What is a hacker?
Summary: The definition for the term hacker is as elusive as those who earn the moniker. Find out from the accepted source what a hacker really is.
If you don't know exactly what a hacker is, join the club. Many people don't understand the term or its true implications. The meaning has changed a bit over the years and through the evolution of the Internet. In the most familiar sense, a hacker is anyone who attempts to break into computer systems by surreptitious means. But, as you'll see, there's more to being a hacker than simply trying to steal a password or break into someone's Facebook account.
There are hackers who work for large companies whose purpose is to protect the companies for whom they work. There are hackers who hack for the pure pleasure of hacking. There are hacktivists who hack to protest corporate or political policy. There are hackers who get paid to hack accounts, passwords, CAPTCHA and other lucrative targets. And, there are those hackers who just want to exploit, embarrass and expose. They're all hackers.
The word hacker still carries negative connotations because good hackers are never profiled in movies, TV, book and other media forms. To deflect some of this negative perception, hackers attempted to create a related term: cracker. Hackers coined cracker as a reaction to journalists who misrepresented all hackers as criminals. You hardly hear the term cracker anymore related to computer system compromises. It never really caught on as an alternative term for those with unsavory intentions.
Hacker now refers to anyone, regardless of intention or perspective, who attempts to compromise computer systems.
Perhaps the best place to glean a definition of this obscure term is from Eric Raymond's now famous Jargon File:
hacker n.
[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe]
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet Users' Glossary, usefully amplifies this as: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.
3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in ‘a Unix hacker’. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence password hacker, network hacker. The correct term for this sense is cracker.
The term ‘hacker’ also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net (see the network. For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To Become A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see hacker ethic).
It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled bogus). See also geek, wannabee.
This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.
After seeing the definition, do you want to be a hacker?
If you don't want to risk your freedom to prove yourself, my advice is to study ethical hacking at one of the online sites or to purchase a book on the topic. In an ethical hacking course, you'll learn the tools, techniques, methods and ethics of a true security professional. By learning in a formal atmosphere, you'll gain experience without the risk associated with certain types of penetration (pen) testing.
Remember that the only difference in ethical hacking and unethical/illegal hacking is that person who performs the attacks does so with authorization by the target. Always do so with authorization. There's money to be made doing so and the only time you'll spend behind bars is when you're moonlighting as a bartender working your way through the Ethical Hacker coursework.
See also:
- Ghost in the Wires: The Kevin Mitnick Interview
- Into a hacker's head: Dark side of the IT world
- LulzSec: Is it too cocky for its own good?
- LulzSec, Anonymous and hacktivism: Crappy security has caught up with us
- Hacker named to Homeland Security Advisory Council
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Talkback
RE: What is a hacker?
So True :(
Gone are the days of "enhancing" a program you bought or the ability to get into and out of a system undetected.
No malice intended. ;)
RE: What is a hacker?
Hacker or Cracker?
I probably should have read the rest of the article
"cyber criminal" seems to be taking
But I have had good luck with the newish media term "cyber criminal." Try that one, people seem to take to it, and I always try to mention in relation to some news that it was a white hat, talented and civic minded <b>hacker</b> that discovered this or that risk, or found an exploit in action and took measures to alert interested parties and/or fix things.
Even older definition of "hacker"
RE: What is a hacker?
I remember it. Yes, it came from the term 'hack' which is someone who kind of muddled their way through and threw things together.
RE: What is a hacker?
Back in the 1960's it was an MIT thing....
RE: What is a hacker?
A Hacker is a PROGRAMMER...
deemed as a Hacker in the Media...<br><br>The Media Needs to Get it Right!
RE: What is a hacker?
I agree. Which is another reason I'm doing this series. Hopefully media types will find my articles and use them as reference.
RE: What is a hacker?
"Remember that the only difference in ethical hacking and unethical/illegal hacking is that person who performs the attacks does so with authorization by the target."
I'd say there's also the difference of a criminal mentality, a few loose screws, and malicious intent.
RE: What is a hacker?
RE: What is a hacker?
Hacker definition:
Originally, "Hacker" was a term initially used to describe people who were not just simply people who were able to break into computers and networks, many experts were always capable of that. A "Hacker" was someone who wasn't necessarily any kind of accredited expert but was more of an amateur, usually a relatively if not completely unknown individual, often with only average computer related formal education but someone who takes a personal interest in computing and has done a lot of their own education on the subject and had made themselves at least some what of an expert on breaking into computer systems.
A true hacker was not someone who would have ever been seen as a well known expert, far from it, they were the unknown rogue factor on the internet. And the term was really more related to the fact that the person in question could break into computer systems AND they were a largely self taught amateur. The funny thing was that doing it for good or bad reasons wasn't initially the big focus at all. Although of course unless you were doing it for bad reasons it was seldom anyone would ever know about you.
Those who used the phrase originally might have had a conversation much like as follows:
"Someone just broke into our computer network"
"Was it a pro?"
"I don't think so, it has the earmarks of a hacker"
Or it might have went like this:
"I think I can get your computer up and running again"
"Great, are you a expert?"
"No, I'm just a hacker but I'm pretty good"
Maybe its just that modern operating systems and computer security apps have just gotten so good that it would be pretty hard these days for an old school style true hacker to get very far without a lot more formal training and education as well as hands on experience.
Well thats obviously changed...a lot. Now a days if you seem to have any capacity for breaking into computer systems you can feel free to call yourself a hacker.
All of the definitions sort of fit together.
The ability to hack something, whether software, hardware or systems, would generally require detailed knowledge of the thing being hacked (or at least a relevant part of it), so hackers would tend to be experts in the areas where they do their hacking. The 'expert' meaning naturally follows from this. At the same time, the nature of programming hacks means that they're often inelegant and/or undocumented, hence the association of 'hacker' (and 'hack') with poor programming practices -- particularly amongst those who program for a living (for whom the long-term effects of undocumented hacks are all too evident).
A closely related definition to the 'expert' one is that of a 'computer/programming enthusiast', who may or may not be an expert as such. The etymological path from expert to enthusiast is fairly straightforward: becoming an expert in something typically requires working extensively with it, so most experts are enthusiasts, even if the reverse isn't true.
The Oxford English Dictionary includes the two most widespread IT meanings of 'hacker', namely 'computer/programming enthusiast' and 'systems attacker'. In both cases, the etymological entries go back to 1976, and suggest that the meanings were well understood within the relevant communities at that time. As such, the idea that the term was originally positive, but was somehow hijacked by the media from the 'hacker community', doesn't strike me as very credible.
etymonline.com (Online Etymology Dictionary)
a chopper, cutter," perhaps also "one who makes hacking tools," early 13c. (as a surname), agent noun from hack (v.1). Meaning "one who gains unauthorized access to computer records" is attested by 1983, agent noun from hack (v.2). Said to be from slightly earlier tech slang sense of "one who works like a hack at writing and experimenting with software, one who enjoys computer programming for its own sake," 1976, reputedly a usage that evolved at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (however an MIT student from the late 1960s recalls hack (n.) being used then and there in the general sense of "creative prank," which clouds its sense connection with the "writing for hire" word, and there may be a source or an influence here in hack (v.1)).
Breaking into