Remember that one time when you prank-called a friend? Hilarious, wasn’t it? As long as the facts are right one of the major crimes of 21st Century started as a prank. In 1878 a group of teenage operators decided to misdirect and disconnect calls at Bell Telephone. That was the first official recorded hacking in the history of technology. Computer hacking came somewhere in 1960s. Again, it too was inspired by sheer motive of entertainment. Greedy opportunists sought this as a way to seek power and soon many unsuspecting, impulsive teenagers paid hefty amounts to become the pioneers of these noxious modern crime.
Engin Krida discovered this fact of hacking for entertainment when he started his research on cyber-security. However, as time progressed, he soon discovered that the breaches have become more organised and financially motivated. To know more about this prejudicial shift in hacking motives, Krida joined Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Krida says,
“One thing I have learned over the years is that security problems are not only technical problems. There is a very social aspect to all these issues. For example, someone can come up with technical solutions, but they might still fail because we don’t exactly understand how well users are actually able to accept these technical solutions.”
Engin Krida’s research work is extensive and involves solving the problem of cyber security through every aspect. He works on building better and mire efficient anti-viruses. At the same time, he works on making people aware of various cyber crimes and their sources. One of the major aspects of his research is psychological. He believes that the hackers are either naive or purposefully made oblivious to the impacts of cyber breaches. The only means to uproot this crime is spreading awareness about it. In the end, its up to all of us to think before indulging in any such pranks.
Shraddha Patil