What mind you are about the next concept? - "A Hacker"

[ETTETT]

What mind you are? My opinion.

I don't believe into any home "hacker" all of those idiots are just some thiefs that creates a program/software/application that they can trick and steal passwords with OS relating program language and after that they logs in and destroys, ruins or does something idiotic and it's called nowadays "hacking" if we can say that the "my facebook account got hacked" I don't believe that the any of the home users have so high knownledge about the OS that they can really HACK... something.

In my opinion hacking and stealing are 100% different concept if we are speaking about people that are calling themselfs with a name "hacker" due the reason that they steal some stuff with applications that they have coded/programmed in VB, C# or C++ whatever.

VB, C# and C++ is based into rule of OS so how anyone can call it as hacking? There's no sense.

[Ron]

I fail to see what you're trying to debate...

Hacking is using a variety of methods to gain unauthorized access to a network or resource.

That definition really isn't debatable... Whether or not you want to people who steal facebook accounts (and other accounts) hackers is personal preference really, as by definition these guys are still hackers.

[jMerliN]

The definition of words tends to go with what most people expect the word to mean. The fact that "hacker" used to mean something entirely different from what it means today is thanks mainly to mainstream media and ignorance. There is no term that means the same as the old "hacker." It was unique and it's been lost. Today, "hacker" and "cracker" are synonymous to most people, even though the term "cracker" was coined by hackers many years ago to describe hacking used for nefarious purposes. Cracker is just not as appealing as hacker to the media. It's also a potentially racial word to describe a white man. We still refer to ourselves as hackers without the negative connotations given to the word these days, and it fits better than any of "computer security expert", "software engineer", "1337 user" etc.

I've seen some cases where media have used "malicious users" to describe what mainstream media would simply say "hackers." Those have mainly been tech news websites that can distinguish the two. We can only hope people will eventually become enlightened to the fact that people who "hack" most things are kids with little to no knowledge using information produced by real hackers to cause trouble. We call them script kiddies, but they really are malicious users as stated before. They are not, in any way, hackers. We've been somewhat forced into using a legend to describe hacking because of this: white hats are hackers that discover vulnerabilities and reverse engineer malware to improve computer security specifically (for no other reason than that). Grey hat hackers are neutral. Black hat hackers are those who find vulnerabilities specifically to exploit them for gain of some kind. And despite what the term means, the BH conference is more related to white and grey hat hacking than black hat. Mainly because it would be fairly stupid to perform or disclose an illegal hack in public, and because FBI agents routinely participate.

[Chern0byl]

Nowadays TV dudes calling DDoSer-s, spammers, carders, whoever knows how to use computer on a bit higher level than others "hackers". That's pretty sad...

[RTDK]

Well, although the first post didn't really make any sense, I agree with what followed : the media nowadays is calling everyone who uses a computer to steal or gain access to something a hacker. I have no hacking knowledge or ties with it, yet I find that really frustrating.

[SomeRB]

The definition of words tends to go with what most people expect the word to mean. The fact that "hacker" used to mean something entirely different from what it means today is thanks mainly to mainstream media and ignorance. There is no term that means the same as the old "hacker." It was unique and it's been lost. Today, "hacker" and "cracker" are synonymous to most people, even though the term "cracker" was coined by hackers many years ago to describe hacking used for nefarious purposes. Cracker is just not as appealing as hacker to the media. It's also a potentially racial word to describe a white man. We still refer to ourselves as hackers without the negative connotations given to the word these days, and it fits better than any of "computer security expert", "software engineer", "1337 user" etc.

I've seen some cases where media have used "malicious users" to describe what mainstream media would simply say "hackers." Those have mainly been tech news websites that can distinguish the two. We can only hope people will eventually become enlightened to the fact that people who "hack" most things are kids with little to no knowledge using information produced by real hackers to cause trouble. We call them script kiddies, but they really are malicious users as stated before. They are not, in any way, hackers. We've been somewhat forced into using a legend to describe hacking because of this: white hats are hackers that discover vulnerabilities and reverse engineer malware to improve computer security specifically (for no other reason than that). Grey hat hackers are neutral. Black hat hackers are those who find vulnerabilities specifically to exploit them for gain of some kind. And despite what the term means, the BH conference is more related to white and grey hat hacking than black hat. Mainly because it would be fairly stupid to perform or disclose an illegal hack in public, and because FBI agents routinely participate.

I think this post sums it all up in one fell swoop.

I use my own personal preference of labels on the matter due to occasionally doing penetration testing on PHP systems for clients of mine.

Am I a hacker? I would say no due to the label "hacker" now holding a malicious stereotype, which is not my intention.

Personally, when I am doing that, I am doing pen-tests.

I would not define somebody who uses a pre-existing script to hit a forum and change the index page, as an example, as a hacker OR cracker because they have done nothing but find a
program link on a forum somewhere.

A hacker, cracker or pen-tester know's what they are looking for, not just entering a site URL and pressing a button to perform it for them.

Even using 0day releases, you would not be defined as either in my opinion.

If you didn't write it or perform the act without aide, you are merely a pawn for the real h/cr/ackers