Hack your Knowledge

Summary Title: Understanding the Term "Hacker" in Computer Security

• A security hacker explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network.
• Hackers may be motivated by profit, protest, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or evaluation of a system's weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers.
• Computer programmers reclaim the term hacker, arguing that it refers to someone with an advanced understanding of computers and computer networks, while cracker is the more appropriate term for those who break into computers, whether computer criminals or computer security experts.
• The subculture around such hackers is termed network hacker subculture, hacker scene, or computer underground, which initially developed in the context of phreaking during the 1960s and the microcomputer BBS scene of the 1980s.
• Hackers can include someone who endeavors to strengthen security mechanisms by exploring their weaknesses and also those who seek to access secure, unauthorized information despite security measures.
• White hat is the name given to ethical computer hackers, who utilize hacking in a helpful way, while black hat hackers violate computer security for malicious reasons.
• Grey hat hackers lie between black hat and white hat hackers, hacking for ideological reasons.
• A script kiddie is an unskilled hacker who breaks into computer systems by using automated tools written by others, usually with little understanding of the underlying concept.
• A neophyte is someone who is new to hacking or phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of the workings of technology and hacking.
• A blue hat hacker is someone who is used to bug-test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be closed.
• A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to publicize a social, ideological, religious or political message.
• The computer underground is frequently compared to the Wild West, and the subculture has produced its own specialized slang, such as 1337speak.