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
- Nsauditor 1.9.8 (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 2009-11-28
- Global scope of East Anglia hack of global warming docs
- Here's the link with juicy details:http://ecotretas.blogspot.com/2009/11/rolo-compressor-de-verdades.htmlClimate 'scientists' are liars. That's clear.Hockeystick anyone?And another one with some straight facts.http://www.climatedepot.com/Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey... HmmmThat sure reveals who the interested parties are.I wonder what their next step will be, start advocating the benefits of global warming perhaps?Communist manifesto & elitesDo you see the...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-27
- Global scope of East Anglia hack of global warming docs
- East Anglia hackers used global path on global warming docs. by Harry Fuller
- Blog posts 2009-11-27
- Real Hide IP 3.5.4.6 (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 2009-11-25
- Climate scientists saying global warming trend is worsening
- Pardon me while I yawn. This is the same bunch (climate change chicken-littles) that brought the hockey stick graph and pimped out statistics. These folks have been exposed as corruptand fraudulent, driven by ideology and not science. By continuing to treat them as anything other than worthy...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-24
- HP vs. Dell: Showdown at the Windows 7 upgrade corral
- Well, the great thing is all the competition. I like to see Acer squeezing them both from below, and of course competing with each other. Of course also great to see all the pressure on MS to innovate and lower prices.Google Chrome_OS will be hard to beatWell, with Google_Chrome_OS it...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-24
- LinkedIn's platform debut: Late but important
- No jobs with Tax, tax, tax tax, taxntI fail to see.......how tax either creates or destroys the need for labor at any particular company. If an increase in labor is going to bring a positive ROI they will hire. If not they won't. Simple as that. A tax break or...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- U.S. will propose emissions reduction before Copehagen talks
- Total controlWhat a bunch of lies, nothing more than socialist control over the world.You cannot eat meat, you cannot drive, you cannot use A/C, you cannot use a dryer.Next thing will be a limit on children like in China.I guess our new leader will let us know if we can...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- New iPhone worm found in the wild
- But I thought Apple OS X was immune from ALL such things. nt...When you jailbreak your iPhoneyou give it the ability to run things other the "Apple Only" software.Any I thought Zdnet was immune to trolling?Just kidding. I knew it wasn't.I don't think that Apple ever claimed their OS...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- Beware business cloud dangers, says EU agency
- Spoken like someone without a clueBut then again, what can be expected from trolls anymore?Originality?Security & AccessGrant the LEAST amount of access for the end user.DENY then ALLOW, why would you open up Port 80 to the world if you only do business in the United States or local area...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- A Chrome OS Video Tour
- Microsoft: Watch Out, We're Coming to Getcha!Open Source is like water, you can't stop it.Bwahahahahahhhhhhhhhh................Man this OS is a POS.There is nothing this OS can do that I can't do already with Windows 7. It looks like a piece of crap and I really wanted to give Google the...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- East Anglia: Chapter 3
- Of course we are"The global warming skeptics are perfectly happy to overlook the illegality of the hacking and theft of private emails, according to this blogger."Sure, how else would this information have been made public. Many of the emails highlight to obfuscation of information, others point to the planning to...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-22
- Hacker scores by posting East Anglia global warming emails
- Control over eating a hamburgerGood grief please stop the madness of all of these un-truths about global warming trash.I want a burger I will eat a burger, if I want to drive to town to ride around so be it, if I want to raise cattle and have them pass...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-20
- Hacker scores by posting East Anglia global warming emails
- Hacker takes email files from East Anglia University and posts them online: the subject is global warming. by Harry Fuller
- Blog posts 2009-11-20
- FortKnox Personal Firewall 5.0.305 (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 2009-11-19
- What's next for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform?
- So MS is going cloud...Well, well, isn't this interesting. Does MS concede that the era of packaged client software is over? Again, MS is the follower and not the leader, and again, MS is following Google to the clouds. My prediction is that this will be a field day...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-18
- Microsoft, former employee settle over spying claims
- So, if a hacker patents a hack ... MS can't do anything about it unless they license the hack?Sounds a bit deceptiveSo they guy knows his company is working on this patent, applies at MS while not telling them he's still working at the other company, then pitches this idea...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-17
- Process Hacker 1.7 (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 2009-11-17
- Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit
- Ummm interesting....so just block 139 and 445...445? great that port aggain.Is SMB blocked to/from internet by th firewall by default?RE: Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploitPorts 139 and 445 are blocked by default for Internet access by Windows firewall in Windows 7 and any commerical hardware firewall. They are enabled...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-16
- Photos: Random Hack of Kindness
- The Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, Calif., hosts a community working on emergency preparedness technologies, and so-dubbed hacking for humanity. by CNET News.com
- Image galleries 2009-11-15
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