Hack the World: Let Us Hack Ethically

Hacking is gaining information of the weakness of a computer resources system and there after access into it, without his or her permission. Hacking can be interpreted as unlawful criminal trespass into others’ computer resources.

Word hacking is a fascinating term which inspires curiosities in the mind of the people at large in the society. I can recollect, few years’ earlier, in the Calcutta book fair, one married lady approached me with a question whether there was any book, by reading of which she could hack various chat-apps used by her husband as she had suspicions that her husband might had illicit relationship with any other ladies. Movies capturing the art and life of various hackers have mesmerized us for long. The biggest question is not how to hack but which is ethical and which is not. There are thousands of free tools or opensource software which may allure you to hack others but what will be the aftermath or the consequence of the same. There are thousands of videos or articles in various online platforms which will make you at least half-hackers. But in those articles or videos, everyone will avoid their responsibilities by saying that they are doing for academic purposes. I am not telling every hacking is bad for society. I myself a supporter of whistle-blower. You know in India we have the Whistle Blowers Protection Act which guards the lawful Whistle Blowers in India from all sort of attacks. But not everyone is hacking ethically. Segregation of hackers may be as follows on ethical line:

Ø WHITE HAT HACKERS: A white hat hacker or ethical hacker who hacks ethically.

Ø GREY HAT HACKERS: A Grey Hat Hacker sometime hack for good purpose …..sometimes for bad purpose…. i.e. sometime ethical and sometime unethical.

Ø BLACK HAT HACKERS: A black Hat Hacker hacks for unethical purpose. That means they are purely unethical.

Now the million-dollar (sorry million rupees) question is, who then hacks ethically. What is the yardstick of ethics? What is the authority who judges what is ethical or what is not? In this article and other forthcoming part of this article, I will try to find out the answers. Now let us know various steps of hacking. Definitely hacking is an art, the mechanism or the ways should and would differ from hackers to hackers. The indomitable patience together with creative attitude in the application of in-depth knowledge of how to code ultimately shows the path of success. In my opinion people who uses various tailor-made software or hacking application to trick innocent spectators are not hackers, they are only the followers or copying machines. In my humble opinion, hacker, without creativity or urge to create or apply and design new algorithm of software application is no hacker. Anyway, the following steps are thought to be the broad areas which one hacker has to undergo:

• Reconnaissance: where the Hacker tries to collect information about the target.

• Scanning: Thereafter the hackers scan the collected data and find some vulnerabilities or weakness in the system…….

• Gaining Access: After scanning, it is gain access to the system by using Phishing Attack or Metasploit…or other ways…..

• Maintaining Access: After entering into the system hackers maintain their access for various future exploitation or unlawful activities.

• Covering or Clearing Tracks: Lastly it is clearing various evidences of identifiable information which relate the hacker with the crime.

• The most important preparation before embarking upon hacking for an hacker is to make himself/herself completely anonymous.

As per NITI Aayog Report by 2020 India will going to have 730 million internet users. As per other resources India stands at third position in terms of total netizen in the world. Majority of the cyber catastrophe or incidence of breach results from hacking. Hence the billion-dollar Cyber security industry is actually the brain-child of the hackers, be it ethical or unethical. Is it not to create a problem, find a solution and get a promotion? One might disagree with me, but it is my own humble opinion.

The hygiene of the cyber or virtual ecosystem is in the hands of the hackers be it for creating hazards or disinfect the hazards. Especially in this lockdown period, where the number of Cyber crimes is skyrocketing and which has been supported by the recent INTERPOL report, issuing purple notice to its various member countries.

The relevant laws in India on hacking are as follows:

1) Section 43, 43A of Information Technology Act, 2000 for contravention wherein if you are a victim you can have your relief for upto rupees 5 Crore before Cyber Adjudicator, and

2) Section 66 and 72A Information Technology Act, 2000 for offences wherein if you are a victim you can have your relief before your nearest competent Criminal Court.

Hacker and Cracker (ethical or unethical):

Indian Court In Abhinav vs. State of Haryana, Cr. Misc. No. 9245 of 2008, has defined the term “Hacker” and “Cracker” and made distinction between “ Hacker” and “ “Cracker” on the yardstick of mens rea or intention or motive in adjudicating the offence of hacking. Section 66 of Information Technology Act also supports this view as civil contravention of section 43 of Information Technology Act will be converted into criminal activity if the offender has fraudulent or dishonest motive. This concept of mens of rea in hacking will get further support in a foreign judgement (in DPP vs. Bignell (1998)), wherein the Court observed that mere access to any computer resources is not an offence.

Let me continue with the issue relating to hacking …………………………in the next part of this article……. 

(Everything written in this article are the personal opinion, which someone may agree or disagree)

In my next part of this article I will delve in details on hacking, its ethics and law etc. But before the conclusion of this part of article I must mention my view on a vary serious issue and that is the mushrooming ethical hackers in the society. In various televisions programs or online media, people are coming and self-styling them as so-called “Ethical Hacker”. Who says they are ethical hacker? Very sorry state of affairs for the society. In this lockdown period these people have a very good business in the backdrop of skyrocketing number of cybercrimes. I know that there are many institutions who are offering “Ethical Hacking” course and even helping would-be-ethical-hackers to obtain some foreign company certificate. I have gone through the syllabus of some of the courses. They are showing tricks to hack, but for the part of ethics they are putting students in complete dark as Indian law never allows any private person to go and hack someone’s system, with a label of “Ethical Hacker”. Sometime they handover some study materials wherein few of the foreign laws are discussed which have zero application in India. Thus, from these private institutions, “Ethical Hackers” are born who can not see the day of light in Indian legal platform. Then the big question is who can be called as ethical hacker in India? Is it police personnel? Do they all know how to ethically hack? Let us find out.

How Ethical Are The Ethical Hackers? How to HACK?