Mention the word "hacker" to anyone who owns a computer and it will conjure images of some nasty person weedling around in your mainframe, abducting your key commands and introducing foreign substances without your knowledge.
Hackers, however, take pride in their work. Alan Kay, a computer scientist and hacker culture hero is quoted as saying that "hacker" is "a term of derision and also the ultimate compliment". In underground hacker culture, the distinction between hackers is fluid. Hackers recognise in one another a deep passion for learning about technology. For true hackers, what defines hack value, or something that is worth solving, is like the distinction between picking a lock and smashing a lock.
Hacking, as defined in computer circles, is as etymologically obscure as the word in history. "Hack" originally came from the French word, 'haquenée', meaning 'ambling horse'. In Old English, 'tohaccian' meant 'hack to pieces', but a hacker was one of those skilled woodsmen who was able, with the most primitive tool (an adze) to fashion furniture. This is perhaps the best idiomatic relationship to explore when defining the modern-day hacker, who either destroys an existing system or network, or, through an irrepressible creative bent, is able to create something new and useful to humankind.
The world of the hacker is filled with personalities: the good, the bad and the downright mean. Hackers define themselves in various hues; there are black-hat hackers – those who tend towards the Dark Side, malicious meddlers who try to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence “password hacker” and “network hacker”.
There are white-hat hackers too, those who see themselves as crusaders for the integrity of computer networks. These cowboys live by the saying "To make an omelette you have to break a few eggs", because their crusade often involves hacking into a system to test its viability in the face of an attack. Cyberspace, however, not unlike the real world, is not all black and white, there are brown-hat hackers who act with a modicum of conscience - they will weigh up the consequences of their behaviour before acting. Grey-hat hackers, as their name suggests, belong to that group of unpredictable individuals who may or may not be acting in the best interests of network integrity.
Before networking existed on such a grand scale, hackers saw themselves as the hippies of the computer world, campaigning actively to make source codes for software accessible to all. Their idealism was based on information-sharing, not only as a tenet of democracy, but of practical importance, in the sense that keeping information secret has the effect of causing that knowledge to stagnate.
Hackers regard the "right to fork", or the right to be allowed to take an open-source project in another, more appropriate direction, as all-important.
Another characteristic, which the world regards as rather unfunny, is playfulness: taking the serious humorously and their humor seriously.
Hackers are seen as practical jokers who might, on a whim, send out some worm with a funny-sounding name to wreak havoc on computers everywhere. The term "cracker" was coined to refer to hackers who break things as opposed to those who make things.
A true hacker subscribes to the hacker ethic: "The belief that system cracking for fun and exploration is ethically acceptable as long as the hacker commits no theft, vandalism, or breach of confidentiality."
The Hacker Attitude:
1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.
4. Freedom is good.
5. Attitude is no substitute for competence. © Debbie smit – The Sunday Independent
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