Citation: Peacock, Donna (2013) From underground hacking to ethical hacking. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/32285/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html From Underground Hacking to Ethical Hacking Donna Peacock PhD 2013 From Underground Hacking to Ethical Hacking Donna Peacock A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the School of Arts and Social Sciences September 2013 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... 6 Abstract.................................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 8 Declaration ............................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 The development of the Research Question ................................................................. 12 1.3 Aim ............................................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Theoretical Approach.................................................................................................... 16 1.6 Additions to Knowledge ................................................................................................ 17 1.8 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................ 18 Chapter 2: The Development of Hacking ................................................................................ 23 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 23 2.2 Origins and Development of Computing, the Internet, and Hacking .............................. 23 2.3 Understanding ‘Hacks’ and ‘Hackers’ ........................................................................... 29 2.4 Hacker Typologies ........................................................................................................ 34 2.5 Hacking: Affordance and Determinism .......................................................................... 43 2.6 Hacker Social Organisation .......................................................................................... 47 2.7 Theorising Hacking as Deviance: Criminological Perspectives ..................................... 58 2.8 The Emergence of Ethical Hacking ............................................................................... 68 2.9 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 73 2 Chapter 3: Regulation for Cyberspace: Ethics, Morality and the Law ..................................... 75 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 75 3.2 Computer Misuse: Legal Remedies .............................................................................. 76 3.2.1 Traditional Crimes .................................................................................................. 77 3.2.2 Content Related Computer Misuse ........................................................................ 81 3.2.3 Integrity Related Computer Misuse ........................................................................ 84 3.3 The Development of UK Legislation against Computer Misuse ..................................... 85 3.3.1 The Computer Misuse Act (CMA) 1990 .................................................................. 85 3.3.2 Amendments to the Computer Misuse Act (1990) .................................................. 90 3.4 Alternative Modalities of Control: Code is Law .............................................................. 94 3.5 Ethics and Morality ....................................................................................................... 98 3.5.1 Virtue/ Character Ethics ....................................................................................... 104 3.5.2 Deontological Ethics ............................................................................................. 106 3.5.3. Teleological (Consequential) Ethics .................................................................... 108 3.6 Meta-ethical Approaches to Underground Hacking .................................................... 109 3.7 Summary and Conclusions ......................................................................................... 110 Chapter 4: Understanding Ethical Hacking Through Realist Research ................................. 112 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 112 4.2 Theoretical approach to the research design .............................................................. 113 4.3 Intensive Research Design ......................................................................................... 119 4.4 Establishing Trustworthiness in Critical Realist Enquiry .............................................. 123 4.5 Participants ................................................................................................................. 128 4.6 Sampling .................................................................................................................... 129 4.7 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................ 133 4.8 Data Collection: Semi-structured Interviews ............................................................... 136 4.9 Data Management Processes ..................................................................................... 142 4.10 Interpretation and Presentation of Findings .............................................................. 146 4.11 Summary and Conclusions ...................................................................................... 147 Chapter 5: Theorising Ethical Hackers ................................................................................. 149 3 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 149 5.2 Bounded Rational Choice as a model for understanding Ethical Hacker decision making ......................................................................................................................................... 151 5.4 The Ethical Hackers’ View of Hacking ........................................................................ 158 5.4 Are ‘Ethical Hackers’ ‘Hackers’? ................................................................................. 168 5.5 Courses of Study for Ethical Hackers ......................................................................... 175 5.6 Employability in the Sector ......................................................................................... 180 5.7 Roles, Responsibilities and Employers ....................................................................... 181 5.8 Employability of Ex-criminals ...................................................................................... 185 5.9 Home and Work .......................................................................................................... 192 5.10 Moving from Underground Hacking to Ethical Hacking ............................................. 197 5.11 Social Organisation of Ethical Hackers ..................................................................... 202 5.12 Summary and Conclusions ....................................................................................... 206 Chapter 6: Cyber-ethics and the Ethical Hacker ................................................................... 209 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................