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> On the other hand if an actual researcher leaks data they're still a researcher; they might be a bad person, but that's orthogonal. I would disagree. To me a
by jedimastert 6y ago
> On the other hand if an actual researcher leaks data they're still a researcher; they might be a bad person, but that's orthogonal.
I would disagree. To me at least, the difference between researcher and hacker is what you do with the knowledge you have.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoThose aren't exclusive, hacker doesn't necessarily have a bad connotation (see "white hat").
- scythe 6y agoIn my original post I didn't want to use the word "hacker" to mean "breaker-into of systems" while posting on a site called Hacker News. But my point wasn't that people can't have their credentials revoked for doing bad things, my point was that if actual security researchers -- say, a team from some university or prominent firm -- had done this, we would be having a very different conversation right now. We might stop calling them researchers next week, but history matters. As far as I can tell, the people who broke into Parler are not far beyond script kiddies, if at all.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoOk, sorry for being pedantic.
- chmod775 6y agoHacker and researcher are not mutually exclusive. A researcher seeks knowledge, a hacker seeks ways to apply knowledge to overcome obstacles, which includes seeking required knowledge and is knowledge itself. The more interesting question is in what capacity someone was acting, if it wasn't both. Anything else is like trying to find the difference between an employee and a pilot, as if they're mutually exclusive things.
- surge 6y agomalicious hacker/researcher