The Ethics of Hacking

So what is a hacker? Do you automatically think of evil people who sift through your private and personal information in order to steal your money or identity? Or, as our political climate continues to change with the constant development of online technologies, are you starting to think of hackers as people who might be able to explore and make sense of the information withheld from us, mainstream society?

Ted Mitew discussed the difference between White and Black Hat Hackers, or good hackers vs evil hackers retrospectively, but the ethics of hacking still remains to be somewhat ambiguous with the line between the good and the bad being quite fine.

One example of the ‘White Hat’ good guys is Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is an organisation made up of volunteer hackers, whistleblowers and online activists, with the aim of reveal hidden information to society to make a point. By empowering the public with knowledge, this organisation gives the mainstream public a chance to understand information for themselves and create social change, instead of simply believing everything that Governments and politicians preach to us. As James Crabtree notes, "the political potential of the internet lies not in connecting people to politicians [but] in the possibility of bringing citizens together to help themselves." Does this kind of hacking fit within our moral beliefs, or should hackers like this be persecuted?

It is clear what major players like Governments and corporations think, with many of the major banks in the US blocking any forms of donations to WikiLeaks. Although there have been consistent attempts to stop the organisation from running from governments, the army and through litigation, none have been effective as of yet.

In keeping with the focus of ethics, I am going to sum up my queries and propose them to you. If we consider that we are now living as part of the information economy with privacy being a controversial leading issue, can hacking be ethical? If we can justify the actions of the White Hats enough to agree that yes, it can be ethical, then is it fair for hackers to be oppressed? And finally, should we be forcing Governments and organizations to become more transparent? In a previous post I discussed the sniffer worm and the fact that governments can easily track our day to day activities. Why is this not reciprocal?

I am looking forward in seeing what you have to say in regards to this.