What is hacker

In common usage, hacker is generic term for a computer criminal, often with a specific specialty in computer intrusion.[1] While other definitions peculiar to the computer enthusiast community exist, they are rarely used in mainstream context. Computer hacking subculture is often referred to as the network hacker subculture or simply the computer underground. According to its adherents, cultural values center around the idea of creative and extraordinary computer usage. Proponents claim to be motivated by artistic and political ends, but are often unconcerned about the use of criminal means to achieve them.

Paul A Taylor defines a hack as being simple but impressive; involving sophisticated technical knowledge; and having the illicitness of being against the rules.

Hacker attitudes

The term "hacker" has a number of different meanings. Several subgroups with different attitudes and aims use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other, or try to exclude some specific group with which they do not agree. In a computer security context, it is often synonymous with a computer intruder.

Paul A. Taylor quotes Steven Levy when describing the hacker ethic as:

1. All information should be free;
2. Mistrust authority--promote decentralization;
3. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position;
4. You can create art and beauty on a computer; and
5. Computers can change your life for the better.

It is common among hackers to use aliases for the purpose of concealing identity, rather than revealing their real names. Members of the network hacking scene are often being stereotypically described as crackers by the academic hacker subculture, yet see themselves as hackers and even try to include academic hackers in what they see as one wider hacker culture, a view harshly rejected by the academic hacker subculture itself. Instead of a hacker – cracker dichotomy, they give more emphasis to a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat (“ethical hacking”), grey hat, black hat and script kiddie. In contrast to the academic hackers, they usually reserve the term cracker to refer to black hat hackers, or more generally hackers with unlawful intentions.

History

Hacking developed directly from Phone Phreaking, a group which explore the phone network without authorization; and there remains an overlap between both technology and group members.

More legitimate forms of hacking are derived from early computer users in academic institutions, especially the MIT hacks.

Bruce Sterling traces the roots of the hacker underground to the Yippies, an 1960s counterculture movement which published the Technological Assistance Program newsletter.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia