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
- 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
- Apple nukes Psystar
- Why is this legal?What I want to know is *why* is it legal for Apple to say "OSX can only run on hardware we provide"? Wouldn't that constitute a monopoly on OSX since they stifle competition and someone else can't provide OSX software systems? Isn't that the literal...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-15
- EAV Antivirus Suite Free Edition 6.3 (Windows)
- EAV Antivirus Suite can detect and eliminate spyware, Trojans, key loggers, adware programs, browser hijackers, cookies, spy bots, trackware, and other malware, even new and unknown ones, on your PC. EAV Antivirus Suite is able to block ARP attacks. EAV Antivirus Suite can recover all damages with Internet Explorer caused...
- Software downloads 2009-11-13
- Nsauditor 1.9.7 (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 2009-11-11
- Real Hide IP 3.5.4.2 (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 2009-11-11
- Apple bans bobble head Congress app
- There are few people in this country more desserving of ridicule......than politicians.A couple of observations from Rasmussen:"Only four percent (4%) of voters say most politicians keep their campaign promises. Forty-five percent (45%) believe they deliberately make false promises to get elected.""Voters by more than two-to-one think high congressional reelection rates...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-10
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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