might 
argue that it is healthy to explore, take risks, be curious and 
discover.'' Brian Harvey [Harvey86] notes that many hackers are 
adolescents, and that adolescents are at a less advanced stage of 
moral development than adults, where they might not see how the effects 
of their actions hurt others.  Larry Martin [Martin89] claims that 
parents, teachers, the press, and others in society are not aware 
of their responsibility to contribute to instilling ethical values 
associated with computer use.  This could be the consequence of the 
youth of the computing field; many people are still computer illiterate 
and cultural norms may be lagging behind advances in technology and 
the growing dependency on that technology by businesses and society.  
Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce [HollingerLanza-Kaduce88] speculate that 
the cultural normative messages about the use and abuse of computer 
technology have been driven by the adoption of criminal laws in the 
last decade.  They also speculate that hacking may be encouraged 
during the process of becoming computer literate.  Some of my 
colleagues say that hackers are irresponsible.  One hacker responded 
``I think it's a strong indication of the amount of responsibility 
shown that so FEW actually DAMAGING incidents are known.''

But we must not overlook that the differences in ethics also reflect 
a difference in philosophy about information and information handling 
resources; whereas hackers advocate sharing, we seem to be advocating 
ownership as property.  The differences also represent an opportunity 
to examine our own ethical behavior and our practices for information 
sharing and protection.  For example, one hacker wrote ``I will accept 
that it is morally wrong to copy some proprietary software, however, 
I think that it is morally wrong to charge $6000 for a program that 
is only around 25K long.''  Hence, I shall go into a few of the ethical 
points raised by hackers more closely.  It is not a simple case of 
good or mature (us) against bad or immature (hackers), or of teaching 
hackers a list of rules. 

Many computer professionals such as Martin [Martin89] argue the moral 
questions by analogy.  The analogies are then used to justify their 
judgment of a hacker's actions as unethical.  Breaking into a system 
is compared with breaking into a house, and downloading information 
and using computer and telecommunications services is compared with 
stealing tangible goods.  But, say hackers, the situations are not 
the same.  When someone breaks into a house, the objective is to 
steal goods, which are often irreplaceable, and property is often 
damaged in the process.  By contrast, when a hacker breaks into a 
system, the objective is to learn and avoid causing damage.  Downloaded 
information is copied, not stolen, and still exists on the original 
system.  Moreover, as noted earlier, information has not been 
traditionally regarded as property.  Dibbel [Dibbel90] says that 
when the software industries and phone companies claim losses of 
billions of dollars to piracy, they are not talking about goods that 
disappear from the shelves and could have been sold. 
  
We often say that breaking into a system implies a lack of caring 
for the system's owner and authorized users.  But, one hacker says 
that the ease of breaking into a system reveals a lack of caring 
on the part of the system manager to protect user and company assets, 
or failure on the part of vendors to warn managers about the 
vulnerabilities of their systems.  He estimated his success rate 
of getting in at 10-15%, and that is without spending more than an 
hour on any one target system.  Another hacker says that he sees 
messages from vendors notifying the managers, but that the managers 
fail to take action.   

Richard Pethia of CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) reports 
that they seldom see cases of malicious damage caused by hackers, 
but that the break-ins are nevertheless disruptive because system 
users and administrators want to be sure that nothing was damaged.  
(CERT suggests that sites reload system software from secure backups 
and change all user passwords in order to protect against possible 
back doors and Trojan Horses that might have been planted by the 
hacker.  Pethia also noted that prosecutors are generally called 
for government sites, and are being called for non-government sites 
with increasing frequency.)  Pethia says that break-ins also generate 
a loss of trust in the computing environment, and may lead to adoption 
of new policies that are formulated in a panic or management edicts 
that severely restrict connectivity to outside systems.   Brian Harvey 
says that hackers cause damage by increasing the amount of paranoia, 
which in turn leads to tighter security controls that diminish the 
quality of life for the users.  Hackers respond to these points by 
saying they are the scapegoats for systems that are not adequately 
protected.  They say that the paranoia is generated by ill-founded 
fears and media distortions (I will return to this point later), 
and that security need not be oppressive to keep hackers out; it 
is mainly making sure that passwords and system defaults are 
well chosen. 

Pethia says that some intruders seem to be disruptive to prove a 
point, such as that the systems are vulnerable, the security personnel 
are incompetent, or ``it's not nice to say bad things about hackers.'' 
In the N.Y. Times, John Markoff [Markoff90] wrote that the hacker 
who claimed to have broken into Cliff Stoll's system said he was 
upset by Stoll's portrayal of hackers in ``The Cuckoo's Egg'' 
[Stoll90].   Markoff reported that the caller said: ``He (Stoll) 
was going on about how he hates all hackers, and he gave pretty much 
of a one-sided view of who hackers are.''

``The Cuckoo's Egg'' captures many of the popular stereotypes of 
hackers.  Criminologist Jim Thomas criticizes it for presenting a 
simplified view of the world, one where everything springs from the 
forces of light (us) or of darkness (hackers) [Thomas90].  He claims 
that Stoll fails to see the similarities between his own activities 
(e.g., monitoring communications, ``borrowing'' monitors without 
authorization, shutting off network access without warning, and lying 
to get information he wants) and those of hackers.  He points out 
Stoll's use of pejorative words such as ``varmint'' to describe 
hackers, and Stoll's quote of a colleague: ``They're technically 
skilled but ethically bankrupt programmers without any respect for 
others' work -- or privacy.  They're not destroying one or two 
programs.  They're trying to wreck the cooperation that builds our 
networks,'' [Stoll90, p. 159].  Thomas writes ``at an intellectual 
level, it (Stoll's book) provides a persuasive, but simplistic, moral 
imagery of the nature of right and wrong, and provides what -- to 
a lay reader -- would seem a compelling justification for more statutes 
and severe penalties against the computer underground.  This is 
troublesome for two reasons.  First, it leads to a mentality of social 
control by law enforcement during a social phase when some would 
argue we are already over-controlled.  Second, it invokes a punishment 
model that assumes we can stamp out behaviors to which we object 
if only we apprehend and convict a sufficient number of violators. 
...  There is little evidence that punishment will in the long run 
reduce any given offense, and the research of Gordon Meyer and I 
suggests that criminalization may, in fact, contribute to the growth 
of the computer underground.'' 


6. Public Image and Treatment

Hackers express concern about their negative public image and 
identity.  As noted earlier, hackers are often portrayed as being 
irresponsible and immoral.  One hacker said that ``government 
propaganda is spreading an image of our being at best, sub-human, 
depraved, criminally inclined, morally corrupt, low life.  We need 
to prove that the activities that we are accused of (crashing systems, 
interfering with life support equipment, robbing banks, and jamming 
911 lines) are as morally abhorrent to us as they are to the general 
public.''

The public identity of an individual or group is generated in part
by the actions of the group interacting with the standards of the
community observing those actions.  What then accounts for the
difference between the hacker's public image and what they say about
themselves?  One explanation may be the different standards.  Outside
the hacking community, the simple act of breaking into systems is
regarded as unethical by many.  The use of pejorative words like
``vandal'' and ``varmint'' reflect this discrepency in ethics.  Even
the word ``criminal'' carries with it connotations of someone evil;
hackers say they are not criminal in this sense.  Katie Hafner notes
that Robert Morris Jr., who was convicted of launching the Internet
worm, was likened to a terrorist even though the worm did not destroy
data [Hafner90].

Distortions of events and references to potential threats also create 
an image of persons who are dangerous.  Regarding the 911 incident 
where a hacker downloaded a file from Bell South, Goldstein reported 
``Quickly, headlines screamed that hackers had broken into the 911 
system and were interfering with emergency telephone calls to the 
police.  One newspaper report said there were no indications that 
anyone had died or been injured as a result of the intrusions.  What 
a relief.  Too bad it wasn't true,'' [Goldstein90].  In fact, the 
hackers involved with the 911 text file had not broken into the 911 
system.  The dollar losses attributed to hacking incidents also are 
often highly inflated.

Thomas and Meyer [ThomasMeyer90] say that the rhetoric depicting 
hackers as a dangerous evil contributes to a ``witch hunt'' mentality, 
wherein a group is first labeled as dangerous, and then enforcement 
agents are mobilized to exorcise the alleged social evil.  They see 
the current sweeps against hackers as part of a reaction to a broader 
fear of change, rather than to the actual crimes committed.

Hackers say they are particularly concerned that computer security 
professionals and system managers do not appear to understand hackers 
or be interested in their concerns.  Hackers say that system managers 
treat them like enemies and criminals, rather than as potential helpers 
in their task of making their systems secure.  This may reflect 
managers' fears about hackers, as well as their responsibilities 
to protect the information on their systems.  Stallman says that 
the strangers he encounters using his account are more likely to 
have a chip on their shoulder than in the past; he attributes this 
to a harsh enforcer mentality adopted by the establishment.  He says 
that network system managers start out with too little trust and 
a hostile attitude toward strangers that few of the strangers deserve.
One hacker said that system managers show a lack of openness to those 
who want to learn.

Stallman also says that the laws make the hacker scared to communicate 
with anyone even slightly ``official,'' because that person might 
try to track the hacker down and have him or her arrested.  Drake 
raised the issue of whether the laws could differentiate between 
malicious and nonmalicious hacking, in support of a ``kinder, gentler'' 
relationship between hackers and computer security people.  In fact, 
many states such as California initially passed computer crime laws 
that excluded malicious hacking; it was only later that these laws 
were amended to include nonmalicious actions [HollingerLanza-Kaduce88].
Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce speculate that these amendments and other
new laws were catalyzed mainly by media events, especially the reports 
on the ``414 hackers'' and the movie ``War Games,'' which created 
a perception of hacking as extremely dangerous, even if that perception 
was not based on facts.   

Hackers say they want to help system managers make their systems 
more secure.  They would like managers to recognize and use their 
knowledge about system vulnerabilities.   Landreth [Landreth89] 
suggests ways in which system managers can approach hackers in order 
to turn them into colleagues, and Goodfellow also suggests befriending 
hackers [Goodfellow83].  John Draper (Cap'n Crunch) says it would 
help if system managers and the operators of phone companies and 
switches could coope rate in tracing a hacker without bringing in 
law enforcement authorities.

Drake suggests giving hackers free access in exchange for helping 
with security, a suggestion that I also heard from several hackers.  
Drake says that the current attitude of treating hackers as enemies 
is not very conducive to a solution, and by belittling them, we only 
cause ourselves problems.  

I asked some of the hackers whether they'd be interested in breaking 
into systems if the rules of the ``game'' were changed so that instead 
of being threatened by prosecution, they were invited to leave a 
``calling card'' giving their name, phone number, and method of 
breaking in.  In exchange, they would get recognition and points 
for each vulnerability they discovered.  Most were interested in 
playing; one hacker said he would prefer monetary reward since he 
was supporting himself.  Any system manager interested in trying 
this out could post a welcome message inviting hackers to leave their 
cards.  This approach could have the advantage of not only letting 
the hackers contribute to the security of the system, but of allowing 
the managers to quickly recognize the potentially malicious hackers, 
since they are unlikely to leave their cards.  Perhaps if hackers 
are given the opportunity to make contributions outside the 
underground, this will dampen their desire to pursue illegal activities.

Several hackers said that they would like to be able to pursue their 
activities legally and for income.  They like breaking into systems, 
doing research on computer security, and figuring out how to protect 
against vulnerabilities.  They say they would like to be in a position 
where they have permission to hack systems.  Goodfellow suggests 
hiring hackers to work on tiger teams that are commissioned to locate 
vulnerabilities in systems through penetration testing.  Baird 
Info-Systems Safeguards, Inc., a security consulting firm, reports 
that they have employed hackers on several assignments [Baird87].  
They say the hackers did not violate their trust or the trust of 
their clients, and performed in an outstanding manner.  Baird believes 
that system vulnerabilities can be better identified by employing 
people who have exploited systems.  

One hacker suggested setting up a clearinghouse that would match 
hackers with companies that could use their expertise, while 
maintaining anonymity of the hackers and ensuring confidentiality 
of all records.  Another hacker, in describing an incident where 
he discovered a privileged account without a password, said ``What 
I (and others) wish for is a way that hackers can give information 
like this to a responsible source, AND HAVE HACKERS GIVEN CREDIT 
FOR HELPING! As it is, if someone told them that `I'm a hacker, and 
I REALLY think you should know...' they would freak out, and run 
screaming to the SS (Secret Service) or the FBI. Eventually, the 
person who found it would be caught, and hauled away on some crazy 
charge.  If they could only just ACCEPT that the hacker was trying 
to help!''  The clearinghouse could also provide this type of service.

Hackers are also interested in security policy issues.  Drake expressed 
concern over how we handle information about computer security 
vulnerabilities.  He argues that it is better to make this information 
public than cover it up and pretend that it does not exist, and cites 
the CERT to illustrate how this approach can be workable.  Other 
hackers, however, argue for restricting initial dissemination of 
flaws to customers and users.  Drake also expressed concern about 
the role of the government, particularly the military, in 
cryptography.  He argues that NSA's opinion on a cryptographic standard 
should be taken with a large grain of salt because of their code 
breaking role.  

Some security specialists are opposed to hiring hackers for security 
work, and Eugene Spafford has urged people not to do business with 
any company that hires a convicted hacker to work in the security 
area [ACM90].  He says that ``This is like having a known arsonist 
install a fire alarm.''   But, the laws are such that a person can 
be convicted for having done nothing other than break into a system; 
no serious damage (i.e., no ``computer arson'') is necessary.  Many 
of our colleagues, including Geoff Goodfellow [Goodfellow83] and 
Brian Reid [Frenkel87], admit to having broken into systems in the 
past.  Reid is quoted as saying that because of the knowledge he gained 
breaking into systems as a kid, he was frequently called in to help 
catch people who break in.  Spafford says that times have changed, 
and that this method of entering the field is no longer socially 
acceptable, and fails to provide adequate training in computer science 
and computer engineering [Spafford89].  However, from what I have 
observed, many hackers do have considerable knowledge about 
telecommunications, data security, operating systems, programming 
languages, networks, and cryptography.  But, I am not challenging 
a policy to hire competent people of sound character.  Rather, I 
am challenging a strict policy that uses economic pressure to close 
a field of activity to all persons convicted of breaking into 
systems.   It is enough that a company is responsible for the behavior 
of its employees.  Each hacker can be considered for employment based 
on his or her own competency and character.  

Some people have called for stricter penalties for hackers, including 
prison terms, in order to send a strong deterrent message to hackers. 
John Draper, who was incarcerated for his activities in the 1970's, 
argues that in practice this will only make the problem worse.  He 
told me that he was forced under threat to teach other inmates his 
knowledge of communications systems.  He believes that prison sentences 
will serve only to spread hacker's knowledge to career criminals.  
He said he was never approached by criminals outside the prison, 
but that inside the prison they had control over him.

One hacker said that by clamping down on the hobbyist underground, 
we will only be left with the criminal underground.  He said that 
without hackers to uncover system vulnerabilities, the holes will 
be left undiscovered, to be utilized by those likely to cause real 
damage.

Goldstein argues that the existing penalties are already way out 
of proportion to the acts committed, and that the reason is because 
of computers [Goldstein89].  He says that if Kevin Mitnick had 
committed crimes similar to those he committed but without a computer, 
he would have been classified as a mischief maker and maybe fined 
$100 for trespassing; instead, he was put in jail without bail 
[Goldstein89].  Craig Neidorf, a publisher and editor of the electronic 
newsletter ``Phrack,'' faces up to 31 years and a fine of $122,000 
for receiving, editing, and transmitting the downloaded text file 
on the 911 system [Goldstein90]. [Since the time I wrote this, a new
indictment was issued with penalties of up to 65 years in prison. 
Neidorf went on trial beginning July 23.  The trial ended July 27
when the government dropped all charges.  DED]
   
7.  Privacy and the First and Fourth Amendments

The hackers I spoke with advocated privacy protection for sensitive 
information about individuals.   They said they are not interested 
in invading people's privacy, and that they limited their hacking 
activities to acquiring information about computer systems or how 
to break into them.  There are, of course, hackers who break into 
systems such as the TRW credit database.  Emanuel Goldstein argues 
that such invasions of privacy took place before the hacker arrived 
[Harpers90].  Referring to credit reports, government files, motor 
vehicle records, and the ``megabytes of data piling up about each 
of us,'' he says that thousands of people legally can see and use 
this data, much of it erroneous.  He claims that the public has been 
misinformed about the databases, and that hackers have become 
scapegoats for the holes in the systems.  One hacker questioned the 
practice of storing sensitive personal information on open systems 
with dial-up access, the accrual of the information, the methods 
used to acquire it, and the purposes to which it is put.  Another 
hacker questioned the inclusion of religion and race in credit records.

Drake told me that he was concerned about the increasing amount of 
information about individuals that is stored in large data banks, 
and the inability of the individual to have much control over the 
use of that information.  He suggests that the individual might be 
co-owner of information collected about him or her, with control 
over the use of that information.  He also says that an individual 
should be free to withhold personal information, of course paying 
the consequences of doing so (e.g., not getting a drivers license 
or credit card).  In fact, all Federal Government forms are required 
to contain a Privacy Act Statement that states how the information 
being collected will be used and, in some cases, giving the option 
of withholding the information.

Goldstein has also challenged the practices of law enforcement agencies 
in their attempt to crack down on hackers [Goldstein90].  He said 
that all incoming and outgoing electronic mail used by ``Phrack'' 
was monitored before the newsletter was shutdown by authorities. 
``Had a printed magazine been shut down in this fashion after having 
all of their mail opened and read, even the most thick-headed 
sensationalist media types would have caught on: hey, isn't that 
a violation of the First Amendment?''  He also cites the shutdown 
of several bulletin boards as part of Operation Sun Devil, and quotes 
the administrator of the bulletin board Zygot as saying ``Should 
I start reading my users' mail to make sure they aren't saying anything 
naughty?  Should I snoop through all the files to make sure everyone 
is being good?  This whole affair is rather chilling.''  The 
administrator for the public system The Point wrote ``Today, there 
is no law or precedent which affords me ... the same legal rights 
that other common carriers have against prosecution should some other 
party (you) use my property (The Point) for illegal activities.  
That worries me ...''

About 40 personal computer systems and 23,000 data disks were seized 
under Operation Sun Devil, a two-year investigation involving the 
FBI, Secret Service, and other federal and local law enforcement 
officials.  In addition, the Secret Service acknowledges that its 
agents, acting as legitimate users, had secretly monitored computer 
bulletin boards [Markoff90a].  Markoff reports that California 
Representative Don Edwards, industry leader Mitchell Kapor, and civil 
liberties advocates are alarmed by these government actions, saying 
that they challenge freedom of speech under the First Amendment and 
protection against searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. 
Markoff asks: ``Will fear of hackers bring oppression?'' 
     
John Barlow writes ``The Secret Service may actually have done a 
service for those of us who love liberty.  They have provided us 
with a devil.  And devils, among their other galvanizing virtues, 
are just great for clarifying the issues and putting iron in your 
spine,'' [Barlow90].  Some of the questions that Barlow says need 
to be addressed include ``What are data and what is free speech?  
How does one treat property which has no physical form and can be 
infinitely reproduced?  Is a computer the same as a printing press?'' 
Barlow urges those of us who understand the technology to address 
these questions, lest the answers be given to us by law makers and 
law enforcers who do not.   Barlow and Kapor are constituting a 
foundation to ``raise and disburse funds for education, lobbying, 
and litigation in the areas relating to digital speech and the 
extension of the Constitution into Cyberspace.''

8.  Conclusions  

Hackers say that it is our social responsibility to share information, 
and that it is information hoarding and disinformation that are the 
crimes.  This ethic of resource and information sharing contrasts 
sharply with computer security policies that are based on authorization 
and ``need to know.'' This discrepancy raises an interesting question: 
Does the hacker ethic reflect a growing force in society that stands 
for greater sharing of resources and information -- a reaffirmation 
of basic values in our constitution and laws?  It is important that 
we examine the differences between the standards of hackers, systems 
managers, users, and the public.  These differences may represent 
breakdowns in current practices, and may present new opportunities 
to design better policies and mechanisms for making computer resources 
and information more widely available.  

The sentiment for greater information sharing is not restricted to 
hackers.  In the best seller, ``Thriving on Chaos,'' Tom Peters 
[Peters87] writes about sharing within organizations: ``Information 
hoarding, especially by politically motivated, power-seeking staffs, 
has been commonplace throughout American industry, service and 
manufacturing alike.  It will be an impossible millstone around the 
neck of tomorrow's organizations.  Sharing is a must.''  Peters argues 
that information flow and sharing is fundamental to innovation and 
competitiveness.  On a broader scale, Peter Drucker [Drucker89] says 
that the ``control of information by government is no longer possible. 
Indeed, information is now transnational.  Like money, it has no 
`fatherland.' ''

Nor is the sentiment restricted to people outside the computer security 
field.  Harry DeMaio [DeMaio89] says that our natural urge is to 
share information, and that we are suspicious of organizations and 
individuals who are secretive.  He says that information is exchanged 
out of ``want to know'' and mutual accommodation rather than ``need 
to know.''  If this is so, then some of our security policies are 
out of step with the way people work.  Peter Denning [DenningP89] 
says that information sharing will be widespread in the emerging 
worldwide networks of computers and that we need to focus on ``immune 
systems'' that protect against mistakes in our designs and recover 
from damage. 

I began my investigation of hackers with the question, who are they 
and what is their culture and discourse?  My investigation uncovered 
some of their concerns, which provided the organizational structure 
to this paper, and several suggestions for new actions that might 
be taken.  My investigation also opened up a broader question:  What 
conflict in society do hackers stand at the battle lines of?  Is 
it owning or restricting information vs. sharing information -- a 
tension between an age-old tradition of controlling information as 
property and the Englightenment tradition of sharing and disseminating 
information?  Is it controlling access based on ``need to know,'' 
as determined by the information provider, vs. ``want to know,'' 
as determined by the person desiring access?   Is it law enforcement 
vs. freedoms granted under the First and Fourth Amendments?  The 
answers to these questions, as well as those raised by Barlow on 
the nature of information and free speech, are important because 
they tell us whether our policies and practices serve us as well 
as they might.  The issue is not simply hackers vs. system managers 
or law enforcers; it is a much larger question about values and 
practices in an information society.


Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to Peter Denning, Frank Drake, Nathan Estey, 
Katie Hafner, Brian Harvey, Steve Lipner, Teresa Lunt, Larry Martin, 
Gordon Meyer, Donn Parker, Morgan Schweers, Richard Stallman, and 
Alex for their comments on earlier versions of this paper and helpful 
discussions; to Richard Stallman for putting me in contact with 
hackers; John Draper, Geoff Goodfellow, Brian Reid, Eugene Spafford, 
Dave, Marcel, Mike, RGB, and the hackers for helpful discussions; 
and Richard Pethia for a summary of some of his experiences at CERT. 
The opinions expressed here, however, are my own and do not necessarily 
represent those of the people mentioned above or of Digital Equipment 
Corporation. 


References

ACM90
  ``Just say no,'' Comm. ACM, Vol. 33, No. 5, May 1990, p. 477.

Baird87
  Bruce J. Baird, Lindsay L. Baird, Jr., and Ronald P. Ranauro, ``The 
  Moral Cracker?,'' Computers and Security, Vol. 6, No. 6, Dec. 1987, 
  p. 471-478.

Barlow90
  John Barlow, ``Crime and Puzzlement,'' June 1990, to appear in Whole 
  Earth Review.

Corley89
  Eric Corley, ``The Hacking Fever,'' in Pamela Kane, V.I.R.U.S. 
  Protection, Bantam Books, New York, 1989, p. 67-72.

DeMaio89
  Harry B. DeMaio, ``Information Ethics, a Practical Approach,''
  Proc. of the 12th National Computer Security Conference, 1989,
  p. 630-633.

DenningP89
  Peter J. Denning, ``Worldnet,'' American Scientist, Vol. 77, No. 5,
  Sept.-Oct., 1989.
  
DenningP90
  Peter J. Denning, Computers Under Attack, ACM Press, 1990.

Dibbel90
  Julian Dibbel, ``Cyber Thrash,'' SPIN, Vol. 5, No. 12, March 1990.

Drucker89
  Peter F. Drucker, The New Realities, Harper and Row, New York, 1989.

Felsenstein86
  Lee Felsenstein, ``Real Hackers Don't Rob Banks,'' in full report on 
  ACM Panel on Hacking [Lee86].

Frenkel87
  Karen A. Frenkel, ``Brian Reid, A Graphics Tale of a Hacker 
  Tracker,'' Comm. ACM, Vol. 30, No. 10, Oct. 1987, p. 820-823.

Goldstein89 
  Emmanuel Goldstein, ``Hackers in Jail,'' 2600 Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1, 
  Spring 1989.

Goldstein90
  Emmanuel Goldstein, ``For Your Protection,'' 2600 Magazine, Vol. 7, 
  No. 1, Spring 1990.

Goodfellow83
  Geoffrey S. Goodfellow, ``Testimony Before the Subcommittee on 
  Transportation, Aviation, and Materials on the Subject of 
  Telecommunications Security and Privacy,'' Sept. 26, 1983.

Hafner90
  Katie Hafner, ``Morris Code,'' The New Republic, Feb. 16, 1990, 
  p. 15-16.

Harpers90
  ``Is Computer Hacking a Crime?" Harper's, March 1990, p. 45-57.

Harvey86
  Brian Harvey, ``Computer Hacking and Ethics,'' in full report on 
  ACM Panel on Hacking [Lee86].

HollingerLanza-Kaduce88
  Richard C. Hollinger and Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, ``The Process of 
  Criminalization: The Case of Computer Crime Laws,'' Criminology, 
  Vol. 26, No. 1, 1988, p. 101-126.

Huebner89
  Hans Huebner, ``Re: News from the KGB/Wiley Hackers,'' RISKS Digest, 
  Vol. 8, Issue 37, 1989.
  
Landreth89
  Bill Landreth, Out of the Inner Circle, Tempus, Redmond, WA, 1989.
  
Lee86
  John A. N. Lee, Gerald Segal, and Rosalie Stier, ``Positive 
  Alternatives: A Report on an ACM Panel on Hacking,'' Comm. ACM, 
  Vol. 29, No. 4, April 1986, p. 297-299; full report available from 
  ACM Headquarters, New York.

Levy84
  Steven Levy, Hackers, Dell, New York, 1984.

Markoff90
  John Markoff, ``Self-Proclaimed `Hacker' Sends Message to Critics,'' 
  The New York Times, March 19, 1990.
  
Markoff90a
  John Markoff, ``Drive to Counter Computer Crime Aims at Invaders,'' 
  The New York Times, June 3, 1990.

Martin89
  Larry Martin, ``Unethical `Computer' Behavior: Who is Responsible?,''
  Proc. of the 12th National Computer Security Conference, 1989.

Meyer89
  Gordon R. Meyer, The Social Organization of the Computer Underground, 
  Master's thesis, Dept. of Sociology, Northern Illinois Univ., Aug. 
  1989.

MeyerThomas90
  Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas, ``The Baudy World of the Byte Bandit: 
  A Postmodernist Interpretation of the Computer Underground,'' Dept. 
  of Sociology, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL, March 1990.

Peters87
  Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos, Harper & Row, New York, Chapter VI, S-3, 
  p. 610, 1987.

Spafford89
  Eugene H. Spafford, ``The Internet Worm, Crisis and Aftermath,'' 
  Comm. ACM, Vol. 32, No. 6, June 1989, p. 678-687.

Stallman84
  Richard M. Stallman, Letter to ACM Forum, Comm. ACM, Vol. 27, 
  No. 1, Jan. 1984, p. 8-9.

Stallman90
  Richard M. Stallman, ``Against User Interface Copyright'' to appear 
  in Comm. ACM.

Steele83
  Guy L. Steele, Jr., Donald R. Woods, Raphael A. Finkel, Mark R. 
  Crispin, Richard M. Stallman, and Geoffrey S. Goodfellow,  The 
  Hacker's Dictionary, Harper & Row, New York, 1983.

Stoll90
  Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg, Doubleday, 1990.

Thomas90
  Jim Thomas, ``Review of The Cuckoo's Egg,'' Computer Underground 
  Digest, Issue #1.06, April 27, 1990.

ThomasMeyer90
  Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer, ``Joe McCarthy in a Leisure Suit: 
  (Witch)Hunting for the Computer Underground,''  Unpublished 
  manuscript, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University, 
  DeKalb, IL, 1990; see also the Computer Underground Digest, Vol. 
  1, Issue 11, June 16, 1990.