|
*HACKER vs. CRACKER*
According to the on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.3.0, the term
"hacker" is defined as follows:
hacker n.
"[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. 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 same file defines "cracker" as follows:
cracker n.
"One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in
defense against journalistic misuse of hacker (q.v., sense 8). An
earlier attempt to establish `worm' in this sense around 1981-82 on
Usenet was largely a failure.
Use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion against the
theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings. While it is expected
that any real hacker will have done some playful cracking and knows many
of the basic techniques, anyone past larval stage is expected to have
outgrown the desire to do so except for immediate, benign, practical
reasons (for example, if it's necessary to get around some security in
order to get some work done).
Thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than
the mundane reader misled by sensationalistic journalism might expect.
Crackers tend to gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive groups that
have little overlap with the huge, open poly-culture this lexicon
describes; though crackers often like to describe themselves as hackers,
most true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of life."
|
