Hacker

(′hak·ər)

(computer science) A person who uses a computer system without a specific, constructive purpose or without proper authorization.

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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.)

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An expert computer programmer who enjoys figuring out the inner workings of computer systems or Networks. Some have a reputation for using their expertise to illegally break into secure programs in computers hooked up to the Internet or other networks. This sense, however, has now been taken over by the term cracker, and hacker is again a title to be proudly claimed.

[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe]

1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet Users' Glossary, usefully amplifies this as: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular.

2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.

3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.

4. A person who is good at programming quickly.

5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in ‘a Unix hacker’. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)

6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.

7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.

8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence password hacker, network hacker. The correct term for this sense is cracker.

The term ‘hacker’ also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net (see the network. For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To Become A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see hacker ethic).

It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled bogus). See also geek, wannabee.

This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.

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A hacker is a skilled computer user. The term originally denoted a skilled programmer, particularly one skilled in machine code and with a good knowledge of the machine and its operating system. The name arose from the fact that a good programmer could always hack an unsatisfactory system around until it worked.

The term later came to denote a user whose main interest is in defeating password systems. The term has thus acquired a pejorative sense, with the meaning of one who deliberately and sometimes criminally interferes with data available through telephone lines. The activities of such hackers have led to considerable efforts to tighten security of transmitted data. The "hacker ethic" is that information-sharing is the proper way of human dealing, and, indeed, it is the responsibility of hackers to liberally impart their wisdom to the software world by distributing information. Nefarious hacker attacks by people outside the company costs companies on average about $56,000 per attack.

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Computer hackers are people who gain remote access (typically unauthorized and unapproved) to files stored in another computer, or even to the operating system of the computer. In the 1950 and 1960s, hackers were motivated more by a desire to learn the operating characteristics of a computer than by any malicious intent. Indeed, in those days hackers were often legitimate computer programmers who were seeking ways of routing information more quickly through the then-cumbersome operating system of computers.

Since then, however, computer hacking has become much more sophisticated, organized, and, in many cases, illegal. Some hackers are motivated by a desire to cripple sensitive sites, make mischief, and to acquire restricted information.

In the late 1990s, several computer hackers attempted to gain access to files in the computer network at the Pentagon. The incidents, which were dubbed Solar Sunrise, were regarded as a dress rehearsal for a later and more malicious cyber-attack, and stimulated a revamping of the military's computer defenses. In another example, computer hackers were able to gain access to patient files at the Indiana University School of Medicine in February 2003.

The threats to civilian privacy and national security from computer hackers was deemed so urgent that the

U.S. government enacted the Cyber-Security Enhancement Act in July 2002, as part of the Homeland Security measures in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Under this legislation, hackers can be regarded as terrorists, and can be imprisoned for up to 20 years.

One tool that a hacker can use to compromise an individual computer or a computer network is a virus. Depending on their design and intent, the consequences of a virus can range from the inconvenient (i.e., defacing of a Web site) to the catastrophic (i.e., disabling of a computer network). Within a few years during the 1990s, the number of known computer viruses increased to over 30,000. That number is now upwards of 100,000, with new viruses appearing virtually daily.

Despite the threat that they can pose, computer hackers can also be of benefit. By exposing the flaws in a computer network, hackers can aid in the redesign of the system to make information more inaccessible to unauthorized access.

Further Reading

Books

McClure, Stuart, Joel Scambray, and George Kurtz. Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets and Solutions, 4th ed. Emeryville, CA: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2003.

Spitzner, Lance. Honeypots: Tracking Hackers. Boston: Addison Wesley Professional, 2002.

Wang, Wallace. Steal This Computer Book 3: What They Won't Tell You About the Internet. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2003.

Warren, Henry S., Jr. Hacker's Delight. Boston: Addison Wesley Professional, 2002.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - hacker, uøvet/udygtig sportsmand

2.
n. - taxachauffør

Nederlands (Dutch)
hakker, (computer) kraker, computermaniak, schopper

Français (French)
1.
n. - pirate informatique

2.
n. - chauffeur de taxi

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - (Comp.) Hacker

2.
n. - Taxifahrer

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πελεκητής, εισβολέας, διαρρήκτης απόρρητων προγραμμάτων Η/Υ

Italiano (Italian)
pirata informatico

Português (Portuguese)
n. - hacker (m) (Inf.), violador (m) de sistema de computação (Inf.)

Русский (Russian)
человек, плохо делающий какую-либо работу, нелегальный взломщик в чужой компьютер

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - pirata informático

2.
n. - taxista, conductor de taxi

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hacker (person som bryter sig in i datasystem)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
热衷计算机的人, 企图不法进入别人计算机系统的人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 熱衷電腦的人, 企圖不法進入別人電腦系統的人

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 해커, 컴퓨터 침해자

2.
n. - 택시 운전사

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ハッカー

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خبير في أنظمه الكومبيوتر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חובבן מחשבים החודר למערכות ממוחשבות סגורות‬
n. - ‮נהג מונית‬

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