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Hacker (computer security)

In the computer security context, a hacker is someone who seeks and exploitsweaknesses in a computer system orcomputer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, challenge, enjoyment,[1] or to evaluate those weaknesses to assist in removing them. The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground.[2]

There is a longstanding controversy about the term’s true meaning. In this controversy, the term hacker is reclaimed by computer programmers who argue that it refers simply to someone with an advanced understanding of computers and computer networks,[3] and that cracker is the more appropriate term for those who break into computers, whether computer criminal (black hats) or computer security expert (white hats)[4][5] – but a recent article concluded that: “…the black-hat meaning still prevails among the general public”.[6]

History

Further information: Timeline of computer security hacker history

Bruce Sterling, author of The Hacker Crackdown

In computer security, a hacker is someone who focuses on security mechanisms of computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it is more often used by the mass media and popular culture to refer to those who seek access despite these security measures. That is, the media portrays the ‘hacker’ as a villain. Nevertheless, parts of the subculture see their aim in correcting security problems and use the word in a positive sense. White hat is the name given to ethical computer hackers, who utilize hacking in a helpful way. White hats are becoming a necessary part of the information security field.[7] They operate under a code, which acknowledges that breaking into other people’s computers is bad, but that discovering and exploiting security mechanisms and breaking into computers is still an interesting activity that can be done ethically and legally. Accordingly, the term bears strong connotations that are favorable or pejorative, depending on the context.

The subculture around such hackers is termed network hacker subculture, hacker scene or computer underground. It initially developed in the context of phreaking during the 1960s and the microcomputer BBS sceneof the 1980s. It is implicated with 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and the alt.2600 newsgroup.

In 1980, an article in the August issue ofPsychology Today (with commentary by Philip Zimbardo) used the term “hacker” in its title: “The Hacker Papers”. It was an excerpt from a Stanford Bulletin Board discussion on the addictive nature of computer use. In the 1982 film Tron, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) describes his intentions to break into ENCOM’s computer system, saying “I’ve been doing a little hacking here”. CLU is the software he uses for this. By 1983, hacking in the sense of breaking computer security had already been in use as computer jargon,[8] but there was no public awareness about such activities.[9]However, the release of the film WarGamesthat year, featuring a computer intrusion intoNORAD, raised the public belief that computer security hackers (especially teenagers) could be a threat to national security. This concern became real when, in the same year, a gang of teenage hackers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, known as The 414s, broke into computer systems throughout the United States andCanada, including those of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Security Pacific Bank.[10] The case quickly grew media attention,[10][11] and 17-year-old Neal Patrick emerged as the spokesman for the gang, including a cover story in Newsweek entitled “Beware: Hackers at play”, with Patrick’s photograph on the cover.[12] The Newsweek article appears to be the first use of the word hacker by the mainstream media in the pejorative sense.