We all remember Lisbeth Salander from the The Girl with the Dragon tattoo movie or Neo in The Matrix – both hackers.
Earlier this week even SU websites were targeted by the 747crew, who used it to proclaim their political and religious convictions.
But apparently there’s a difference between hackers and crackers. In the context of computer security a hacker is seen as someone who pinpoints the weaknesses in a computer system or network and exploits them. His motivation can be financial gain, a platform for protest or purely because it’s a challenge.
Over time, and partly thanks to the media, the association with the word “hacker” predominantly became a negative one. Eric S. Raymond (author of The New Hacker’s Dictionary) believes that members of the computer underground should be called crackers. According to R.D. Clifford (2006) a cracker is someone who illegally gained access to a computer with the intent of committing a crime, for example destroying data on a particular system.
More recently the word hacker has been reclaimed by computer programmers who agree with Raymond that those who hack with criminal intent, should be called a cracker. Several subgroups of this subculture have different approaches and also use different terms to distinguish themselves from others.
A white hat won’t break into a system with malicious intent, but rather to test their own security or for a company manufacturing security software. The term white hat in internet slang refers to an ethical hacker.
A black hat hacker violates computer security for his own benefit. These are the stereotypical characters we see depicted in popular culture, like movies. Black hats break into secure networks to destroy data or to render the network unusable for those who need to access it.
A grey hat surfs the internet and breaks into a system only to notify it’s administrator that it has a security defect and then offer to fix it at a price.
A blue hat assists with the testing of a system before it’s launched to establish it’s weaknesses. Usually he’s not part of a computer security company.
Other terms include a script kiddie (someone who’s not an expert and uses other people’s software to hack) and a neophyte, “n00b”, or “newbie” is a novice who’s still in training.
A Hacktivist is a hacker who misuses technology to convey his social, ideological and political message. The defacement of the SU webpages earlier this week is an example of hactivism.
[SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org]
Tags: security