Computers, Hackers, And Phreaks :: essays research papers

The internet is a wondrous place. Practically anything you could ever want isavailable on the Net. Its like a big city, it has the highly esteemed areas, and thesex-ridden slums (Mitchell). It has the upstanding citizens, and it has the criminals.On the Net, crime is more abundant than in a large city, though, mainly because ofthe difficulties in tracking and prosecuting offenders. Even from its beginnings, theInternet has always been a battlefield between phreaks and administrators.The Internet hasnt always been a public forum. In fact, the Internet hasbeen around for years. The Internet is just a new fad (Larson). The Internetoriginally began as DARPANET, a government-created network, which wasdesigned for defense communications. The Net structure is such that it couldsurvive a nuclear war (Mitchell). The creation of the Net rotter not be blamed for theexistence of hackers though, hackers are older than the Net itself, but the Net is thelargest hacker haven today (Spencer). The growth of the Net since its creationhas been nothing slight than astounding. In the 25-plus years since its creation, theNet now has over thirty million users using four million sites world wide.Estimates rate the growth of the Net anyplace from ten to fifteen percent permonth (Spencer). The Internet was first released to major universities in theUnited States of America. Since then, the universities have offered clubs tosmall business, service providers, and even to the individual user. sometimes theseconnections cost a fortune, and sometimes they can be obtained for free (Larson).Although some of the original universities have dropped off the Net for variousreasons, every major university in the United States, and now, most others in theworld, have a connection to the Internet (Quittner).Although it isnt easy for an individual to get a direct connection to the Net,many nonpublic institutions are getting direct access. This is mainly due to the factthat in order to support the very high speed of the Net, a fast information processing system is neededand a fast connection. A fast computer can cost in the thousands of dollars, atleast, and a quick connection can cost hundreds dollars or more. Individuals canstill get on the Net through these private institutions. The private institutionspoon-feeds the Net to the slower computers over their delayed connection lines(Jones). The Internet began very high-class, due to the fact that only superintelligent college students and professors could access it. The discussions tendedto stay intellectual, with very little, if any, disturbance (Larson).