NationStates Jolt Archive

Do you think of someone who tries to steal your information?

Or someone who likes computers?

Or something else entirely?

I think of someone who loves P.C's, and I hate that the media has bastardised the definition.

Poll coming.

I wouldn't say steal, necessarily, but break into, certainly.

When I think of the word "Hacker", I get this mental picture of a guy who sits at his desk 24/7, and prefers his pc over a girl. It may be wrong (and it probably is wrong), but that's just my look at it.

seriously disturbing :eek:

I think of someone who is out to either steal information or mess other people’s property up for no sane reason. Anyway, I understand what you mean about the term changing. In Jurassic Park the young girl in the film refers to herself as a hacker when her brother says that she is a computer-nerd (or something like that). That was a while ago, though. The meanings of words change. Like gay and public use.

The meanings of words change. Like gay and public use.

But not usually by an ignorant media.

Hack teh gibson.

I live in hope that one day people will know the difference between a hacker and a cracker:

cracker: n.
One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of hacker (q.v., sense 8). An earlier attempt to establish worm in this sense around 1981--82 on Usenet was largely a failure.

Use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion against the theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings. The neologism “cracker” in this sense may have been influenced not so much by the term “safe-cracker” as by the non-jargon term “cracker”, which in Middle English meant an obnoxious person (e.g., “What cracker is this same that deafs our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?” — Shakespeare's King John, Act II, Scene I) and in modern colloquial American English survives as a barely gentler synonym for “white trash”.

While it is expected that any real hacker will have done some playful cracking and knows many of the basic techniques, anyone past larval stage is expected to have outgrown the desire to do so except for immediate, benign, practical reasons (for example, if it's necessary to get around some security in order to get some work done).

Thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than the mundane reader misled by sensationalistic journalism might expect. Crackers tend to gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive groups that have little overlap with the huge, open poly-culture this lexicon describes; though crackers often like to describe themselves as hackers, most true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of life. An easy way for outsiders to spot the difference is that crackers use grandiose screen names that conceal their identities. Hackers never do this; they only rarely use noms de guerre at all, and when they do it is for display rather than concealment.

Ethical considerations aside, hackers figure that anyone who can't imagine a more interesting way to play with their computers than breaking into someone else's has to be pretty losing. Some other reasons crackers are looked down on are discussed in the entries on cracking and phreaking. See also samurai, dark-side hacker, and hacker ethic. For a portrait of the typical teenage cracker, see warez d00dz.

I wouldn't say steal, necessarily, but break into, certainly.
that, and some code junky who loves breaking/cracking programs for fun

Okay, who thought of the axe-man?

that, and some code junky who loves breaking/cracking programs for fun

And it's really tough to tell the good guys from the bad guys, since the white hats have many of the skills the black hats use....

It's definitely an interesting idustry that InfoSec.

Hack teh gibson.

Useful addition there, you bloody spam monkey!

:p

And it's really tough to tell the good guys from the bad guys, since the white hats have many of the skills the black hats use....

It's definitely an interesting idustry that InfoSec.

If they advise ways to increase security, they are generally white-hat.

Isn't that the thing the NZ rugby team do??

Isn't that the thing the NZ rugby team do??

Haka.

There is only one connotation such a word can have to any self respecting NSer.

T3h M0st gl0r10u5 hack

:p

If they advise ways to increase security, they are generally white-hat.

But some white hats practice outside of work....so, grey hats?

But some white hats practice outside of work....so, grey hats?

Yes if they don't have the permission of the owner of the target.

That's what I belive, UpwardThrust may know more.

Haka.

Would it be more funny if I went back to the smilie spam?

Hacker: Isn't that the thing the NZ rugby team do? :D :D :) :D :cool:

1 R teh funny111

Would it be more funny if I went back to the smilie spam?

Hacker: Isn't that the thing the NZ rugby team do? :D :D :) :D :cool:

1 R teh funny111

Funnier.

Funnier.

You correcting my grammar, or answering the question? Because you know "More funny" and "Funnier" are both acceptable.

You correcting my grammar, or answering the question? Because you know "More funny" and "Funnier" are both acceptable.

Both.

Both.

Okay then, but my grammar was fine, you know. Can't be a grammar Nazi if you have bad grammar.

Okay then, but my grammar was fine, you know. Can't be a grammar Nazi if you have bad grammar.

True, true.

I'd rather be a speeling Nazi, but I can't spell all that good.

To me, a hacker is someone who is extremely adept at using computers, and will break into some area of the computer forbidden to her whenever the opportunity presents itself, just to prove to herself that she can. For that matter, the hacker will probably create the opportunity to exercise her hacking skills if the oppotunity fails to present itself often enough for the hacker's satisfaction. I suspect that hackers even experience something akin to a sexual release from this type of activity. Kind of strange to the rest of us, but to each her own, I guess.

True, true.

I'd rather be a speeling Nazi, but I can't spell all that good.

All the better for you to be an annoying pompous ass and make everyone hate you. Try it, it's fun!

All the better for you to be an annoying pompous ass and make everyone hate you. Try it, it's fun!

I'm already annoying.

Just look at the sig.

I think of the jerk who runs into my firewall in an attempt to steal my information for online computer games or email.

Hack teh gibson.
How did I know that was going to come up (horrible movie lol)

Anyways the terms used by us is

Hacker -- one who attempts intrusion into their own or another computer for the love of the challange ... for learning and for testing their skills


Cracker -- one who breaks into remote systems to steal information ... or to damage the system or data or service it provides

I think of the jerk who runs into my firewall in an attempt to steal my information for online computer games or email.
A good hacker does not run into he "feels" the firewall looking for a punched port

:)