> > > > Having worked in the Tech Support field for a number of years, the "Hacker mentality" remains largely a mystery to me.
> > > >
> > > > I know I'm far from computer-illiterate, but most of the skills they have are well beyond mine, if they can do most of what's attributed to them.
> > > >
> > > > That being the case, why don't they put it to better use?
> > >
> > > The missing characteristic, I think, is a lack of maturity. Hackers/crackers can be (CAN be) extremely smart, but the vast vast majority of the troublesome ones are simply immature. The rest of merely criminals with the sort of motivation that drives other criminals. The non-troublesome hackers, the ones that do put their skills to good use, are the ones you never hear about -- or simply not called "hackers" at all, depending on who you talk to.
> >
> > Yeah, here at the college where I work there are two students doing work-study for the MSC department whose main objective is to create ways to hack into the college's system and then close those doors permenantly. So far I have heard of 3 different methods they have found to DL the passwords of every user on campus. And I'm sure they have found more than that.
> >
> > Drac "The Hack" imas
>
> Are hackers the same people who produce these computer viruses? If so, the short circuit in their brain must be the same one that litter bugs and drunk drivers have. I can't understand that kind of mentality either.
> Howard


I think the reason most hackers hack is because of boredom. Why does my dog rip dryer vents out of the wall and chew them up? Boredom. Or that he hates the vent. I've tried hacking, and I just can't get why these people *continue* to hack. Is it for the "rush"? Yeah, right. How much rush do you get from typing all day? Ooo! I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be! Wow! Others say for the challenge. I guess getting the # is a challenge, but come on. What are you going to do once you're there? Steal tax records? *Excitement!* Maybe they like being feared by the majority of the populace. Oh, sure I would be scared if a hacker could get into my bank account, but is that really possible? How many corporate firewalls would a hacker have to get through, undetected, to get to my account information? Too many. I'm not really scared about hackers right now. Most of them are, like Sam said, immature. People I know who claim to be hackers seem very immature and they flaunt the fact that they can "Hack into my computer and destroy my files!". Losers.

Shadow"This is CNN"Clerk