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Most hackers don't commit crimes, because most of them aren't stupid. But some are. (I have known those stupid people, and they were in their 30s, did really st
by peterwwillis 10y ago
Most hackers don't commit crimes, because most of them aren't stupid. But some are. (I have known those stupid people, and they were in their 30s, did really stupid shit, and are now doing time)
I would posit that most people engaged in cyber crime are not hackers, from the botnet owners who literally paid for and downloaded a tool with instructions, to the people who install skimmers, to carding merchants, people running protection rackets, email scammers, etc. A small number of people actually "hack" into a system using any form of advanced skill in order to do things like extract accounts like those in the article.
- openasocket 10y ago> Most hackers don't commit crimes What definition of hacker are you using here? I know we're on Hacker News, but in the cybersecurity context hacker refers to someone who hacks into a system, which would mean hackers commit crimes by definition. EDIT: I pasted the wrong thing
- peterwwillis 10y agoNo, in a cybersecurity context a hacker is merely someone who knows about or is involved in security hacking. This includes, for example, researchers and government employees. It also means people who self identify as a hacker, and again, they usually don't commit crimes. The vast majority of DefCon attendees, for example, don't commit crimes, and then there's all the corporate shills at BlackHat.