[ISN] One Secret That Stops Hackers: Girlfriends

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/management/240003767

[This is research based on interviews with 20 hackers, I have to wonder 
what other research the Government of Ireland has helped fund Dr. Kirwan 
with such a small sample base.  - WK]


By Mathew J. Schwartz
InformationWeek
July 16, 2012

Want to put a stop to hacking? The solution is simple: Get hackers 
girlfriends.

To be sure, that prescription is tongue-in-cheek, but it speaks to a 
hacking truth: Based on arrests of alleged Anonymous, LulzSec, 
TeamPoison, and other hacktivist group participants--not to mention many 
cyber-crime gangs--it's the rare participant who's over the age of 
25--or even 19.

Clearly, the early 20s are an inflection point in most hackers' lives, 
when they transition from engaging in criminal activity to becoming 
law-abiding citizens. Accordingly, might outreach programs, perhaps 
involving older ex-hackers, help keep them out of jail? They might even 
steer would-be hackers into lucrative professions that put their skills 
to better use, such as penetration testing.

The question of whether outreach programs would be effective requires 
working backwards, starting with the reason hackers--who are 
overwhelmingly male--stop hacking. That's typically because they get 
girlfriends, jobs, children, or other responsibilities. "We see a lot of 
adolescent hackers just 'aging out,' and there are relatively few who 
remain life-course persistent," says cyberpsychology expert Grainne 
Kirwan [1], a lecturer in psychology at Ireland's Dun Laoghaire 
Institute of Art, Design and Technology, in a phone interview.

While conducting research for her criminology Ph.D., Kirwan interviewed 
about 20 hackers and found that the majority stopped hacking due to 
their changing life circumstances. "The chances are by the time they 
turn 18 or 19 they'll age out, and if they haven't stopped then, by the 
time they get married, settle down, and have kids, they won't have time 
to do this type of behavior anyway," she explains. "As they get older, 
their moral development gets better, and they don't have the ability to 
commit crimes anyway."

[1] http://ccta.iadt.ie/ccta/staffcv.php?staffid=5

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