Profiling Hackers: The Science of Criminal Profiling as Applied to the World of Hacking

288 Pages·2008·2.21 MB·English

by  Raoul Chiesa

PROFILING
HACKERS
The Science of Criminal Profiling as
Applied to the World of Hacking

PROFILING
HACKERS
The Science of Criminal Profiling as
Applied to the World of Hacking
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Original edition: Profilo Hacker - La scienza del Criminal Profiling applicata al mondo dell’hacking by Raoul
Chiesa and Silvio Ciappi, Milan, Italy. Copyright (c) 2007 by Apogeo s.r.l. - Socio Unico Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Editore s.r.l. All Rights Reserved.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNICRI. Contents of this
report may be quoted or reproduced, provided that the source of information is acknowledged.
UNICRI would like to receive a copy of the document in which this study is used or quoted.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chiesa, Raoul, 1973-
[Profilo hacker. English]
Profiling hackers : the science of criminal profiling as applied to the world of hacking /
authors: Raoul Chiesa, Stefania Ducci, Silvio Ciappi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4200-8693-5 (alk. paper)
1. Computer crimes. 2. Computer security. 3. Computer hackers. 4. Criminal behavior,
Prediction of. I. Ducci, Stefania. II. Ciappi, Silvio, 1965- III. Title.
HV6773.C477 2009
363.25’968--dc22 2008024603
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
FOREWORD xv
FOREWORD TO THE ITALIAN EDITION xvii
BOOK PRESENTATION xix
INTRODUCTION xxi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL PROFILING 1
Brief History of Criminal Profi ling 1
London, 1888 1
Quantico, Virginia, 1970 1
Liverpool, 1993 3
California, 1997 5
Serial Crimes and Criminal Profi ling: How to
Interpret Th em 6
Th e Crime Scene Refl ects the Personality
of the Perpetrator 7
Th e Crime Method Tends to Remain the
Same over Time 7
Criminal Profi ling: Applying It to Study Hackers 9
CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCING “CYBERCRIME” 13
Information Technology and Digital Crimes 15
1980, 1990, 2000: Th ree Ways of Looking at
Cybercrime 17
Mr. Smith, Hackers, and Digital Crimes in the
IT Society 17
V
VI CONTENTS
Digital Crimes vs. Hacking: Terminology and
Defi nitions 20
Password Guessing 21
Self-Replicating Code 22
Password Cracking 23
Exploiting Known Vulnerability 25
Disabling Audit 25
Backdoor 26
Hijacking Session 27
Sniff er 27
Stealth Diagnostic 28
Packet Spoofi ng 28
GUI 29
Automated Probe/Scan 30
WWW Attack/Incident 31
Denial of Service (DoS) 31
Conclusions 32
CHAPTER 3 TO BE, THINK, AND LIVE AS A HACKER 33
Evolution of the Term 35
Th e Artifacts of the Hacker Culture 35
Th e Jargon File 37
Th e Hacker Manifesto 38
One Code of Ethics or More? 39
Understanding Hackers: How Far Have We Gone? 40
What Are the Motives behind Hacking? 44
Th e Colors of the Underground 46
Commonly Recognized Hacker Categories 52
Wannabe Lamer 53
Script Kiddie 53
“37337 K-rAd iRC #hack 0-day Exploitz” Guy 54
Cracker 54
Ethical Hacker 55
Quiet, Paranoid, Skilled Hacker 55
Cyber-Warrior 56
Industrial Spy 56
Government Agent 56
CHAPTER 4 THE HPP PROJECT 57
Th e Planning Phase 59
Phase 1: Th eoretical Data Collection 60
Phase 2: Observation 62
Phase 3: Archiving 63
Phase 4: “Live” Data Collection 64
Phase 5: G&C Analysis 65
Phase 6: HPP Live Assessment (24 / 7) 65
CONTENTS VII
Phase 7: Final Profi ling 66
Phase 8: Dissemination of the Model 66
Th e Questionnaires 66
Th e Format 68
Distribution 70
First-Level Analysis 72
Provenance of the Questionnaires 72
Basic Statistics 73
Second-Level Analysis 76
Time Spent Hacking 78
Legal Aspects 80
Personality 82
Relationships with the Outside World 84
CHAPTER 5 WHO ARE HACKERS? PART 1 87
What Are We Trying to Understand? 87
Gender and Age Group 90
Background and Place of Residence 91
How Hackers View Th emselves 91
Family Background 93
Socioeconomic Background 95
Social Relationships 95
Leisure Activities 97
Education 98
Professional Environment 100
Psychological Traits 102
To Be or to Appear: Th e Level of Self-Esteem 105
Presence of Multiple Personalities 106
Psychophysical Conditions 108
Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Dependencies 109
Defi nition or Self-Defi nition: What Is a Real
Hacker? 111
Relationship Data 113
Relationship with Parents 113
Relationship with the Authorities 114
Relationships with Friends, Schoolmates,
Colleagues at Work 115
Relationships with Other Members of the
Underground Community 116
CHAPTER 6 WHO ARE HACKERS? PART 2 121
Handle and Nickname 121
Starting Age 122
Learning and Training Modalities 122
Th e Mentor’s Role 125
Technical Capacities (Know-How) 126
VIII CONTENTS
Hacking, Phreaking, or Carding: Th e Reasons
behind the Choice 127
Networks, Technologies, and Operating Systems 130
Techniques Used to Penetrate a System 131
Social Engineering 133
Password Search 134
Individual and Group Attacks 135
Th e Art of War: Examples of Attack Techniques 136
Attack Procedures 138
War Dialing 138
Ping-of-Death Attack against Web Servers 138
NMAP 138
Denial-of-Service (DoS) 139
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)
Attack 140
Operating inside a Target System 141
Th e Hacker’s Signature 142
Relationships with System Administrators 143
Motivations 144
Th e First Step 144
Declared Motives 145
Intellectual Curiosity 147
Love of Technology 150
Fun and Games 150
Making the PC World Safer 151
Fighting for Freedom 152
Confl ict with Authority 153
Rebelliousness 154
Spirit of Adventure and Ownership 155
Boredom 156
Attracting Attention, Becoming Famous 156
Anger and Frustration 156
Political Reasons 158
Escape from Family, Escape from Society 158
Professionals 158
Th e Power Trip 159
Lone Hackers 161
Hacker Groups 162
Initiation Rites 163
Internal Organization of Groups 164
Rules and Social Intercourse within the Group 165
Favorite Targets and Reasons 166
Specializations 168
Web Defacing 169
Software Cracking 170
Principles of the Hacker Ethics 171
Acceptance or Refusal of the Hacker Ethics 174
CONTENTS IX
Crashed Systems 176
Hacking/Phreaking Addiction 177
Perception of the Illegality of Th eir Actions 179
Off enses Perpetrated with the Aid of IT Devices 182
Off enses Perpetrated without the Use of IT
Devices 183
Fear of Discovery, Arrest, and Conviction 183
Th e Law as Deterrent 184
Eff ect of Convictions 185
Leaving the Hacker Scene 186
Beyond Hacking 187
CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS 189
AFTERWORD: SLAYING TODAY’S DRAGONS—HACKERS
IN CYBERSPACE 193
APPENDIX A: HPP QUESTIONNAIRE 199
APPENDIX B: HACKER BIOS 221
APPENDIX C: THE NINE HACKER CATEGORIES 239
APPENDIX D: THE HACKER MANIFESTO
(CONSCIENCE OF A HACKER) 243
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ONLINE REFERENCES 245
INDEX 251