Kassem 1
Hassan Kassem
ENG 1020
Professor Andrea Silva
March 7, 2008
Are you a hacker? Yes…? No…?
When the word hacker first comes to your mind, what do you think of it? A geek who is trying to break into my system and steal my personal information, or a computer buff who is brilliant at computer programming? I am ninety nine percent sure you thought of the first one right? Well I am not trying to judge your thinking but what this article is all about is clearing the controversies on the meaning and the usage of this word. You hear the word on the news, see it on a computer magazine cover, or most likely read it on a website while surfing the internet. In this article, I would like to clarify the word “hacker” and possibly explain what the real meaning of a hacker is.
First let us define what “hacker” means. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a hacker is “an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer”, or, “a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system”1.However, there is also another meaning of the word hacker which defines “a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity.”1 I will not be talking about the third definition but I will be discussing the controversies regarding the first two.
The first definition explains that a hacker is a computer genius. If you ask somebody in the computer community they will most probably agree with you, however if you suggest the second definition they might get offended. Bob Bickford has defined a hacker as “any person who derives joy from discovering ways to circumvent limitations.”2(MicroTimes, 1986.)The hacker, in this case, is not intending to do any harm. He is using his talents and abilities to overcome restrictions that are imposed on him by not being given permission to access a certain system. If the hacker’s intentions are to disrupt system security and inflict damage then a “hacker” would be defined as computer criminal.
Hackers have created their own world of computing and have their ideals to how the internet should work. Some are just bored of school, feeling “I’m smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me”3 (Mentor, p 70) while others feel that it is their duty to expose to the public the government’s concealment of personal information of the individual. Hackers nowadays are considered as intruders who have penetrated our privacy to use it for their own benefits; however, they all consider themselves capable of doing the impossible and believe that information should be shared and conversely, not owned. In an article by Brian Harvey, he states that
“Richard Stallman says that information should be given out freely, his opinion is not based on a notion of property as theft, which (right or wrong) would be an ethical position. His argument is that keeping information secret is inefficient, it leads to unaesthetic duplication of effort.”4
The second definition of a hacker explains that a hacker is any person who tries to steal information from a computer. The media today focuses on hackers as people as such. They have come to know hackers as computer criminals who steal information or who invade government or company security for the purpose of creating havoc. Perhaps one of the famous computer hackers of all time is Kevin Mitnick, a convicted criminal in the United States. He has used the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides5 (Mitnick), hacked into Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemens systems (2600 Magazine)6 and has even evaded the FBI (2600 Magazine)6.
The hacker definition controversy occurs when people try to define who a hacker is and what he does. In the computing community, a person is complemented when the title “hacker” is given to him due to his brilliant programming skills while he is disparaged in the public community considering him a convicted criminal. As a result, the definition of a hacker is an issue of controversy. The positive connotation of the word was widely accepted in the past, however, today, the negative connotation prevails as the public and the media sees hackers as trespassers that should be prosecuted.
According to Brian Harvey, a professor at the University of California Berkeley, a “computer hacker, then, is someone who lives and breathes computer, who knows all about computers, who can get a computer to do anything.”7 (Harvey) “A true hacker can’t just sit around all night; he must pursue some hobby with dedication and flair. It can be telephones, or railroads, or science fiction random…”7 In an another article he states that what really makes a hacker is his aspiration to be a “superuser”, that is, with privileged account.
So what does a hacker really mean? Is he a “good” guy or a “bad” guy? As we have seen, the hacker controversy is a big issue that cannot be easily settled. Since we defined the word “hacker”, we can distinguish between three types of hackers. White-hat hackers are hackers
“Also known as friendly hackers always using their knowledge for good reasons, [they] usually end up working as high-paid network admin, programmers, and security consultants.”8
The second type of hackers is Grey-hat hackers “are borderline white/black hats. They sometimes prank unsuspecting users and cause general mayhem.”8 The last type of hackers is Black-hat hackers
“Also known as crackers these are the ones to watch out for, they send and make viruses, destroy data, and deface websites along with other illegal activity and breaking into people’s machines.”8
To conclude, “hacker” is a word that will always have a controversial definition between different communities, however, the negative and pejorative connotation will almost always have the wider dominance. The majority of people will be defining it as a computer criminal while the other minority willdefine it as a computer buff.
Works Cited
1: "Hacker - Definition From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary." Merriam-
Webster. 7 Mar.2008 <
2: "The Art of Technology Digest." 7 Mar. 2008
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3: Mentor, The. (1986). Hacker's Manifesto, or The Conscience of a Hacker. In Victor J.
Vitanza (Ed.), CyberReader (pp. 70-71). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
4: Harvey, Brian. "What is a Hacker?" 1985. University of California, Berkeley. 7 Mar. 2008
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5: Mitnick, Kevin D. The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security.
Indianapolis: Wiley, 2002.
6: "2600 Live Mitnick Interview." 2600 Magazine. 7 Mar. 2008
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7: Harvey, Brian. "A Case Study: the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School." 1985. University of
California, Berkeley. 7 Mar. 2008 <
8: Fryman, John. "Types of Hackers." 14 Mar. 2008
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