Hackers chided

Press, 24 July 1984, Page 28

Hackers chided

There is nothing particularly smart about breaking into a computer system, according to Dr Colin Boswell, president of the Computer Society. He was commenting on a recent report of teenagers tapping into the Marshall Spaceflight Centre’s computer system in the United States. “Those with the necessary simple equipment, time and misguided determination can get some way into most systems quite easily. It becomes easier if a group of like-minded people club together,” he said.

“Such actions where not illegal are at least antisocial,” he said. “They are the equivalent of opening a letter box and reading a person’s mail, or going into someone’s house uninvited

and using a spray can to deface personal possessions. Of course, things could be made more difficult by padlocking letterboxes, or installing burglar alarms, but it would be a sad day if this sort of vandalism became widespread. The same applies to computer vandalism.”

“Unfortunately, there is a false glamour attributed to the attacks of so-called ‘hackers’ who have been encouraged to regard cracking computer systems as a right. A recent example in New Zealand was on the ‘Close Up’ programme, dealing with juvenile computer hackers, where young people were encouraged by a person interviewed to try to infiltrate computer■ sys-

terns. If they took him at his word and tried to get into the Wanganui Computer Centre, they would be breaking the law and risk up to two years imprisonment. Other computer systems are not yet protected by criminal law but the principle remains the same: data held in computer system is private property.” Dr Boswell said that he felt it was a shame that people with obvious sills were wasting their time on such silly activities when there were many more exciting, challenging and constructive things to do with computers. “How about designing and constructing computer systems to help the disabled?” he said.