ETHICAL ISSUES IN CYBERAGE
Rajeev Kumra · 2002
NTRODUCTION Hacking as defined by Hacker.com is “the act of penetrating a closed computer system for the knowledge and information that is contained within it. Through the study of technology and computers a hacker can open his mind and expand his knowledge. Hacking should be intended to free information and expand minds and not to use it for destruction or material gain. There is always some debate as how the term hacker has been both glorified and undermined by the common media, but most will say that those who destroy data with illegal intent should be referred as crackers, not hackers’. There is need to look beyond this definition. What about the people’s intellectual capital, which is impaired whenever, they loose their personal information without being compensated for it because of hacking? Hackers have often accessed or revealed privately intimate information of other users. The underlying ethical dilemma is of privacy vs. public control of information.