Hackers: Good or Evil

Hackers: Good or Evil

Executive Summary
There seems to be a negative association with the word hacker.   This is a big misunderstanding because these programmers, who consider themselves to be hackers, are not the nasty persons that the media portrays them as.   Some misguided souls do attack systems for profit and pleasure, but these are usually the “wannabe hackers”;   usually referred to as crackers or cyberpunks.   True hackers do not waste their time with these types of antics.   This can be compared to an artist who, instead of painting a beautiful picture, sprays profanity on the side of a building.   There are many misconceptions surrounding the art form of hacking.  

Confusion in Meaning

The term hacker can have many meanings.   The true definition is: “people who enjoy exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities.”   However the majority of people no longer see hackers as harmless nerds but vicious techno-criminals that pirating software, break into corporate networks and destroy information.   This is the public misconception of a hacker.  

Back in the “Unix days”, a hack was simply a quick and dirty way of doing something and hackers were just basically computer experts in those days.   Today the meaning has changed and hacking means “people who illegally gain access to, and tamper with, information in a computer system.”   It infuriates me that the media hardly ever prints the good things that hackers do.   Some hackers provide a service to companies, by letting the company know about security holes, before a rival exploits it.   Most hackers want nothing more than to simply learn.   A hacker just has an extreme thirst for knowledge, but not in the traditional subjects - it’s technology that interests hackers.

Bad Hackers

The bad view of hackers is not completely false.   There are many hackers out there that enjoy being destructive and will do their best to harm any system they can.   Onel de Guzman, the suspected...