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> There is something shameful in being associated with the "l33t h4x0r kr3w" (or Iranian Cyber Army) and those who participate in mass defacements etc. I think
by frb 16y ago
> There is something shameful in being associated with the "l33t h4x0r kr3w" (or Iranian Cyber Army) and those who participate in mass defacements etc.
I think one problem is that there's no other word to describe such people.
The media associates any computer related crime to hacking.
Last week the guy who broke into Sarah Palins email account, in the media known as the 'Palin Hacker', was sentenced to jail.
Is this guy a hacker? If not, what should he be called instead?
In this context, this article is interesting: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/11/palin-hacker-de/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/11/palin-hacker-de/
- user24 16y ago"Cracker" is preferred, but it will take a long time for the media to get that.
- astine 16y agoMake that never. 'Cracker' sounds stupid and already has racist connotations. Personally, I'd like to call people who illegally subvert computers for financial gain or ego-tripping, 'criminals' and be done with it.
- devmonk 16y agoI always thought a cracker (beyond the food and ethnic slur definitions) was someone who removed copy protection from software. So, in WarGames, David would have been considered a hacker, but the guys you see in the splash screens of shared old computer games were crackers. Even if that isn't the formal definition, my guess is that is the most common connotation associated with that definition of cracker.