Someday it may be possible to get a clearer picture of what the activities of the computer underground actually cost industry and telecom companies. Present estimates vary so widely as to be worthless. Figures seem to be plucked from the air: it is utterly impossible to verify whether the true cost in the United States is around $550 million each year (the Computerworld estimate), or whether total losses could actually amount to as much as $5 billion (as was estimated at a security conference in 1991). These exaggerations are compounded by the hackers themselves--who are only too willing to embellish their accomplishments. With both sides expounding fanciful stories and ever wilder claims, truth is lost in the telling.
What is ironic is that the activities of the hackers are leading to a situation they would decry. Security managers have a clear responsibility to protect their sites from electronic intrusion. As hackers become bolder, security is becoming tightened, threatening the very "freedom of information" that hacking, in its benign form, is said to promote.
Hackers are an engaging bunch, even the "bad" ones: bright, curious, technically gifted, passionate, prone to harmless boasting, and more than a little obsessed. They are usually creative, probing, and impatient with rules and restrictions. In character, they closely resemble the first-generation hackers.
Computing has always gained from the activities of those who look beyond what is there, to think of what there might be. The final irony for the computer industry is that the hackers who are being shut out today will be the programmers, managers, and even security experts of tomorrow.
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