Unless you have been hiding away for the last 10 to 15 years, you probably have heard of hackers before. As an aspiring criminal justice professional, however, it is time to broaden your knowledge. It is no longer enough to simply know about the term as another entry in the cultural lexicon. Instead, you have to understand who your average hacker is, what he or she wants, why a hacker does what he or she does, and how they can be stopped. This is not easily answered, especially since their skills and techniques tend to develop as security measures against hacking also develop. On top of it all, you have to consider the fact that these kinds of computer criminals come from different walks of life and that they often have very different motives.

First, let's define who hackers are and what separates from other computer criminals. In other words, let's figure out exactly who a hacker is and why he or she does hacking. Hacking is, in short, breaking and entering online. In other words, when a person accesses a site to which they are not supposed to have access, they are, believe it or not, hacking. They are, in a sense, entering a field to which they do not have entry rights. In some cases, this might be only to break and enter. You might have done similar actions as a young person, testing your boundaries. It is common to want to push the law to see how far you can go before you are in trouble. When we are talking about law and crime in the virtual sphere, you can probably imagine that this becomes more complex.

Indeed, hackers are often more than just rebellious teens. Sure, many of them may be categorized as such, but these are not the ones whom many criminal justice professionals are worried about. On the contrary, what keeps criminal justice employees up at night is the fear that hackers are grabbing for larger rewards which are captured, of course, unjustly and which cause real pain for many people. You should never forget that hacking, while the playing field on which it operates is a purely virtual one, is in reality an action with very real effects. To understand, one must only consider the effects of hacking. Indeed, you can understand the negative impact hacking has on a society when money is stolen and government intelligence, much of which is extremely sensitive, is stolen and distributed to the public.

We all know that hackers need to be stopped, but many people wonder how this can be done. The images that people have when they think of these computer criminals are computer masterminds who have a better understanding of computer technology than do the good guys. This is, fortunately for us, a misperception. The truth of the matter is that there is a game of cat and mouse that takes place.

The game of cat and mouse between law enforcement officials and hackers because with each new development in the hacking world, law enforcement officials must also create new technology. Until these computer law enforcement professionals are able to change the way hacking criminals access computer information, this game probably will continue.