A person who writes programs in assembly language or in system-level languages, such as C. The term often refers to any programmer, but its true meaning is someone with a strong technical background who is "hacking away" at the bits and bytes.
Hackers Have a Bad Name
During the 1990s, the term "hacker" became synonymous with "cracker," which is a person who performs some form of computer sabotage. The association is understandable. In order to be an effective cracker, you had to be a good hacker, thus the terms got intertwined, and hacker won out in the popular press.
However, sometimes, hackers are not even worthy of the original meaning of the term. Today, a lot of malicious acts are performed by people with limited knowledge who gain unauthorized entrance into computers to steal data or perform mischief (see script kiddie). See cracker, hack, white hat hacker and samurai.
Hackers Targeted the Internet
The term "hacker" was entrenched by the time this article appeared in early 2000, which referred to a huge denial of service (DOS) attack on Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com and other Web sites. (Article headline courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer.)
Hackers Have a Bad Name
During the 1990s, the term "hacker" became synonymous with "cracker," which is a person who performs some form of computer sabotage. The association is understandable. In order to be an effective cracker, you had to be a good hacker, thus the terms got intertwined, and hacker won out in the popular press.
However, sometimes, hackers are not even worthy of the original meaning of the term. Today, a lot of malicious acts are performed by people with limited knowledge who gain unauthorized entrance into computers to steal data or perform mischief (see script kiddie). See cracker, hack, white hat hacker and samurai.
Hackers Targeted the Internet
The term "hacker" was entrenched by the time this article appeared in early 2000, which referred to a huge denial of service (DOS) attack on Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com and other Web sites. (Article headline courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer.)
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Patch Tuesday heads-up: Critical MS Office patches coming
- Microsoft plans to release six security bulletins next week to fix at least 15 serious vulnerabilities that could expose Windows users to malicious hacker attacks. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-11-05
- iHacked: jailbroken iPhones compromised, $5 ransom demanded
- ... WHAT?Who in their right mind keep a server running with default usernames/passwords on the default port....I doubt that jailbroken iPhones are alone in this. It's possible, specially if iPhones have a ssh server running, that this could happen on non-jailbroken iPhones also.Just one question...Has this person been remanded yet?...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-03
- Psystar: From Hell's Heart, I Stab at Thee!
- No matter who they have to sueApple will never allow competition.agreedthey want as much profits as they can make.too bad their computers aren't very good for anything other than the basics and some visual/audio work ;)with that said, i believe that apple will have its future in their i-products (ipod,...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-02
- Nsauditor 1.9.6 (Windows)
- Nsauditor Network Security Auditor is a network security software and vulnerability scanner that allows auditing and monitoring network computers for possible vulnerabilities, checking network for all potential methods that a hacker might use to attack it and create a report of potential problems that were found. Nsauditor is a complete...
- Software downloads 2009-11-01
- Android 2.0 (Eclair) FAQ
- Android 2.0 GPSWill the GPS be functional if I don't buy the expensive Verizon data plan or pay by the Mb.You would need access to the internetto download the maps as needed there would not be enough room on the phone to store the whole country locally. So unless you...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-30
- Real Hide IP 3.5.3.2 (Windows)
- Real Hide IP is easy-to-use privacy software which allows you to conceal your IP address, choose IP country and surf anonymously. It can clear cookies, protect your privacy, prevent identity theft, and guard against hacker intrusions, all with the click of a button. Using it, you can conceal your identity...
- Software downloads 2009-10-28
- News to know: iPhone; Win 7 upgrade answers; Psystar; SOA; Google
- Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage. Ed Bott: Finally, some answers to Windows 7 upgrade questions Dion Hinchcliffe: Are the iPhone and social networks making...
- Blog posts 2009-10-26
- FortKnox Personal Firewall 5.0.205 (Windows)
- It is a personal firewall that allows you to protect a PC against hacker attacks, Trojans, spyware and Internet threats. It gives user complete overview of all inbound and outbound network communication. It has built-in Intrusion Prevention System and SPI technologies for extended user protection. With application rules user can...
- Software downloads 2009-10-23
- Gaping security hole in Time Warner cable routers
- how about telling us how to fix it?Can the customer log into their own router and change the vulnerable settings? Please advise.Patetic simply pateticThis is a worst case scenario... Time Warner is guilty of having used the same Admin Name/Password on all their routers and from what I read on...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-22
- Google's Schmidt: Mimicking Office completely not 'a good use of our time'
- Commonsense! Please get rid of MS Office!Please do NOT copy anything MS Office has leavethis lethargic conglomeration of software vendorsMS purchased and created the 2G office suitethat is full of security holes.I hope they go their own route and NO one needsa office suite that cost $400+$700 for a companyseat...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-22
- Anonymous Web Surfing 2.3 (Windows)
- Your IP address is your online identity. It could be easily used by hackers to break into your computer, steal personal information, or commit other crimes against you. "Anonymous Web Surfing" allows you to surf anonymously, change your IP address, prevent identity theft, and guard against hacker intrusions, all with...
- Software downloads 2009-10-20
- Process Hacker 1.6 (Windows)
- Process Hacker provides a customizable tree view with highlighting showing you the processes running on your computer. You can see detailed performance graphs. A complete list of services and full control over them (start, stop, pause, resume, and delete). A list of network connections. Provides a comprehensive information for all...
- Software downloads 2009-10-16
- New Adobe PDF flaw under attack; Patch coming Tuesday
- Note to all Knuckleheads....The vulnerability affects Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.3 and earlier versions on Windows, Macintosh and UNIXWhy announce at all? Just fix the thingI'm getting really tired of any company that gives the ostensibly obligatory "We're on that!" and then it's some time before the fix comes. These...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-09
- Mozilla 'Plugin Check' keeps Firefox add-ons secure
- Mozilla has expanded its Plugin Check service to provide an easy way for Firefox users to pinpoint browser add-ons that might be vulnerable to hacker attacks. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-10-09
- WebESC 7.04 (Windows)
- WebESC is a utility to help you validate Web links. You can verify links existency, and changes in sizes of remote files. You can compare your site stored locally on your disk to your web site as can verify if all the files are succesfully uploaded or changed by a...
- Software downloads 2009-10-09
- Weak passwords dominate statistics for Hotmail's phishing scheme leak
- Weak Passwords suckUntil about 4 years ago my organization had no restrictions on passwords. Our students got their birthdays or their phone numbers as passwords and our staff could choose whatever they wanted. Most common staff password was 1234. Well after years of security breaches and administration...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-06
- Ballmer questions open-source code security
- Steve Ballmer talks smackWell, at this point Ballmer sounds like a politician, painting Open Source developers as "hackers in China or other foreign countries" vs. Microsoft's "controlled" environment. He doesn't "buy that". He never had to. Open Source is free.Unlike Microsoft's mega-crap that uses all resources as possible until you...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-06
- UserGate Proxy & Firewall 5.2 (Windows)
- UserGate is a complex solution for sharing Internet access among employees in your company, making traffic calculations, and protecting your local network against malicious activity and software, such as hacker attacks, viruses and Trojans. UserGate is a flexible yet very powerful program that can be used in small- and mid-sized...
- Software downloads 2009-10-06
- Fake PayChoice e-mails deliver malware
- partial passwords included?wow... sounds like someone's security needs a serious looking intoi've forwarded many spoof emails to spoof@paypal.com ...why doesn't every site have a similar address to report to? people will *always* fall for such scams so it's up to the rest of us to at least get...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-05
- SafenSec Personal 3.5 (Windows)
- Tens of thousands of new viruses arrive in security companies' research labs every day. Anti-virus products that protect you the traditional way - with a 'signature' to detect each virus - simply can't keep up. A new approach is needed. That approach is SafenSec. SafenSec Personal uses unique proactive technology,...
- Software downloads 2009-10-01
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