POL30018: Cyber Crime and Security - Hacking Theories and Practices

This research essay delves into the multifaceted world of hacking, examining its historical evolution, prevalence, and significance in the digital age. It begins by defining hacking and differentiating between various types of hackers, including white hat, grey hat, and black hat individuals. The essay then traces the origins of hacking from the 1960s, highlighting key events and incidents that shaped its development. It explores the increasing prevalence of hacking in the modern era, driven by technological advancements and the growing dependence on computers and networks. The core of the essay focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of hacking behavior, examining psychoanalytic, social learning, and control theories. It analyzes how these theories help explain the motivations and actions of hackers, and their relationship with victims. The essay also explores the importance of ethical hacking in ensuring information security and the roles of both victims and offenders in hacking incidents. Finally, it provides a brief policy perspective on hacking for the Australian government, underscoring the need for effective cyber security measures.

Running head: THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF HACKING
Theories and Practices of Hacking
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF HACKING
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Historical Development of Hacking:...........................................................................................3
Prevalence of Hacking:................................................................................................................4
Theories and Hacking:.................................................................................................................6
Importance of Hacking:...............................................................................................................8
Victims and offenders of Hacking:..............................................................................................8
Policy Brief of Hacking for the Australian Government:............................................................9
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................11

2THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF HACKING
Introduction:
Hacking is defined as the intrusion if unauthorized action into computers and their
associated networks. The occurrence of any malicious activities is also termed as hacking as it
involves unusual alteration of processes and equipment related to technological systems (Gunkel
2018). In order to understand better about the phenomenon of hacking, it is important to
understand the main individual that remains behind the process that is the hackers. Hackers are
some highly skilled, intelligent beings who are aware of each and every hacking activity that are
done within computer systems while breaking the security of the systems in a very expertise
manner. There are three types of hackers namely the white hat hacker, the grey hat hackers and
the black hat hackers. Hackers have their own intensions in the process behind hacking and they
have their necessary skills in order to accomplish in their mission. At one end of the spectrum,
the white hat hackers are those who are involved with ethical hacking against the black hat
people while the black hat people are those who are involved with unethical hacking trying to
steal credential information of users and use them for their own interest. There are several
theories present with the concept of hacking and this report discusses about the different theories
that goes with the hacking behavior of the criminals and their prevalent practices in the modern
world.
Discussion:
Historical Development of Hacking:
The concept of hacking all began in the year 1960s. The concept of hacking originated
from the term hacker that involved extreme skill and practices of programming in FORTRAN or

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in any other languages. Hackers always have the ability to retain, absorb while exerting vast
quantity of knowledge regarding intricate details. Previously hackers were usually referred to as
people who used to lock themselves in rooms while programming non-stop through hours (Hood
and Littlejohn 2018). At the beginning of hacking the concept was not given as much importance
as now. The very first incident of hacking started in the year 1878 with the startup of the phone
company known as Bell Telephone. The hacking incident included a group of teenage boys who
were hired in order to run the switchboards while disconnecting the calls and misdirecting them.
The first authentic hacking came up in the year 1960s when the mainframe computers were
locked away in areas with controlled temperature and glass areas. After this the first major
hacking came up in the year 1971and was carried out by one of Vietnam vet known as John
Draper. With his hacking skill, he discovered ways to make free phone calls and this type of
hacking later came to be known as Phreking. After these events, in the year 1980s hacking
reached to its peak of seriousness as huge number of computers started to emerge with its fully
loaded components like CPU, software, storage systems and many more. In Milwaukee a
talented pool of hackers known as the 414 broke into systems ranging from the Los Alamos
Laboratories to Manhattan’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. This was known as the
Great Hacker War however the situation got so much bad that the Fed’s put a stop to it and with
this the era came to an end. In modern world, various other malicious attacks were launched that
became prominent in the business of all kinds.
Prevalence of Hacking:
Modern era is growing up with the advancement of technology. Business sectors are
growing up gradually in the field of computers and other telecommunication equipment making
individuals more dependent on the computers and their associated networks in order to carry out

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the daily activities (Stalans and Donner 2018). According to some report it has been estimated
that by the year 2020 the number of hacking incidents will rise to about 200 million with
introduction of new levels of hacking activities (Sawye and Hancock 2018).
Hacking is mainly caused as a result of criminal behavior of the hackers which can be explained
by the use of traditional psychological theory.
Traditional Psychological Theory: These type of theory helps in better understanding of the
criminal behavior of the hackers and to develop a brief demonstration of the concept of hacking
(Anderson 2018).
Major types of Psychological Theories of Hacking:
The major types of psychological theories that are associated with the field of hacking includes-
1. Psychoanalytic Theory: The psychoanalytic theory as developed by Freud is used as an
indirect means to explain the criminal behavior of hackers. This theory mainly relies on the
pathological process that manifests the acts of the criminals. According to this theory behavior
depends on the balancing of physic energy system. Psychoanalytic Theory is mainly concerned
with unconscious activity but as per hacking concerns it is a type of conscious activity depending
on technical skills and operational knowledge of computers. Thus these theories fails to account
for the emergent behavior of hacking based on the different constraints of its structural
inheritance. The psychoanalytic theory helps in defining the psychological profiling of the
hackers and is useful to understand only specific cases of hacking but not the criminal behaviors
of the hackers.

5THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF HACKING
2. Social Learning Theory: The social learning is one of the theories that are associated with
the work of Bandura based on his research on the concept of imitation and modeling. The theory
explains that the behavior of criminals can be learned through mere observation and hence it can
be reinforced according to three contexts such as family, subculture and social environment.
Bandura’s theory of social learning can be applied to explain the behavior of hackers (Nodeland
and Morris 2018). It is seen that hackers often tries to associate with other hackers while forming
a community and learning things that are accounted as the criminal behaviors and can be
reinforced by the interaction within the society through extreme sharing of knowledge. With this
theory, the modeling behaviors of the hackers are expressed as they are linked to the subculture
to reinforce the code of sharing information.
3. Control Theory: The theories that fall under the control theory shares a common assumption
that includes everyone having the potential to engage in criminal activities like hacking (Back,
Soor and LaPrade 2018). Some of the theories that fall under the Control Theory are as follows:
1. Kohlberg theory of moral development:
2. Criminology theory: defining the motivation of hackers behind carrying out cyber-crime.
3. Eysenck’s theory: defining the behavior of hackers as influenced by the social factors.
Theories and Hacking:
There are no one theory present that goes with the different concepts of hacking and its
prevalence. The term hacker does not refer to a single group of homogenous people but consists
of vastly spread group of people having knowledge of different skill sets. The traditional theories
that are being discussed can only be applied to a limited portion of the subgroups of hackers
(Booth 2018). The psychoanalytic theory that is discussed within this paper deals with many

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unconscious factors. But as hacking is itself a conscious activity hence these theory does not go
exactly with it. However, several of the infamous hackers come from dysfunctional families but
this theory is not used in this case so as to engage this. The psychoanalytic theory helps in
explaining the criminal behavior of the hackers with respect to their specific skills set related to
computers and networks and their way of relatively advanced understanding of technology
(Carpenter et al. 2019). For hackers, in order to conduct a successful hacking while planning out
attack efficiently. The attacks that are conducted are deliberate attacks and the systems of the
victim are usually pre-chosen and are not in a random manner. However the concept of control
theory in explaining hacking is quite mixed. The Eysenck’s theory based on personality helps in
predicting the extraversion scale of hackers. The moral development theory helped in
understanding the subset of the hackers. As per the Kohlberg’s theory on moral development,
one of the stages of pre-morality that goes with this concept is hedonism. The learning theory
helps in providing the best scope of understanding the concept of hacking. However, the social
learning theory as well as the differential reinforcement theory seems to be more appropriate to
extend the concept of hacking behavior than any other traditional theories. Although hackers are
self-reported individuals with underdeveloped traditional social skills, nowadays, hackers appear
to be stronger in desire and often needs peers. Hackers tend to associate with other individuals
while engaging into different hacking behaviors (Hatfield 2019). This type of hacker association
can take place in the form of pure electronics means or by intimately joining each other through
hacker club. From the report it is evident that hackers tends to learn their respective criminal
behavior while holding positive attitude towards their behavior. The maintenance of the behavior
of hacking is mainly due to the reinforcement schedule which is complex in nature while
associating with the social learning theory.

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Importance of Hacking:
One of the biggest threats that is prevalent in today’s era is the risk of getting hacked
which was not taken seriously even few years back. As cybercrimes are becoming more
sophisticated day by day hence, the need for ethical hacking is emerging day by day (Nicholson
2019). Ethical hacking within business helps in ensuring the effectiveness of the confidentiality
of information and their services. Organizations like government agencies and other business
organizations are in constant need of ethical hackers that would help them in combating the
vulnerabilities related to the IT security within organization (Li et al.2018). The process of
ethical hacking comprises of various tools that helps in reducing the risks that are associated with
the flow of information within organization while putting into regular tests and checkups on the
information system.
Victims and offenders of Hacking:
As per different researches, it is seen that victims are likely to conduct criminal acts
related to hacking and that the offenders have a high risk of getting victimized (Weulen
Kranenbarg, Holt and van Gelder 2019). Victims and offenders of hacking shares the same risk
factor like low self-control along with routine activities and a risky life style that leads to the
increase in both the risk factors for offenders as well as victims (Chavez 2018). In today’s era,
more and more victims are falling under the prey of hacking as a result of their level of
sophistication related to online scam. Hackers have developed ways to identify their victims by
means of sending emails or malware while slewing the features of cyber security within the
system of the victims. The detailed understanding of the characteristics and criminal behavior of
hacking can be developed with the help of criminal profiling that includes choosing the victims

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that are associated with the hacking activity. In this case the forensic victimology method helps
in assisting the nature of the exposed victim while experiencing the harmful incidents
experienced by the victim. For example, in 2001, Microsoft became one of the most prominent
victim of the very new type of hack that took place that was known to attack the domain name
server. On the other hand, with the gradual rise in the internet facility, offenders or the black hat
people gets the visibility or the accessibility to various components of a website and thus takes
advantages of it so as to cause harm to the victims. One such example of offender of hacking
activity of Microsoft was Zammis Clark who had his involvement in the Microsoft Network
Breaching Case.
Policy Brief of Hacking for the Australian Government:
The policy brief of Australian Government based on hacking consists of several acts and
models that help in describing the diversity of the type of hacking that are more likely to take
place while implementing measures to protect that hacking incident. Hacking involves two major
concepts of action related to unauthorized access and the act of accessing data illegally. Based on
it, the laws that are put forward in Australia are as follows:
1. The Cybercrime Act Model: This model of Cyber Act as formed by the Australian
Government includes restricting the use of computers without prior consent and includes a
penalty scale of 2 to 10 years leading to imprisonment.
2. In Western Australia, the section 440A of the Criminal Code was introduced in the year 1990
heading towards operation of computer system by unlawful means. The section refers to the
unauthorized access of systems in case of restricted access (Wood and Howie 2018). This
provision of the section suits best with the situation of hacking when someone hacks a computer

9THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF HACKING
from external environment leading considerable difficulties in determining the identity of the
unauthorized access.
3. The Queensland law that is introduced in the year 1997, is used in case of offence like hacking
of computers and misusing it. This law is concerned about the security of computer systems and
their issues regarding privacy.
Conclusion:
In the world of hyper connected devices, hacking has emerged as one of the super power.
Different measures have been taken in order to improve the level of security of the distributed
systems that hackers found very much easy to crack while taking away information. Earlier
hackers were considered as individuals having genius mind helping to develop computers and
various technology related to it but as time started expanding hackers are trying to gain access to
privacy of individuals through illegal means. Thus now it has become important for businesses
of all kind to protect their data assets from the hand of black hat people so as to safeguard the
business objectives while ensuring data security within the system. Anti-hacking software is one
of the means that helps in protecting PC from cyber-attacks while regularly monitoring the
activities, detecting and removing viruses if present. Thus in order to prevent hacking it is
important to update the applications and devices while helping in to improve the user experience
and rectifying the loopholes and security weakness of the systems.

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References:
Anderson, A., 2018. Psyche and Ethos: Moral Life After Psychology. Oxford University Press.
Back, S., Soor, S. and LaPrade, J., 2018. Juvenile Hackers: An Empirical Test of Self-Control
Theory and Social Bonding Theory. International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence &
Cybercrime, 1(1), pp.40-55.
Booth, J., 2018. Hacking and Hackerspaces. new formations: a journal of
culture/theory/politics, 94(94), pp.180-182.
Carpenter, D., Young, D.K., Barrett, P. and McLeod, A.J., 2019. Refining Technology Threat
Avoidance Theory. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 44(1), p.22.
Chavez, N.M., 2018. Can we learn from hackers to protect victims?.
Gunkel, D.J., 2018. Hacking cyberspace. Routledge.
Hatfield, J.M., 2019. Virtuous human hacking: The ethics of social engineering in penetration-
testing. Computers & Security, 83, pp.354-366.
Hood, N. and Littlejohn, A., 2018. Hacking History: Redressing Gender Inequities on Wikipedia
Through an Editathon. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed
Learning, 19(5).
Li, C.Y., Huang, C.C., Lai, F., Lee, S.L. and Wu, J., 2018. A Comprehensive Overview of
Government Hacking Worldwide. IEEE Access, 6, pp.55053-55073.

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Nicholson, S., 2019. How ethical hacking can protect organisations from a greater
threat. Computer Fraud & Security, 2019(5), pp.15-19.
Nodeland, B. and Morris, R., 2018. A Test of Social Learning Theory and Self-Control on Cyber
Offending. Deviant Behavior, pp.1-16.
Sawyer, B.D. and Hancock, P.A., 2018. Hacking the human: the prevalence paradox in
cybersecurity. Human factors, 60(5), pp.597-609.
Stalans, L.J. and Donner, C.M., 2018. Explaining Why Cybercrime Occurs: Criminological and
Psychological Theories. In Cyber Criminology (pp. 25-45). Springer, Cham.
Weulen Kranenbarg, M., Holt, T.J. and van Gelder, J.L., 2019. Offending and victimization in
the digital age: Comparing correlates of cybercrime and traditional offending-only,
victimization-only and the victimization-offending overlap. Deviant Behavior, 40(1), pp.40-55.
Wood, C. and Howie, E., 2018. Protest rights: Brown v Tasmania: How the high court struck
down Tasmania's anti-protest laws. Bulletin (Law Society of South Australia), 40(11), p.28.