Benefits of Hacking

Most of us would think that there was never a good side to hacking. As media amplified, hacking usually fostered destruction and is detrimental to a certain computer network or simply a personal computer. Bad effects of hacking are mostly reported neglecting the good sides of it which are made by the so called white hat hackers. This name was derived from the old western movies where the good guys always wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. Some of these are individuals and organizations who conduct security audits and research and publish their findings for the security industry. They opt to find security flaws and help users to fix them. They also develop security tools and techniques to help users to fight such attacks in the future. This is one good benefit of hacking.
Hacking also allows computer specialist to test a certain computer system or software. It allows hackers to examine the system’s weaknesses and look for solution to the discovered holes.
Aside from being security consultants, white-hat hackers also help in serving as public watchdogs. They sneak into computer systems to look for any anomalies and dishonesty in a government agency or any private corporation.
Duff (2005) mentioned of the two types of benefits from hacking. These are industry related and individual related benefits. Industry related benefits are the contributions which give profit to the computer industry. The development of today’s computers is the result of the early hackers who untiringly continue to renovate and improve the machine.
The following are the industrial related benefits:
a. Rapid advancement – Hacking plays a role in the rapid advancement of the industry.
b. Inability to stagnate – It drives the industry not to stagnate but to lead it to a continual improvement.
c. Diversify the industry – Hacking opens the opportunities to broaden the horizon of the computer industry.
d. Innovation – It allows the industry to go into modernization and promote continuous development.
Society enjoys some of the results of hacking. The endless interest of hackers to learn new things leads to the discovery of new ideas and brings new opportunities to improve the existing condition the industry have.
The individual benefits are as follows:
a. Continual improvement of security – Hacking continually develops the security of any computer systems. It looks for problems in a system and provide solutions to them.
b. Product improvement – New discoveries of software weaknesses contributes to further improve the products (hardware or software).
c. Increased attention to consumer’s needs – Hacking increase the industries’ effort to meet the needs of the consumers.
d. Reliable , free software – Hacking gives reliable and free software.
e. Free computer and software assistance – It also provides hardware and software assistance to the society.

Reference:

Duff, T. (2005). The Benefits of Hacking: A Different Perspective for the Security Conscious. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://www.trdtechnical.com/eportfolio/Final_Project_Tina.pdf