Until about the early 1980s, it exclusively referred to benign or prankish tinkering. It started to drift increasingly toward the prankish end, and then to the

Until about the early 1980s, it exclusively referred to benign or prankish tinkering. It started to drift increasingly toward the prankish end, and then to the nefarious. Most early computer hacking—in the illegal sense—was also fairly benign (I wardialed my area and broke into the local supermarket computers to teach myself Unix and C). From the 90s on, its primary use (especially in the mainstream) has referred to illegal activity, whether gray- or black-hat. There was a concerted effort in the 80s and early 90s to use "cracking" for the illegal activities, but it never caught on.