NYC Kids Hack the Darndest Things

"We are Samurai... the Keyboard Cowboys..."

Paging 1995: hacking is uber-cool again! According to a new survey of 1,000 NYC kids released by Tufin Technologies, a computer-security firm, 30 percent of NYC kids think hacking is easy, and one in six have tried hacking into other people's computers (Facebook is the number one target, followed by friends' email). Seven percent said they hacked for money, and six percent see it as a viable career option. (In England, one in four have tried hacking.)

Most importantly, it's about being chill—and 40 percent of those NYC kids surveyed think hacking is cool. But if you're not careful kids, you could end up as cool as Johnny Lee Miller's career. Reuven Harrison, chief technology officer for Tufin Technologies, gave us a new nominee for understatement of the year: "It is very interesting for us to learn more about what our kids are doing...I don't think parents are aware of how computer savvy their kids are."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in News on April 16, 2010 3:51 PM

Comments [rss]

Ph

Intrusion detection is, pardon the internet meme, serious business. I hate to break it to the media at large but it takes a special type of person with the know how and predilection towards math to successfully break through most security schema today. Punk ass kids that even use the term 'hacker' are not in this group.

Or in basic terms: Tuffin is talking out its ass and has some kind of financial motive for this.

jaycjay

"has some kind of financial motive for this."

As I said earlier, "The leading provider of Security Lifecycle Management Solutions."

SikBug

The internet is serus business, sersly

Darrell

I hate it when big media can't figure out computer terminology, be it that no website in the world has a backslash in its address, or that password cracking is different from hacking. Its like when they said that Sarah Palin's e-mail account was hacked. No it wasn't, she's an idiot and made her yahoo e-mail account's password super easy to figure out. How much you want to bet it was her first born's birthdate.

I guess that I shouldn't be surprised, its the age of the iGadget and people are running around how "magical" their new iProduct is, hell apple had the audacity to put out a commercial talking about their iPhone was magical and how the female narrator "still doesn't know how my iPhone could do this" as though she didn't buy the apps from the app store, or had a basic understanding of how computers work.

As for the facebook thing, kids are stupid. I couldn't tell you how many times my idiot school mates told each other their facebook account passwords, then they'd get into a fight and then one of them would log into the other's account and put up an embarrassing status update.

fosiacat

wow. hackers? really gothamist? guessing your ex girlfriend myspace password isn't hacking.

this place is getting more and more useless. is there really nothing else to write about?

ANGRYGOD11

Big deal. Freely available how-to videos are on You Tube and Windows security is a joke.

SikBug

http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/c/c9/Good_Luck_I%27m_Behind_7_Proxies.jpg

SikBug

good luck I'm behind 7 proxies

JacqueMehoff

Do you want to play a game?

glen glenn

Hack the planet!!!

Neverhaditsogood

HACK THE PLANET!!!!

junkrabbit

"Hacking into facebook"

I lawled.

FakeHipster

This just in: 30% of NYC kids have no fucking clue what hacking actually is.

Pro-tip: Sarah Palin's email account? Not actually "hacked". They guessed her password because she's a fucking retard.

jaycjay

Yep, and no doubt that's what these kids saying that they "tried hacking into other peoples' computers" or "hacking into Facebook" or email accounts actually tried to do.

Scary!

What a surprise that this "study" comes from "the leading provider of Security Lifecycle Management Solutions."