What Is A Hacker?

[Athleone 0]

What is a hacker?

Contrary to what you might think, and what the media and the Internet have told you, a hacker is not one who cracks a security scheme, or breaks into another's computer. These people are called crackers, and they should not be associated with hackers, who are a far different type of person. Hackers are those who adjust computers and its programs to their needs - Technological wizards, you might say.

Stereotype

It is wrong to stereotype hackers. For example, many hackers are stereotyped as Unsociable. However, this is not true. Just look at one of the greatest hackers in history, Linus Torvalds, creator of the popular operating system Linux. He has a wife, and several children. This shows that hackers should not be stereotyped.

Hacker Culture

The Jargon File is a very good resource of information about hacker culture. 1337 5p34k has been created by hackers, as a way to get around BBS censoring systems. Also, there are many symbols of the hacker culture - Tux, the Linux penguin, the BSD Daemon, and the Perl Camel stand out as examples.

I hope this got you a better understanding of what a hacker is. For more information, look to this wikipedia article.

[shadowx 0]

As a typical definition i would say a hacker is "one who modifies or otherwise forces a computer system to work differently to its original specification or purpose" (i didnt copy that, i made it up, hence no quote tags )So it COULD mean someone who modifies a security program to allow access rather than deny it. Or it could be someone who creates a mod or addon for a piece of software, for example creating their own doc>pdf converter addon. Crackers IMHO are those who "hack" passwords by brute forcing (i know its now hacking, hence the quotes) eg "he cracked the password" or those who analyse and decipher encryptions or cyphers, hence cracking the code, cracking the cypher, cracking the password etc.... IMHO they are only one step up from the dreaded "script Kiddie" Those who would take a brute forcing application and run it on a file to crack the password and then claim they hacked it or that it was some form of elite system or hacking that they used, when in fact they clicked one button. Generally to me it describes someone who has no understanding of the security in place and no understanding of what they are doing. Instead blindly doing it to prove a point to a friend. But there you go. I do agree that the media has stereo typed hackers very badly, when in fact many advanced systems such as traffic control software, operating systems, application, firewalls etc... wouldnt exist without the help of hackers making sure they are secure and functioning.

[xpress 0]

Hmmm....Well now a days most people know that hackers are not that bad.

Atleast people who are using internet knows media has changed the meaning of

the term hacker. In every hacking related book you read you'll find that hacker is

not a bad person.

Originally the word hacker was used to describe a person who was well skilled in

a programming language.

 

So to clear the meaning the internet community termed new words

to differentiate between a malicious hacker and good hacker(ethical hacker).

 

Three different words using to differentiate hacking. They are

 

1. White-Hat Hacker: These are ethical hackers. They work to improve system security.

 

2. Black-Hat Hacker: Unethical hackers who exploit systems for their personal use.

 

3. Grey-Hat Hacker: There are many arguments about these Grey-Hat hackers.

To define simply, they have good intentions, but they do some damage. For example hackers

who others hacks websites to notify the webmasters that, it has some vulnerabilities.

Even though their intention is good, they do some damage to the website.

 

Ethical hackers are security experts, Black-hat hacker is the dangerous one. But whomever the hacker may

be, definitely he has some great knowledge.

[joeblogg 0]

i think hackers should hack because they are holding a larger power over webowners who are very good at securing their site against hackers. whether their white hat or not their still doing something that they should do. but i'm still a hacker...

[innosia 1]

I think most businessman fear of hacker (before the cracker terms coming out), then they try to persuade those geniuses to think that they are 'good' and they are several level between them (such as black grey and so on), then those hackers will be hired by them, and they are safe from exploitation while can keep securing their company, they blame the bad work is done by cracker.Then the terms cracker comes out, which means bad one that hack people site and hack software, and illegal activities and hackers then is a person who hack into a system for the reason of testing the system security. Which means that they are easily and sweetly manipulated by the sweet term of hacker not a cracker. Then who knows anything in fact that its not easy hacking?

[Diffusr 0]

What is a hacker?
Contrary to what you might think, and what the media and the Internet have told you, a hacker is not one who cracks a security scheme, or breaks into another's computer. These people are called crackers, and they should not be associated with hackers, who are a far different type of person. Hackers are those who adjust computers and its programs to their needs - Technological wizards, you might say.

Stereotype

It is wrong to stereotype hackers. For example, many hackers are stereotyped as Unsociable. However, this is not true. Just look at one of the greatest hackers in history, Linus Torvalds, creator of the popular operating system Linux. He has a wife, and several children. This shows that hackers should not be stereotyped.

Hacker Culture

The Jargon File is a very good resource of information about hacker culture. 1337 5p34k has been created by hackers, as a way to get around BBS censoring systems. Also, there are many symbols of the hacker culture - Tux, the Linux penguin, the BSD Daemon, and the Perl Camel stand out as examples.

I hope this got you a better understanding of what a hacker is. For more information, look to this wikipedia article.

I quite agree. What you refer to is a "computer hacker". Hacking actually covers a much wider subject field than just computers. In fact, ANY subject field can have hackers, from DNA hacking, aeronautical hacking, diesel engine hacking. Hacking is far more than merely gaining access to restricted cyber systems, though doing this can quite easily be part of a hack.

[Evolke 0]

Wow! I didn't actually know that! I was under the impression that a Hacker was someone that altered with another persons computer in order to recieve personal or private information, Card Numbers, Phone Numbers etc. :PLearn somthing new everyday!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

This thread was found to me to be quite entertaining, because it's something I knew about already, but most don't.A lot of people don't know that Bill Gates was arrested when he was....17, I think it was, for hacking a PC. This was before the normal PC's that we all see today, and to my understanding was just a system of sounds that were simulated.Along with this, there are many people that do 'black-hat' hacking and get jobs from the companies they crack into.I mostly find this interesting because it's one of the few things that is illegal but can get you rich if you do it to a major corporation. Or it can get you thrown in jail. Either way, I find it entertaining to learn more about just how many people make millions of dollars each year now solely because they decided 'Hey, let's go break the law and risk going to prison so we can hack this!'

[HDuffRules 0]

Although public perception of hackers might be changing, there really still exists a rather large portion of the population that knows very little about hacker (and by association) geek culture. In lots of movies, hackers are still bad people who do bad things. Ex. Sydney White (2007), Die Hard 4 (2007) and others. Interesting point about the term "cracker" though. Up until this point I was under the impression that 'cracker' referred exclusively to the kind folks that make free software..

[ychael 0]

What is a hacker?

 

Contrary to what you might think, and what the media and the Internet have told you, a hacker is not one who cracks a security scheme, or breaks into another's computer. These people are called crackers, and they should not be associated with hackers, who are a far different type of person. Hackers are those who adjust computers and its programs to their needs - Technological wizards, you might say.

 

Stereotype

 

It is wrong to stereotype hackers. For example, many hackers are stereotyped as Unsociable. However, this is not true. Just look at one of the greatest hackers in history, Linus Torvalds, creator of the popular operating system Linux. He has a wife, and several children. This shows that hackers should not be stereotyped.

 

Hacker Culture

 

The Jargon File is a very good resource of information about hacker culture. 1337 5p34k has been created by hackers, as a way to get around BBS censoring systems. Also, there are many symbols of the hacker culture - Tux, the Linux penguin, the BSD Daemon, and the Perl Camel stand out as examples.

 

I hope this got you a better understanding of what a hacker is. For more information, look to this wikipedia article.

hack are some techniques that full of constructivity ,everything has

knacks,hacker is who has ablility to use them

Edited October 22, 2008 by ychael (see edit history)

[veerumits 0]

Hacker or Cracker are respectable person if they are use mind in right way.

 

your valuable information about hacker is appreciate me and clear my doubt about hacker and i am thankfull to you that you are respect the hacker now a days most people are abuse behind when his PC hacked his security breaks.and his data has to be stolen so what you say on this. hacker are best tech. knowlege person its all right but they are use our knowlege in bad direction it is not good as i thinks so i also have some idea to do comeplete this task but i never use it in wrong information.

 

Three different words using to differentiate hacking. are

 

1. White-Hat Hacker: These are ethical hackers. They work to improve system security.

 

2. Black-Hat Hacker: Unethical hackers who exploit systems for their personal use.

 

3. Grey-Hat Hacker: There are many arguments about these Grey-Hat hackers.

 

factory standard or your perception.

 

thanks.

 

 

Hmmm....Well now a days most people know that hackers are not that bad.

Atleast people who are using internet knows media has changed the meaning of

the term hacker. In every hacking related book you read you'll find that hacker is

not a bad person.

Originally the word hacker was used to describe a person who was well skilled in

a programming language.

 

So to clear the meaning the internet community termed new words

to differentiate between a malicious hacker and good hacker(ethical hacker).

 

Three different words using to differentiate hacking. They are

 

1. White-Hat Hacker: These are ethical hackers. They work to improve system security.

 

2. Black-Hat Hacker: Unethical hackers who exploit systems for their personal use.

 

3. Grey-Hat Hacker: There are many arguments about these Grey-Hat hackers.

To define simply, they have good intentions, but they do some damage. For example hackers

who others hacks websites to notify the webmasters that, it has some vulnerabilities.

Even though their intention is good, they do some damage to the website.

 

Ethical hackers are security experts, Black-hat hacker is the dangerous one. But whomever the hacker may

be, definitely he has some great knowledge.

[xpress 0]

1. White-Hat Hacker: These are ethical hackers. They work to improve system security.

 

2. Black-Hat Hacker: Unethical hackers who exploit systems for their personal use.

 

3. Grey-Hat Hacker: There are many arguments about these Grey-Hat hackers.

 

factory standard or your perception.

Hmmm...Its not my perception. It is of some security industry experts. Actually there are no factory standards for hacking. If there is a standard in hacking, it is only Ethical hacking, since many certifications are available in ethical hacking. Hacking is not a small topic. Its vast area. Hacking is not just related to computer industry. Hacking, at first some hardware related.

 

I read in some book that, in the late 1950s, many people donated parts of old telephone equipment to the MIT model railroad club. The members used this equipment to create a new complex system that allowed multiple operators to control different parts of the track by dialing into the appropriate section. They called this hacking, and many consider this group to be the original hackers. I don't know how much its true.

 

Coming to the Hacking in computer industry, Hacking is a term used both by those who write code and those who exploit it. Of course, their goals are different. So, at first it was related to programming. A person with great programming skills was called as a hacker.

 

But later the term hacking was changed. Now it is related more to security industry. New terms came like cracker, ethical hacker and many. A cracker is a person who reverse engineer the code to break a software. Usually these crackers are not highly skilled. Because most of them use similar techniques or some tools created by others. And I think most ethical hackers also not that much skilled. Because they are trained. Not naturally learned.

Leaving aside whether they are evil hackers(blackhat) or good hackers(whitehat), a hacker is the person who is highly skilled.

 

For example, we can call those the real hackers, who can find holes and weaknesses in software to create their own exploits.

(I am just talking about the skill, not about their evil purposes). Finally these hackers help software vendors to create patches.

But when a hacker finds some hole, attackers use it to attack. They are not hackers.

Edited October 26, 2008 by xpress (see edit history)

[alextepes 0]

By these terms, that would mean that I'm a hacker.The network engineers are hackers.The word hacker isn't something that can be described by some online references or whatever.These days there are script kiddies who call themselves hackers, they pick up a coded vunerability script online then use it, This isn't hacking, the person who programmed it, made it so that it could exploit a fault automatically, that person is considered still a programmer, more notable a viral programmer.Hackers have really disappeared, and theres no sure way to know if anyones a hacker, but there are script kiddies, and well above that would be a group of script kiddies, which would be your hacking teams that you hear about online, Not updating your apache or php or whatever is the result of poorly managed servers, that's why you do not see websites like Youtube go offline to script kiddies because they have paid professionals to keep their servers up to date.What you have to do is be quick enough to update your servers to beat automated programs, thats it,and code your site properly so they can't execute code though $_GET or $_POST.

Edited October 26, 2008 by alextepes (see edit history)

[risvile 0]

According to me,A skilled programmer(who are called hackers/crackers), who plays, explores (may exploit), manipulates with the basic understanding of/between software and hardware at his disposal for his personal, commercial(obviously illegal) use and mainly for joy of doing it is termed the way it is.An Ethical hacker finds bugs and security holes for purpose of patching it before a cracker does the same for them.Either way the victim suffers the (temporary) embarrassment and losses for having neglected the importance of secure computing. I mean the victim pays for both kind of hackers but more for his ignorance.:PThe technology now at present would be primitive if not for these skilled people who find ways to show us theres more than meets the eye..

Edited October 27, 2008 by risvile (see edit history)

[AshTheGamer 0]

Hackers are many things, Their are people who say they are hackers usually meaning they are script kiddies.To define a hacker I would say this.1. White-Hat Hacker: These are ethical hackers. They work to improve system security.2. Black-Hat Hacker: Unethical hackers who exploit systems for their personal use.3. Grey-Hat Hacker: There are many arguments about these Grey-Hat hackers.To define simply, they have good intentions, but they do some damage. For example hackerswho others hacks websites to notify the webmasters that, it has some vulnerabilities.Even though their intention is good, they do some damage to the website.Ethical hackers are security experts, Black-hat hacker is the dangerous one. But whomever the hacker maybe, definitely he has some great knowledge.A hacker is some one who breach's security of something and then tampers with the settings ect...