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ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE HACKER ETHIC.

The article discusses academic freedom and the relationship of computer hackers to government, business and academic establishments. It critically examines the interest, usually with good intentions, of computer hackers to examine computer codes to uncover and solve security vulnerabilities. The a...

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Published in:Communications of the ACM Vol. 49; no. 6; pp. 37 - 41
Main Author: Cross, Tom
Format: Article
Published: Association for Computing Machinery Jun2006
Subjects:
Computer hacking
Computer network security
Computer security
Data protection
Computer training
Technology & state
Intellectual freedom
Fukuyama, Francis, 1952-
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:The article discusses academic freedom and the relationship of computer hackers to government, business and academic establishments. It critically examines the interest, usually with good intentions, of computer hackers to examine computer codes to uncover and solve security vulnerabilities. The article examines ways that academia and government have interacted with the hacker community. The author also discusses the idea, advanced by political economist Francis Fukuyama, that government should control basic research and provide direction for all research. Many scientists and researchers believe that this idea is a dangerous strike at academic freedom.