The hacking of computers has been a problem since the everyday use of technology has became a common practice. Like everything else, technology has its downfalls: viruses and computer hackers.

One Sacramento State professor is trying to find out why people become hackers.

“Most hackers understand the way to use a communication medium. They seem more at home on their chosen service [such as e-mail and chat] than most users,” said Kall Loper, assistant professor of criminal justice.

Loper’s interest in computer hackers grew while working as a computer system administrator during his stay at Michigan State University. He has been studying the behaviors of computer hackers and interacting with them ever since.

As a result, his dissertation focused on hacker behavior.”Up until now there?s been a lot of hand-wringing among criminal justice experts about ?how little we know,? and they don?t know,” Loper said about the perceptions of hackers by the public.

Loper gets in touch with hackers through e-mail lists and by attending hacker gatherings. He credits his success with hackers to his tactics on approaching hackers.

“I can ?talk the talk? while still being a social scientist,” Loper said. His skills allow for him to go from meetings with high-tech crime specialists to sharing a pizza with hackers. Loper likes to let hackers know who he is, and makes no secret of his agenda. He even gives his business cards to those he interacts with.

Hackers also have the understanding that identity is largely irrelevant in a medium where it is easy to deceive; so hackers tend to withhold trust until you demonstrate your own qualities, Loper said.

He also credits most hackers for having strong opinions and the intellect to argue them. Although many hackers strongly subscribe to a set of morals that does not consider the law as a good indicator of right and wrong, most hackers obey the law most of the time.

Loper has found hackers? behavior to be very predictable;”There are things they talk about over and over. Certain hackers would start fighting among themselves and then cooler heads would prevail,” Loper said.

Although the image of a hacker brings to mind the visual of one?s computer freezing and becoming non-functional, these are not the usual tactics of hackers. Loper concludes that far more damage occurs from routine user errors and equipment failure than from attacks. Hackers may unintentionally cause damage to some files, but it is almost unheard of for serious damage to be done, Loper said. Malicious damage is a crime and it also violates the hacker ethic, Loper said.

Loper?s research and interaction with hackers has been a tremendous help to his research. He has even had a hacker help him create a program to analyze the data for his dissertation. But even Loper has been asked a few favors.Loper said that the more he learns about hackers, the more he realizes that there is a lot more to learn about hackers.