Exploring Hacker Types: Pranksters and Activists in Cybersecurity

Some are pranksters. Like the group known as "scriptx," which cracked into a Web site two weeks ago only to post a picture of a jolly fat man wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a smile. Some are Romeos. A . . . Some are pranksters. Like the group known as "scriptx," which cracked into a Web site two weeks ago only to post a picture of a jolly fat man wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a smile. Some are Romeos. A guy with the online handle "psaux," for example, cracked into more than 100 Brazilian Web sites in January to tell his girlfriend, Kica, that he loves and wants her.

These are the folks that computer criminal "MagicFX," the guy the FBI believes is Jerome Heckenkamp of Los Alamos, hung around with in the cyberworld.

Hackers, crackers or script kiddies - they break into Web sites or play with the codes that run computers. Some are online good Samaritans who raid kiddie porn sites and destroy the offending pictures. Some are "hacktivists" who vandalize with pro-Kashmir, pro-Arab, pro-Israeli, pro-you-name-it messages.

The link for this article located at Albuquerque Journal is no longer available.