Computersight -

Hacking: To gain access to (a computer file or network) illegally or without authorization.

Hacking has been around for a number of years. Even though you may not look at it as hacking, when the government spied on there own country during the 1900s, searching for communists, they used little devises to listen on peoples telephone conversations. At hacking was a good term, it was used to describe people who could push electronics past there potential.

Hacking later down the line took on a new meaning. It was used to describe people who were cheating phone companies to make long distance phone calls for free. As time went by and technologies got more advanced, the term was used to describe people who could break into computer systems and get personal or valuable data off of a computer.

As hacking progressed, in modern times, new viruses were made. At first they were used to help computers, so that they ran more efficiently, but these same programs were later used to create “Trojans” or “viruses” on a electronic base. At first the viruses were used as practical jokes, shutting down someone’s computer, sending them a lot of pop ups, and many other things. But as the anti-virus programs became more efficient so did the “hackers”.

Now the viruses were used top seal information, or even money. If it was electronic, it was hack-able. Now there are viruses, Trojans, key loggers, and many other “hacks”. It is recommended that you get an anti-virus program, even though you are not 100% safe from viruses, it will save you from losing anything that is valuable. Norton, or Macabre are two of the better anti-viruses programs.

Trojan:

 A Trojan horse program has a useful and desired function, or at least it has the appearance of having such. In most cases the program performs other, undesired functions, but not always. The useful, or seemingly useful, functions serve as camouflage for these undesired functions. The kind of undesired functions are not part of the definition of a Trojan Horse; they can be of any kind.

Virus:

 A software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; “a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance”

Key Logger:

A software program used to record key strokes on a designated computer. Can be used for or against your liking.