Hackers: Cyber Scapegoats

Hackers are everywhere. If we do not keep constantly vigilant against them they will hack into your computer, steal your identification and credit card numbers, place child porn and bestiality pictures on your hard drive, melt down your CPU, and impregnate your household pets. Right?

In reality, Hackers are rarely involved in most of the things people think they are. People tend to use Hackers as fall guys. Whenever something happens to a computer or a user's information and the user (or their well meaning friends) don't know the cause, it is usually attributed to Hackers, viruses or viruses planted by Hackers. The truth is, the culprit is usually:

1. The user's own carelessness
2. Assholes exploiting #1

The absolute most common reason for computer problems is user error. The problem is, users are often so sure that they know what they are doing that they are unwilling to admit they made a mistake. One thing people seem to forget about the Internet is that there is no police or government, the Internet is almost total anarchy.

Enter the assholes. Because of the recent boom of the personal computer without an equally strong education in adapting to the new technology, opportunists (assholes) have found a new way to trick people into buying things they don't want or need, giving out personal information, and relinquishing control of their computers. These assholes are NOT Hackers, however, they are capitalists. About 75% of the malicious internet-born activity around today is created by people looking to make money. Another 20% is people just being assholes to make themselves feel smarter than everyone else. Only about 5% is actual Hacker activity. To prove my point, look at the picture below... the actual download link is not even on that screen, but further down on the page:

The fake ones look pretty convincing huh? They are meant to hijack your clicks and trick you into downloading Spyware or Malware, or at least force you to read some more ads. This kind of trickery is especially prominent on social media sites such as Facebook and My___.

THIS is how Facebook accounts become compromised, NOT from Hackers.

That kind of deception is not the work of a Hacker. It is the work of normal people trying to screw other people with the full knowledge that they can not be held accountable.

This is not to say that Hackers can not be dangerous or do not use viruses to gain access to exploits, but it is MUCH harder than most people realize. Hackers believe that all information should be free and find it a challenge to gain access to that information. A Hacker by the name of Tim Berner-Lee created the Internet; and to this date, Internet access is 100% free. The fee you pay every month for internet access is not paying for the Internet, but the means to reach it (data lines, overhead costs for keeping servers running, etc). The Internet itself is free to access, download and use at your leisure.

That being said, the average person's credit card information and computer files are not worth a Hacker's time and effort. Newer operating systems with access control and built-in firewalls are difficult and time consuming to gain unauthorized access to. Unless you have very sought-after information or personally pissed a Hacker off, chances are they have no interest in you.