Introducing the Dark Side
Thomas C. Greene · Apress eBooks · 2004
The dark side of the Web is represented by two general categories of unpleasantness: nuisances and plausible threats, with the former greatly outnumbering the latter. The threats are represented in turn by virus writers, script kiddies, spammers, carders (credit-card fraudsters), identity thieves, marketing profilers, social engineers (con artists), phreaks or phreakers (telephone system experts), overzealous law enforcement officials practicing the art of entrapment, and finally, a few exceptional, all-around hackers with superb programming skills and an intimate knowledge of network infrastructure. However, this last group is a small minority: any notion that the Net has been infiltrated by legions of elite blackhats is purely a product of Hollywood exaggeration and a gullible mainstream press hungry for technical wonders.