What is a "hacker"?

In p>1988, the network system of Bank of Chicago in the United States was attacked by a "hacker". The "hacker" altered the bank account through the computer network and transferred the huge sum of 7 million dollars abroad, thus causing huge losses to the bank. Coincidentally, in August 1995, Citibank in St. Petersburg, Russia suffered the same fate. A "hacker" used the same method to steal $4, from the bank. Not long ago, there was a major leak in Britain that sensationalized the whole island of Great Britain. A computer operator of a telecommunications company stole the telephone numbers of British intelligence agencies, nuclear underground bunkers, military headquarters and control centers through the company's internal database. It is said that even the private telephone number of Prime Minister Major was not spared. After another wave of unrest, a 21-year-old Argentine young man used his home computer to roam into the computer system of the US military and its agencies deployed in other countries for nine months through the Internet. The young man said, "I can access the US military computer network ... I can roam anywhere, and I can also delete any attribute information." It was not until March 1996 that the "hacker" was caught by the relevant departments. Among the numerous sensational cyber "hackers" cases, there is also an incident that still haunts Americans. That was before the merger of the Democratic Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany. Several students of the former Federal Republic of Germany used the computer network to crack the passwords of the US military and sold the stolen US military secrets to the KGB of the former Soviet Union. The military of Lisa Tseng was shocked. These events show that with the rapid development of the global internet, a country's command system, financial system, air traffic control system, trade system and medical system will all become more vulnerable to attacks by enemies and possible "hackers"-for example, teenagers who are good at computer operation, especially the national defense system related to national security. According to statistics, in 1995 alone, the computer network of the US Air Force was attacked at least 5 times, with an average of more than 1.4 times a day. The Pentagon, the US military center with 12, computer systems, will face even greater threats at present and in the future.

On February 26th, 1998, someone broke into the computer network of the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense, and browsed some non-top secret information. The success of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's mission to Baghdad prevented the explosion of "desert thunder" in the United States, and a war against "hackers" has started in the United States.

In the same year, on February 25th, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Hamley announced to the press that in the past two weeks, the Pentagon's military intelligence network had been continuously invaded by computer "hackers". This "hacker" invasion was in a sensitive period, and this news immediately became the headline news of the major media in the United States the next day.

hamray said that "hackers" visited 11 unclassified military networks, including 4 naval computer networks and 7 air force computer networks, which contained logistical, administrative and financial information. After browsing this information, "hackers" inserted a program called "trap cover" in the network. With this program installed, they can freely enter and leave these networks in the future without anyone knowing. The computer system of the Pentagon has been attacked by "hackers" more than once, but this time it is different from usual. "Hackers" seem to be in gallants, trying to compete by invading these systems. Hamley said that this is the most organized and systematic network intrusion discovered by the Pentagon so far, and it "sounded the alarm for us." The U.S. Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation vowed not to give up until "hackers" were dug up.

There is a small town called santa rosa in California, USA. There is an Internet access service company called Netdex in the town. It is small, with only 3 users. This is where the "hackers" showed their fox tails.

In mid-January, 1998, Bill Zane, the owner and general manager of Netdex Company, found that the service operating system had been changed by "hackers" and immediately reported it to the FBI and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

FBI agents and CERT network personnel found the whereabouts of the "hacker" after several weeks of follow-up investigation. They could have plugged the loopholes in the operating system, but instead of doing so, they decided to take a risk and keep the door open for a while. This opening is six weeks.

During these six weeks, more than 2 FBI agents from the east coast of the United States and San Francisco kept a close watch on the "footprints" left by the intruders on the Internet 24 hours a day. These footprints clearly point to the websites of American government, army, national library, laboratories and universities. At first, the FBI thought that these intruders might be potential terrorists.

After a period of investigation, the FBI found out the whereabouts of the "hacker". On February 25th, the computer crime investigation team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation took two search warrants and took six cars to Cloverdale, a small town with only 5,5 people, 12km north of San Francisco.

at about 8: 3 pm, a group of people arrived in this small town surrounded by green hills. With the support of the local police, they immediately surrounded a bungalow. They rushed into the house and found a boy of fifteen or sixteen busy hacking into the unclassified computer network of the Pentagon!

During the search, the town police blocked a street south of the town center. The search of this bungalow lasted for two hours. Later, they searched another house, and this teenage boy was also suspected of being involved in the invasion of the Pentagon's network system. Because the two boys were too young, the FBI did not arrest them, but confiscated their computers, software and printers.

last year, the two boys attended a computer class together. Their computer level even surprised computer experts. Zane said, "We are actually fighting online with them. We watched them, and they knew we were watching them. They tried hard to restore their software documents, so fast that we didn't have time to eliminate them. "

But the FBI's pursuit of "hackers" didn't end there. All indications show that there is a "black hand" behind these young hackers.

Zane said that he noticed several different ways of "hacking" through analysis. One of the most interesting aspects of this case is that the invasion technology is surprisingly superb, and there are a lot of mistakes that amateurs make. That is to say, more advanced experts provide these children with tools to invade computer networks. He said, "hacker" is not the person who guesses your password on the keyboard. They write and use other people's computer programs. In addition, Zance has received a lot of e-mail spam. He said, "These people are methodical and orderly. I would be very surprised if this incident (hacking into the Pentagon's network) was only done by a few children. There must be others, and these children are just being used. "

FBI agents are actively investigating, hoping to find further clues and find out the "black hand".

Less than a month later, Israeli police arrested a supercomputer "hacker" who invaded the computer systems of the US Department of Defense and the Knesset on March 18th.

This Israeli supercomputer hacker is 18 years old, and his online user name is "Analyst". Linda Mei Niuyin, an Israeli police spokeswoman, said the police also arrested two other 18-year-old accomplices.

After the "hacker" was arrested, the US Department of Justice issued a statement revealing that the "analyst" was really named Ehud Turner. US Attorney General Reynolds said that the arrest of the "analyst" was a warning to all "hackers" who tried to invade the US computer system. The United States attaches great importance to such computer attacks. In the past few weeks, the US Central Intelligence Agency launched an investigation into this supercomputer "hacker" and provided information to Israel, which finally helped Israel arrest the "analyst".

It is estimated that the "analyst" is probably the online tutor of two California teenagers arrested by the CIA a few days ago. The Pentagon said that the targets of these computer "hackers" were the unclassified personnel lists and payroll of the US Department of Defense, the US Naval Military Center, NASA and some university computer systems. One of the two teenagers arrested in Sonoma, California, said he had accessed the computer systems of 2 American colleges.

Because the same system resources are shared, attacking non-confidential systems may also bring out confidential information, so the existence of these "hackers" led by "analysts" greatly disturbed the US Department of Defense. John Hamley, US Deputy Secretary of Defense, said that this was the "most organized and systematic" computer intrusion discovered by the Pentagon so far.

American computer expert Dan Jasper and an Internet service provider in Santarosa, California first discovered the existence of this online "hacker"-"analyst". It was Jasper who helped the CIA to seize two California "hackers" allegedly under the guidance of "analysts".

after being arrested, the "analyst" and his associates were detained in Beit Yam police station in the southern suburb of Tel Aviv. The police confiscated their passports.

"hacker"-"analyst" said in an interview with an online magazine before his arrest that it was not illegal for him to hack into the computer system, and even it was "beneficial and harmless" to the target. The "analyst" said that he often helped him fix the vulnerabilities of the servers he attacked, and he hinted that "a malicious' hacker' did far better than that."

At this point, the pursuit of the "hacker" invasion of the Pentagon during the Gulf War came to an end.

The emergence of "hackers" has shaken people's confidence in network system security. Allen Solomon of S&S International, which specializes in developing anti-virus methods, thinks: "No matter how many locks you lock, someone will find a way in." Newt gingrich, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, also pointed out at a meeting: "Cyberspace is a free-flowing area that everyone can enter-we'd better be prepared to cope with the inventions and creativity of our opponents in various fields that we never dreamed of." This shows that in the future struggle in the field of information, network "hackers" will be one of the most terrible and difficult opponents.

if there is a spear, there is a shield. If it is difficult to deal with, we must find a way to deal with it. At present, the most commonly used method in the world is to install cryptographic software. This software is a program composed of 4 bits of information, which can encrypt text, image, video, audio and so on. It is easy to use and has strong security. But "Tao" is high, and "magic" is higher. Since August 1995, this kind of cryptographic software has been cracked several times in succession, and even the new and more secure new generation software has been discovered by two graduate students of California Berkeley who are interested in cryptography. At present, users of computer networks have put their concern about network security in the first place, and urgently hope that computer hardware and software companies can develop more secure and reliable "keys" to make people trust the security of the network.

in the 199s, with the increasing number of cyber-hacker attacks, while strengthening the computer network protection capability and preventing the invasion of foreign hackers, the U.S. military is actively preparing for the establishment of an "active hacker" force, that is, forming a "first-generation cyber-fighter" similar to a hacker. These cyber-fighters will use computers as weapons, use keyboards to paralyze the enemy and manipulate the enemy's media.

In addition to the United States, other developed countries are also actively strengthening network security construction. In the summer of 1995, NATO took over the right of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the United Nations peacekeeping forces. After it entered Bosnia and Herzegovina, its first task was to install a huge communication network. This network has played a great role in the air strikes against Bosnian Serbs, and many battle plans have been transmitted through this network. However, with the increasing number of networked military network nodes, the problem of network security has become increasingly prominent. To this end, NATO countries participating in the war have stepped up the installation of "firewalls" and other data security measures for this network system.

It can be predicted that how to use the computer network, a sharp double-edged sword, will be one of the important factors to determine the outcome of the war in the future.