It took the Internet a while but it did limp back to normal following the attack by the SQL Slammer Worm. The attack only directed a storm of spurious Net traffic that constricted routine operations, but did not destroy the databases it infected. Net security experts fear this is only an initial prodding of global net defences, the worst is yet to come. Most regular hackers would be disdainful, however. Readily available software can be effectively harnessed to send huge amounts of information to a computer system, overloading it. Pekka Himanen in his book, The Hacker Ethic, sees hackers as dedicated, inventive and enthusiastic explorers. Hackers see themselves as skilled artisans, studying computer systems and security, then using their programming skill to expose loopholes; intellectual stimulation rather than profit or malice motivates them. The GNU/Linux operating system, the Apache web server and BIND, the programme that holds the domain name system together were all written by hackers. Hackers maintain a distinction between themselves. In ‘Zi Hackademy’, France’s new school for computer hackers and the world’s first, would-be cyber pirates learn the not-so-ancient art of computer hacking. A beginner is a ‘newbie’ in hacker speak; intermediates are called ‘wild’ while the highest level is termed ‘intrusion’. A growing breed are ‘hacktivists’ who mix hacking with political activism. Respectable hackers distance themselves from the ‘crackers’ — those who break into poorly secured systems. To reduce the risk of digital attacks that have been steadily rising since 1998, it would help to have hackers as the friendly guys. Conservative projections estimate that in 2002, there were nearly 45,000 hack attacks across the globe, up from 269 in 1998, 4,197 in 1999 and 31,322 in 2001. More than isolated attacks by the computer nerd, the threat of a cyber-war involving nations is now an ever-growing reality. Cyber-wars might not directly spill blood, but in the information age constricting the flow of data with precisely programmed ‘weapons of mass disruption’ can be as effective a way of humbling a country as bombing its oil refineries. It is believed that it was the LTTE that, in 1997, perpetrated the first concerted cyber-attack of its kind. While the technology used appears rudimentary today, the strike managed to disrupt government communications by overloading Sri Lankan embassies with millions of e-mails. Themes of cyber-crime have breathed new life into thriller fiction since the end of the Cold War. One of the earliest to use the theme of hacking was Spanish author Arturo de Perez Reverte, in The Seville Communion (1995). A hacker known only as Vespers cracks Vatican security to send an urgent plea directly to the Pope, seeking his intervention to save a crumbling Seville church from demolition. Murders follow and the Vatican despatches Father Lorenzo Quart to investigate the situation and track down Vespers. Going by present trends, reality may soon leave fiction behind.
