6 ms·
I am sick of the media saying "Hacker" when they mean "Black Hat"
- clef 13y ago>4) a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system >This is the last one because it is the least accurate and has been created only in recent times by the media. By recent times, you mean since the mid/late 80's when hacking sort of got known in the mainstream after phreaking? >"Anyone that takes a look at a goal and a given set of resources then figures out an unconventional way to achieve that goal" I want to be rich! therefore I choose to rob a bank (my unconventional way of achieving that goal), does that make me a hacker too? (Like a bank hacker) Awesome article nonetheless!
- icantthinkofone 13y agoYou are confused as many people grow up and enter this field. The original term for the bad guys was "crackers" and all crackers are hackers but not all hackers are crackers. The media doesn't understand that and now all the young people growing up have the term 'hacker' all confused and messed up and ruined for the rest of us.
- krapp 13y agoThe media communicates in the language that its audience understands. It isn't their job to enforce linguistic referential integrity, and "crackers" carries some negative connotations, at least in the US.
- roel_v 13y agoPray tell, when was this mythical era when a sizable group of people actually made this distinction and used them as two separate concepts? Warning: this is a trick question, I'm almost old, so I have actual first-hand recollection of these days of yore you seem to be lamenting.
- icantthinkofone 13y agoI'm probably older than you but, based on your question, far more experienced in the field.
- skrowl 13y agoObligatory HACK THE PLANET!
- 3villabs 13y agoLove the reference!
- onion2k 13y agoI'm sick of people having prescriptive definitions of how language ought to be used. The term 'hacker' in a media piece about someone 'remotely abusing a computer system' is entirely understandable and consequently perfectly alright to use. Language is a beautiful, dynamic, living organism that evolves depending on how it's used by everyone every day. There is no 'wrong way' when it comes to language. There are ways that work and ways that don't work; which way you go for depends on how well you want to be understood. Try to delight in the way people use language. Defining a word strictly and pedantically is showing off by demonstrating that you know more about a word's etymology and usage than someone else. Don't do that.
- 3villabs 13y agoNoted thanks for the advice
- hamburglar 13y agoI'm pretty well convinced that the motivation for getting upset over the "wrong" use of this word is usually just a desire to claim special knowledge and feel superior about being part of the elite group that knows the true meaning. It's disingenuous moaning about "confusion" while ignoring the fact that the rest of the world seems to get along just fine with the occasional word that has (gasp) more than one meaning.
- chippy1337 13y agoActually, they mean "Cracker".
- stonogo 13y agoIn fact, they mean "hacker," because you don't get to define the words they use.
- icantthinkofone 13y agoYou are totally correct!
- 3villabs 13y agoAgreed but that could be confused with other definitions used in the derogatory.
- theandrewbailey 13y agoBut if you said that, people would think you're making an epithet against white people.
- rrouse 13y agoTo some people, that means "one who removes copy protections from software"
- blakesterz 13y agoAs much as I agree with this we have lost this battle. For most people the definition of hacker is black hat, all the blog posts and comments in the world won't change that. People who get their news from newspapers and TV now know hackers break into things and steal stuff. They know that hackers are the bad guys.
- StudyAnimal 13y agoSo what is the other type of hacker then? And is the difference really substantial enough to warrant a separate word?
- 3villabs 13y agoI understand, but as I plan to use the word a lot and take ownership of it this post is designed to inform those whom might read my stuff that I am not intending to steal their credit cards... yet... (jk)
- sssilver 13y agoAnd that's awesome. Because that's what hackers are, not just some mediocre Javascript coders :P
- Jtsummers 13y agoIt's been this way for (EDIT: at least) 30 years. And the discussion has been going on just as long. Though it used to be, especially on /. back in the day, rants about "hacker" versus "cracker". I once tried to point this out to my parents, never again. It just doesn't matter. We've elected to continue applying a label to ourselves that the media uses in a totally different way. Language changes, often in ways counter to what we want, accept this and move on.
- 3villabs 13y agoI am not trying to change the world but when a potential business partner hears I am a hacker I don't want them thinking I am going to steal their credit card info.
- Jtsummers 13y agoQualify it then. "I'm a computer hacker, I take <tools> and apply them to <domains> to create <solutions>." Or use it as a weed-out phrase, to find the potentials that are more familiar with computer culture and able to distinguish your meaning from society's meaning.
- coldtea 13y agoSo why don't you introduce yourself as a "programmer" or a "computer wizard" or a "tinkerer" or a "developer" or any other term and opt to use a term that's been synonymous with breaking into computing systems for 3-4 decades?
- freehunter 13y agoAny why would you want to introduce yourself to a business partner as a hacker anyway? If they understand what you mean, you're telling them that you're going to give them a product that works, but only because of magic and duct tape, not because it's a professional product. If they don't understand what you mean, they'll think you're a criminal. Either way, in the business world, hacker has only negative connotations. Only within hacker circles does the term become a positive.
- stonogo 13y agoWhen people say "cowboy," they don't mean the hundreds of thousands of working-class guys driving cattle for a living. They either mean Wild Bill or they mean some guy at a rodeo. When people say "trucker" they don't mean the hundreds of thousands of guys driving food deliveries to grocery stores; they mean Jerry Reed from Smokey and the Bandit. When people say "princess" they don't mean Lady Di, they mean any number of Disney characters. In a similar vein, when people say "hacker" they don't particularly give a shit what side the guy's on, and "black hat" as a term is only acceptable in IT communities -- everyone else smirks at the nerd shit and continues using the terminology accepted by the vast majority of human society. You're going to have to get used to it.
- peterwwillis 13y agoI'm sick of the media saying "skinhead" when they mean "neo-nazi/white supremacist", but I don't go around whining about it. The use of words is controlled by popular opinion, not only one subclass of people that refer to themselves using the word. Some words just need to be retired.
- pekk 13y agoBut you did just whine about it. And many skinheads ARE white supremacists or nativists.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- johnward 13y agoMany black hats are hackers
- qbrass 13y agoMany hackers are black hats. All black hats are hackers, they're a subset of the larger group. And that's what the problem is. Calling a cracker a hacker is technically correct, but lead to the assumption that all hackers are black hats.
- vacri 13y agoWhining in one place does not constitute "going around" whining.
- Cuuugi 13y agoForgive my ignorance, but wasn't the word made to describe "black hat" activities? Everything else is a new definition (white hat etc.) Language evolves, especially with created words. Will your opinion win? Possibly, i dont know ( or care). I just get sick of people thinking their way of thinking is accepted fact.
- georgemcfly 13y agoThe modern, non "black hat" use of the word originates with the MIT Tech Model Railroad Club (http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html) who define "hack" as '1) an article or project without constructive end; 2) work undertaken on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy booster; 4) to produce, or attempt to produce, a hack (3)." Quite a few words in the "computer geek" lexicon were borrowed from the TMRC.
- 3villabs 13y agoGreat answer!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bitsteak 13y agoAsk any random person what they think of when you say "hacker." PROTIP: it's not your typical employee of some random consumer web startup, working 12 hour days and pounding redbull. It's someone who bypasses technical security controls through mastery of the underlying technology.
- kaeruct 13y agobut those aren't mutually exclusive
- StudyAnimal 13y agoDoes anyone think the former should be considered a good description of a hacker? To me it is someone using their intelligence, to do something clever (or at least in a clever way) to disrupt or destroy something, make someone uncomfortable or piss someone off, or challenge something, for some result that satisfies them or someone else in some way. And the essence really lies in that first bit. A random programmer isn't a hacker unless that first bit is there, the unorthodox, challenging or subversive bit.
- Jtsummers 13y agoSo in your mind this site is about news concerning disrupting, destroying and irritating things and people? "Hacker" is entirely combative and offensive in your view. That seems weird to me.
- StudyAnimal 13y agoYes, I think it should be. I think most things on the site qualify, but not all. However your second statement is a mischaracterization. It is not "entirely" combative or offensive. I just think that is the essential ingredient before the word hacker is appropriate. If you are modifying a device meant for one purpose to use it in another purpose that is hacking because you are subversively defying the intentions of the devices creators. If you are merely using an Arduino or a 3d printer to make something, that is not hacking. If you are founding a startup to disrupt an existing business model, and put a dinosaur out of business you are hacking. If you are just churning out another iPhone game, that is probably not hacking.
- rainsford 13y agoLanguage is ultimately defined by popular usage, and the majority of the usage of "hacker" means "black hat" type activities. You can argue for a different usage until you're blue in the face, but the black hat usage is pretty clearly the dominant one and has been for quite a while. Insisting on a different usage and using the word that way yourself just leads to confusion and makes you sound pedantic, no matter how correct you feel your definition is.
- CmonDev 13y agoTo me it's someone who creates a messy working solution quickly. This is opposite to developers, who have to care about maintainability.
- Kurtz79 13y agoDozen of years of movies and video-games have cemented fairly well the use of the word. "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
- stronglikedan 13y agoContext is important. Most laypersons reading an article don't know the terms "Black Hat", "White Hat", and so on. A good article should differentiate the intentions of the "hacker", so that the reader can imply the morality of those intentions by the context.
- badman_ting 13y agoLanguage is fluid, and sadly we don't control it. Sorry.
- 3villabs 13y agoOh nothing to be sorry about. Just merely making note of it.
- czbond 13y agoYou do understand that usage has been around longer for that context than the recently popular way of describing anyone that can touch a keyboard?
- clef 13y agoSpot on.
- 3villabs 13y agoAgreed that is my point. It has been around a long term, and yes we are in danger of overuse. Thus the comment on "Sex Hackers" indicating we have gone to far.
- czbond 13y agoAgreed - great blog post bringing up points I hadn't considered.... Love the opening line too.
- pabb 13y agoPrecisely. I've read the counter sentiment multiple times from black hats who are exasperated seeing "hacker" tied to any notion of someone who programs or likes to "tinker with shit". I'd much rather keep the word definition at its root. (disclosure: I'm not a hacker)
- clef 13y ago>"tinker with shit". That's gold!
- olssy 13y agoWhatever kind of hacker you are there's a great convention for us all this summer in NYC, Hackers On Planet Earth: hope.net
- 3villabs 13y agoThanks! I'll check it out
- coldtea 13y agoWell, you don't control language. Language is language as it's used. Furthermore, the whole "hacker is the good kind, no the black hat kind" screams "no true scotchman" to me. Lots of black hat's self identify as hackers.
- burtonlang 13y agoMy understanding of the No True Scotsman fallacy involves changing a definition during an argument in order to hold on to some assertion. This is not the same thing as a person feeling that a particular word should have a particular meaning.
- coldtea 13y agoThe problem is the person seen as "changing a definition" could very well have had the second definition in his mind all along.
- StudyAnimal 13y agoI used to think there were two separate uses of the word, and one was less correct than the other. I used to insist people distinguish between a good "hacker" and an evil "cracker". Now I understand the essence of the term, there is no distinction between the two. Its all the same. Central to the essence is this notion that good and bad are subjective, and anything characterised as hacking should probably be both good (for someone or something) and evil (for someone or something) combined. Destruction and creation are both equally implied. I think if something is purely 100% good for everyone, I don't think the word hacker applies.