What Makes Hackers and Crackers Tick

It’s hard to pin down just a few of the things that might motivate a cracker because there are as many reasons for cracking as there are individuals. Still, in interviews and interrogations, a few common motivators continually appear.

Note 

This section focuses on motivations for individuals and doesn’t examine political agendas, hate, or other things that might motivate organizations or nations (including terrorists).

Looking for knowledge

Many crackers (and hackers) love information. They tend to hoard and devour it, storing it away for the day when a random bit of technical trivia will enable them to solve some puzzle. In general, if interested in a subject, a cracker will learn everything he can about it. Crackers may break into a system just to learn everything that they can about it.

Fulfilling greed

Financial gain motivates some crackers. Credit card fraud and illegal wire transfers are ways to make easy money. In August 1994, Vladimir Levin, a Russian computer programmer, transferred millions of dollars out of Citibank accounts. He claimed his salary from St. Petersburg’s Technological Institute was so low that he had to steal the money to survive.

It’s hard to beat money as a motivator. The lure of easy cash, potentially millions, sometimes inspires otherwise ethical individuals to attempt to defraud their own companies. Using computers in financial crime, often committed by insiders, is a major concern for law enforcement organizations around the globe.

Inflating their egos

A major motivation among crackers is status. The bigger the target and the more sophisticated the attack, the more status the cracker gains. To become a l33t hax0r (elite hacker) requires crackers to reach a certain level of knowledge and then demonstrate it to their peers. The amount of media attention that results also provides acknowledgment and increases their status.

The Web sites of government agencies and large corporations are common targets. These targets gain a great deal of attention and status in some cracking groups. In 1996, crackers defaced the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Web page, changing the title to Central Stupidity Agency and modified an Air Force Web page to include pornographic images. In October 2000, a young cracker attacked and defaced more than 10 government sites including the White Sands Missile Range, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The list of government pages defaced or disabled is long and distinguished.

Pursuing revenge

Personal revenge can motivate current or former employees to become crackers. This is a growing problem for organizations; some polls claim that approximately two-thirds of network security breaches come from inside the company. These attacks can range from embarrassing to devastating. The employee-turned-cracker may inadvertently crash a system or intentionally destroy information.

Eastman Kodak charged Chung-Yuh Soong, a former employee, with transmitting highly confidential software files to a competitor in California. The only reason the company detected the alleged theft was that the document was so large it crashed the server. At Pixar Animation Studios, the entire company received an e-mail listing the salary of every employee. The e-mail seemed to originate from CEO Steve Jobs’ address. Although he did not send it, evidence does point to a current or former employee-turned-cracker.