Modern youth subcultures: hackers

The history of the subculture of "Hackers"

First mention of the move "hackers" appeared in the late 50-ies in the United States. The emergence and development of the movement "hackers" obliged the students at mit, one of the best technical universities in the United States. This school has produced many famous scientists whose discoveries and improvements in the future will shake the world.

There are several versions of the names of the movement, but we will focus on one of the more accurate stories. Since the mid 50-ies of the graduate students on "fool's Day" (April 1) was an original joke. Traditionally, students of this University, the best and original joke was one of a large and bulky object on the dome of the main academic building. There were established and cabinets, and a Grand piano, and huge ring, from the novel by Tolkien, one day there was a police car! So extraordinary joke was called "hack".

The word "hack" (hack) has several different meanings:

• do ax furniture;
• hack, nag;
• refined the trick of the intellectuals;
• original move in programming or software usage, in which the computer is allowed to perform operations that was not previously provided or considered impossible;
• custom action;
• creative overcoming limitations;

Most often this term is used in the laboratory "modeling of movement of trains" (Tech Model Railroad Club at mit and meant "parse up to the last screw electric trains, paths, and arrows, to search for new ways to expedite the movement of trains. The term "hacker" in its original meaning, is someone who uses his ingenuity to achieve a compact and original design, called in the technical sense — the "hack". In the 1960-ies of the TMRC has already had a surprisingly complicated scheme, which included a management system with 1200 relays, switches, digital clock and other things. The laboratory work was notable for its complexity, application of higher mathematics, mathematical analysis, etc. To the mid-60s this laboratory was one of the best in the United States that served as a good occasion for the creation of the first laboratory in the world to study (the creation of) artificial intelligence (MIT AI Lab).

The new laboratory of "I." a pioneer, and the first step towards the creation of the first computers, networks, software, etc., Scientists of this lab was highly respected in the professional scientific community and graduates who worked in this laboratory during his studies, literally "fished" commercial companies and corporations, serving the "cold war" in the United States.

Since the development of a new direction has gone with the active participation of graduates of mit, the term "hack" and his form is forever linked himself with the field of information technology.

In relation to information technology, the term "hack" (hack) meant the original move in programming or software usage, in which the computer is allowed to perform operations that was not previously provided or considered impossible. Those who could carry out this task, began to be called "hackers" and users who could not master even prescribed actions and not sought to system study, called "LAMER" (from the English. "lamer" inferior, poor, crippled).

The hacker movement of the 60's were not of a destructive nature, and reflected the tendency of creative innovation, study the limits of various systems, their potential. Experimentation did not pursue some personal interest or damage. For the community of hackers of this period, which included students and professors from major universities and research centers in the United States, characterized by a spirit of mutual cooperation, democracy, their own clearly reasoned ethical code.

The most important feature of the subculture of hackers at this stage, the idea of entitlement, of elitism. Many of them rate themselves as pioneers, creating a new society based on the values of the global cyberspace.

Referring to the governments of the world, one of the most famous ideologues of the hackers John Barlow, underlining this aspect, he wrote: [4]

The basis of the ideological and ethical requirements of the hackers the first period (the 60s) was based on the following principles:

• free and unrestricted access to any information;

• full democracy (negation of confidence in any authority), decentralization as an absolute credo;

• denial of the possibility of using criteria of age, education, ethnic and racial belonging, social status in the evaluation of a person, important are only the results of its activities;

• faith in harmony, beauty, unselfishness, and unlimited possibilities of the new world;

• the computer is able to change lives for the better.

In the 70-ies of the development of telephone networks has created the first specialization in the subculture of "hackers". Hackers who spetsializiruyutsya on the voice network (the telephone network communications equipment for voice transmission) were called "phreakers".

Phone hackers (phreakers) was engaged in breaking regional and international networks, resulting in the opportunity to call for free. One of phreakers, John Draper (also known by the nickname "captain Crunch" see photo.), found that a simple toy whistle that generates a signal with a frequency of 2600 Hz. Exactly the same characteristics provided remote access to commuting systems of time "AT&T".

Draper has designed a special device, which in combination with the whistle and the telephone allowed him to make free voice calls. Shortly thereafter, Esquire magazine published an article called "secrets of the little blue boxes." It describes the procedure of manufacturing such devices. Since then the number of cases of telephone fraud in the United States has increased significantly and is currently one of the typical methods of obtaining criminal income communities. Today in the 21st century phreakers hacked not just an ordinary telephony, but IP telephony, cellular and satellite communications.

Among the other offenders joined Steve Wozniak and Steve jobs, future founders of the company Arrle Comрuter". They organized domestic production and was selling these "blue boxes."

In the early ' 80s, the activities of the phone phreakers began to shift in the direction of computer technology, the first electronic Board ads, which in abbreviated form was called "BBS". Board email ads to "Sherwood Forest" and "Catch-22" were precursors to Usenet news and email. They became meeting places for phreakers and hackers, who exchanged there the news, sold each other a valuable advice, as well as selling stolen passwords and credit card numbers.

Began to form a group of hackers. One of the first was "Legion of Doom" in USA and "Chaos Comрuter Club" in Germany. Their activities did not go unnoticed by society, and in 1983 came the first feature film about hackers. The movie "war games" introduced the society with the hackers. It was after his hire was born the legend of the hackers-cyberhero (and anti-heroes). The film tells about a teenager, played by Matthew Broderick. He's trying to hack the computer of the manufacturer of video games, but instead penetrates into the military computer that simulates nuclear war.

Computer, code-named the film "WOPR" (by analogy with the real military system "BURGR"), has misinterpreted the request of the teenager and took the game global thermonuclear war for the real launch of Soviet nuclear missiles. It lifted up the military leadership and created a threat of war of the highest degree — "Defense Condition 1" (or "Def Con 1").

For the first time thanks to Hollywood, the world learned about the "hacker" and its possibilities. Some young people picked up the artistic image, as opposed to adult society and turned his eyes (and the wallet) for the developing of the information technology industry. There were hundreds of adolescent fans who were trying to become "hackers", to bring the first image of "hero-rebel" was created by Hollywood.

In the same year, authorities arrested six teenagers, were part of the so-called group of "414" (the room was rated by the code of the region in which they acted). Just nine days later, hackers broke into 60 computers, including a few cars National laboratory (Manhattan Project) in Los Alamos, which were developing nuclear weapons.

The subculture began to take shape and change. In 1984 appeared the first printed edition. Started out the first hacker magazine "2600". A year followed of Rask". Editor of "2600" signed by Emmanuel Goldstein (real name Eric Corley). This alias was borrowed from the protagonist of George Orwell's novel "1984". Both publications published advice to future hackers and phreakers, and had also covered the recent events of the hacking life. Today "2600" can be found in many large and respectable coffee bazaars.

Under pressure from the growth of registered cases of hacking into computers in state institutions and private companies, the US Congress in 1986 adopted the "Act of the computer fraud and abuse," according to which the penetration into computer systems was a listed criminal offences. The law, however, nothing was said about the criminal actions of minors.

The hacker movement of the early and mid 80-ies have moved from pioneering research to unauthorized intrusion into someone else's system, increasing aggression, the use of knowledge in order to protest against society adults), deletion or changing of important data, spreading computer viruses, etc.

Technical and socio-economic reasons for the increase of destructiveness in the activities of the movement were: