Hacker

Summary

In his documentary, Alexander Biedermann portrays five hackers of from different generations and discerns their highly oppositional motivations. There is the new breed of today"s hackers, who aggressively test the limits of computer systems by spreading viruses. Yet there are also the "classic" hacker types, for instance the people who infiltrated the NASA systems in 1987 and were deemed criminals by justice and the media. What unifies most hackers, is their self-image as protectors of the free information society. But the line between legal and illegal activities is difficult to draw, and idealistic aims and the longing for fame in the hacker scene don"t always go together.In his documentary, Alexander Biedermann portrays five hackers of different generations and discerns their highly oppositional motivations. There is the new breed of today′s hackers, who aggressively test the limits of computer systems by spreading viruses. Yet there are also the "classic" hacker types, for instance the people who infiltrated the NASA systems in 1987 and were deemed criminals by justice and the media. What unifies most hackers, is their self-image as protectors of the free information society. But the line between legal and illegal activities is difficult to draw, and idealistic aims and the longing for fame in the hacker scene don′t always go together.