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hacker
hacker (hàk´er) noun
1.Computer Science. a. One who
is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff. b.
One who illegally gains access to or enters another's electronic
system to obtain secret information or
steal money.
2.Sports. One who
enthusiastically pursues a game or sport: a weekend tennis hacker.
[Perhaps from hacker,
amateurish or inept golfer or tennis player (possibly from hack1) and
or perhaps from hack, practical joke, clever scheme (from dialectal
hack, to embarrass, confuse, play a trick on).]
Hacker
Hacker, in computer science,
originally, a computerphile- a person totally engrossed in computer
programming and computer technology. In the 1980s, with the advent of
personal computers and dial-up computer networks, hacker
acquired a pejorative connotation, often referring to someone who
secretively invades others' computers, inspecting or tampering with
the programs or data stored on them. (More accurately, though, such a
person would be called a "cracker.") Hacker also means someone who,
beyond mere programming, likes to take apart operating systems and
programs to see what makes them tick.
"Hactivism is the new 4th branch of government in
order to monitor the other three . . . Fighting back and resistance
isn’t just fun, but it is our patriotic duty."
~ ~ Jello Biafra.
Hacking is the art of esoteric
quests, of
priceless and worthless secrets. Odd bits
of raw data from smashed machinery of
intelligence and slavery reassembled in a mosaic
both hilarious in its absurdity and frightening in its power.
-Dr.
Who 413
_Phrack_ Magazine, issue 43; 1993
hacker n.
[originally, someone who makes
furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of
programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed
to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One
who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys
programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person
capable of appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at
programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who
frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'.
(Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them
congregate.) 6. An expert or
enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming
or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who
tries to discover sensitiveinformation by
poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'.
The correct term for this sense is cracker.
The term `hacker' also tends
to connote membership in the global community defined by the net (see
the network and Internet address). For
discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To
Become A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the
person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker
ethic (see hacker ethic).
It is better to be described
as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers
consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on
ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is
thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a
hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be
labeled bogus). See also wannabee.
This term seems to have been
first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by the hacker culture
surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a
report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage
radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.
hacker ethic n.
1. The belief that
information-sharing is a powerful positive good, and that it is an
ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing
open-source and facilitating access to information and to computing
resources wherever possible. 2. The belief that system-cracking for
fun and exploration is ethically OK as long as the cracker commits no
theft, vandalism, or breach of confidentiality.
Both of these normative
ethical principles are widely, but by no means universally, accepted
among hackers. Most hackers subscribe to the hacker ethic in sense 1,
and many act on it by writing and giving away open-source software. A
few go further and assert that all information should be free and any
proprietary control of it is bad; this is the philosophy behind the
GNU project.
Sense 2 is more controversial:
some people consider the act of cracking itself to be unethical, like
breaking and entering. But the belief that `ethical' cracking excludes
destruction at least moderates the behavior of people who see
themselves as `benign' crackers (see also samurai). On this view, it
may be one of the highest forms of hackerly courtesy to (a) break into
a system, and then (b) explain to the sysop, preferably by email from
a superuser account, exactly how it was done and how the hole can be
plugged -- acting as an unpaid (and unsolicited) tiger team.
The most reliable
manifestation of either version of the hacker ethic is that almost all
hackers are actively willing to share technical tricks, software, and
(where possible) computing resources with other hackers. Huge
cooperative networks such asUsenet, FidoNet and
Internet (see Internet address) can function without central control
because of this trait; they both rely on and reinforce a sense of
community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible asset.
hack mode /n./
1. What one is in when
hacking, of course. 2. More specifically, a Zen-like
state of total focus on The Problem that may
be achieved when one is hacking (this is why every good hacker is part
mystic). Ability to enter such concentration at will correlates
strongly with wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills
learned during larval stage. Sometimes amplified as 'deep hack mode'.
Being yanked out of hack mode
(see priority interrupt) may be experienced as a physical shock, and
the sensation of being in hack mode is more than a little habituating.
The intensity of this experience is probably
by itself sufficient explanation for the existence of hackers, and
explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they
can code. See also cyberspace (sense 2).
Some aspects of hackish
etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer unaware of the high
value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone appears at your
door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without turning one's
eyes away from the screen) to avoid being interrupted. One may read,
type, and interact with the computer for quite some time before
further acknowledging the other's presence (of course, he or she is
reciprocally free to leave without a word). The understanding is that
you might be in hack mode with a lot of delicate state (sense 2) in
your head, and you dare not swap that context out until you have
reached a good point to pause. See also juggling eggs.
- from _The New Hacker's
Dictionary_ by Eric S. Raymond
Be robbers and ravagers as long as you cannot be
rulers and owners, you men of knowledge! - Friedrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche - _The Gay Science_, 1882
film _Hackers_ (vhs/ntsc)
- faces: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Lee Miller (Sick Boy
in _Trainspotting_ (vhs/ntsc)
(1996)
- During one part of the movie a student writes
some bad poem and the teacher asks what the students name is. He gives
the teacher the name Emmanuel Goldstein, who is the Editor-In-Chief of
a hacker magazine called _2600_. Emmanuel Goldstein is the name of the
rebellion leader in _1984_ by
George Orwell.
- At the end of _Hackers_, Eugene 'the Plague'
Belfred is escaping on a plane with all the money his worm program
stole for him. The alias he uses (the name the stewardess calls him)
is Mr. Babbage.
- In the movie there are many references to a
"Gibson" (the supercomputer they break into). William
Gibson is the man credited with starting the cyberpunk
genre with his book _Neuromancer_.
book _Hackers: Heroes of the
Computer Revolution_ by Steven Levy
Paperback (February 1994)
Delta Books; ISBN: 0385312105
Steven Levy's classic book
explains why the misuse of the word "hackers" to describe computer
criminals does a terrible disservice to many important shapers of
the digital revolution. Levy follows members of
an MIT model railroad club--a group of brilliant
budding electrical engineers and computer
innovators--from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. These eccentric
characters used the term "hack" to
describe a clever way of improving the electronic system that ran
theirmassive railroad. And as they started designing clever ways to
improve computer systems, "hack" moved over with them. These maverick
characters were often fanatics who did notalways restrict themselves
to the letter of the law and who devoted themselves to what became known as "The Hacker Ethic." The book traces the
history of hackers, from finagling access to
clunky computer-card-punching machines to uncovering the inner secrets
of what would become the Internet.
Worker vs. Hacker
The theme of work and the workplace are the dominant
discourse in the computer mainstream. From the retail outlet sales
pitch, to the ads on TV for software, using a computer is equated with
the idea of the 'office in the home' rather than the plaything for the
hobbyist. In its original use, the phrase "to hack" meant to open up and
investigate, to be curious, to experiment, to play and to discover. This
broad definition of hacking is the most useful in understanding what
differentiates computers as media from computers as work implements.
Hackers play with the technology of computers as and end in itself. As a
creative form of experimentation, hacking opens up technology to
innovation and revision. For many hackers 'work' if done on a computer
means play.
This spirit of experimentation
and play is at the very core of the culture-jammer aesthetic. The
collage/essay style of film making for example, takes delight in the
actual process of film assembly itself, and makes
this explicit within the film's structure. A growing creative youth
movement is emerging which identifies with open
systems of all kinds. The rise of theLinux computer
operating system is a good example. Unlike Microsoft
Windows or Macintosh Operating System Linux is free and available to
anyone. "Shareware" culture of this type reflects a broader sense in
the community that ideas, like software and a good joke are there to
be shared, circulated and made available.
The D.I.Y. or "do it yourself"
movement had its correlates in the punk scene of the
seventies and prior to that in the 'homegrown' media production
culture of the anti-Vietnam war counter-culture. Here "low-tech" and
"hands-on" techniques for music and self publishing became very
popular and widespread. When I studied Media Studies at college in the
early 1980s, many values of the counterculture were still in
circulation: principles of 'take a camera and shoot' and 'go out and
publish your own magazine'. As the eighties unfolded, gradually cuts
to the liberal arts by the then treasurer John Howard hulled the media
education sector of its former liberalism. Outside centers of
learning, arts funding has recently favoured youth led festivals and
events, of which the Newcastle Electrofringe/Young Writers Festival is
exemplary.
Culture-jamming for many is an entire way of living.
Its advocates generally reject the notion of the citizen as merely
consumer, and the idea of society as merely marketplace. The
culture-jammer and media activist approach to life questions the
underlying social relations which govern the place of media (and by
extension, capital) in our culture. Culture-jammer methods are
strategies for self-empowerment. They embrace self-publishing in all its
forms. Self made magazines (or "fanzines"' or just 'zines), techno music
done by teenagers in bedrooms, personal web site production, graffiti,
hacking, billboard alteration and other forms of popular media
resistance to the mainstream can reside under the broad banner of media
activism.
- David Cox on Culture Jamming
film _23_ (1998)
The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers
from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the
orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer.
At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy
theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A.
Wilson's Illuminatus", but
soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military
computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that
there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and
tries to contact the KGB.
- new wave synth pop indie electronic track _I
Have The Password To Your Shell Account_ MP3 (192k) by
Barcelona off of _Zero One Infinity_
on March (2000)
- spoken word track _Hack The Planet_ MP3
(56:09)(52.6megs) by Jello Biafra off of _Become The
Media_ on Alternative Tentacles (2000)
- track _Hacked_ MP3 by Decoder
off of _Dissection_ on Hardleaders (1998)
- drum and bass track
_Hacker_ MP3 by Decoder off of _Dissection_ 12"x4 on
Hardleaders #006 (1998)
- track _Hacker's Rap_ MP3 (160k) by
Whimsical Will (1989)
- post hardcore track _War Dialer_ MP3 by Frodus
off of _F-Letter_ on Double Deuce (1996)
- 604 track _Hitchcock Babe_ MP3 (192k) by Hackers
off of _Solar Seeds_ compilation CD on Sunset Recordings (2001)
- techno electro track _Lost Frequencies_
MP3 (160k) by theHacker off of _Melodies En Sous-sol_
12"x2 on Goodlife #1 (2000)
- electro track _Hacker_ MP3 (192k) by Anthony
Rother off of _Hacker_ 12"x2 on Psi49net #021 (2002)
- downtempo IDM track _Soulhack_ MP3 by Forss off
of _Soulhack_ 12"x2 on Sonar Kollektiv #006 (2003)
- track _Traveling On Ether_
MP3 by theHacker
- techno release _Methods Of Force
ep_ 12" by The Hacker on Sativae #019 (2000)
- a1 _The Rave Scenario_ MP3
- b1 _De-Quantized_ MP3
- b2 _Respect My Authority_ MP3
- techno release
_Ghosthacker_ 12" by Asem Shama on Ghostline Electronics #006 (2002)
- a1 MP3 (256k)(10:12)
- b1 MP3 (192k)(10:02)
- b2
- abstract ambient
breakbeat release _Decoding The Hacker Myth_ 12"x2 by Alter Ego on
Harthouse #016 (1996)
- b1 _Slacker_
MP3 (vK)
- b2 _Mescal_
- c1 _Microshopping_
- techno release _Just Play Remixes_ 12" by The
Hacker on Rotation (2001)
- 604
release _Hacking The Reality Myth_
compilation on Psy Harmonics
- The Visitors -
_Tiny Little Engines_ MP3 (192k)
- Shaolin
Wooden Men - _Ragu_ MP3 (192k)
- Reflecta - _Creatures_
MP3
- Insurge - _Speculator
(Into The Abcess Remix)_ MP3 (192k)
- Parasonix - _Buzzbug_
MP3 (192k)
- Fluoro Conspiracy
- _Ancient Suns_ MP3
- Snake
Thing - _Shango_ MP3 (192k)
- Max Q - _Sometimes_ MP3
(160k)
- member was vocalist
Michael Hutchence from INXS
- Psyko Disko: _Nobody_
MP3
Usenet:
A hacker is anyone who enjoys the intellectual
challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations,
primarily in their fields of interest, namely programming or electrical engineering. As will be
discussed below, there is a trend in the popular press to use the term
to describe computer criminals, and others, whose motivations are less
pure than the traditional hacker. This trend greatly annoys many of
those old-school computer/technology enthusiasts.
Origin of the term at MIT
The term originally developed at MIT long before computers became common; a "hack"
meant a simple, but often inelegant, solution. The term hack came to
refer to any clever prank perpetrated by MIT students; the perpetrator
is a hacker. To this day the terms hack and hacker are used in that way
at MIT, without necessarily referring to computers. When MIT students
surreptiously put a police car atop the dome on MIT's Building 10, that
was a hack, and the students involved were therefore hackers.
Computer culture at MIT developed when members of
the Tech Model Railroad Club started working with a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1 computer
and applied local model railroad slang to computers. In modern computer
culture, the label "hacker" is a compliment, indicating a skilled and
clever programmer. In the media, however, it has negative connotations
and has become synonymous with "software cracker".
The term hacker has five meanings that are in common
usage:
1. Someone who knows a (sometimes specified) set of
programming interfaces
well enough to write novel and useful software without conscious thought
on a good day.
2. Someone who (usually illegally) attempts to break into or otherwise
subvert the security of a program, system or network, often with malicious intent. This usage was annoying to many in
the developer community who grew up with the primary meaning in sense
(1), and preferred to keep it that way; they preferred the media used
the term cracker. However this wound up causing even more problems as
simply creating a new word did nothing to dispel misconceptions. "Black
hat hacker" is a phrase that wound up with the same problems as the word
"cracker".
3. Someone who attempts to break into systems or networks in order to
help the owners of the system by making them aware of security flaws in
it. This is referred to by some as a "white hat hacker" or sneaker. Many
of these people are employed by computer security companies, and are
doing something completely legal; and many were formerly hackers within
sense 2.
4. Someone who, through either knowledge or trial and error, makes a
modification to an existing piece of software, made available to the
hacker community, such that it provides a change of functionality. Such
change is normally a benefit. Rather than a competition, the exchange of
improvements is most often experienced as a cooperative learning effort.
5. A Reality
Hacker or Urban Spelunker (origin: MIT); someone who enjoys exploring
air ducts, rooftops, shafts and other hidden aspects of urban life,
sometimes including pulling elaborate pranks for the enjoyment and entertainment of
the community.
"Script kiddie" is reserved for a computer user of
little or no skill who simply follows directions or uses a cook-book
approach without fully understanding the meaning of the steps they are
performing.
"h4x0r" (pronounced Hacks-Or) is a script kiddie in
the context of a computer game (i.e. someone who uses a program to
modify a game giving them special and unfair advantages). "h4x0r" is
often used jokingly or as a term of endearment between gamers.
Note that while the term hacker denotes competence,
the noun hack often means kludge and thus has a negative connotation
while the verb hack generally shares the same competent connotations.
The hacker community (the set of people who would
describe themselves as hackers, or who would be described by others as
hackers) falls into at least three partially overlapping categories. The
word hacker probably derives from the somewhat derogatory hack, used in
the newspaper industry typically to refer to a Journalist who types his
stories without checking his facts first.
Hacker -- Brilliant Programmer
One who knows a (sometimes specified) set of
programming interfaces well enough to write novel and useful software
without conscious thought on a good day. This type of hacker is
respected within the development community for the freedom they
represent, although the term still carries some of the meaning of Hack,
developing programs without adequate planning. This zugzwang sets
freedom and the ability to be creative against methodical careful
progress. Corporate programming environments typically favor only either
the good hackers or the careful computer scientist.
At their best, Hackers can be surprisingly
productive. Industry standard rates of development are in the range of
6-10 lines of code (debugged, and documented) per hour. A Hacker in
stride can produce a few hundred or occasionally even thousands lines of
code an hour by leveraging their previous work. As a result a Hacker may
be able to sketch out the full shape of a program to a level of quality
that can be used for demonstrating ideas in less than a week. Thus it
isn't hard to see what some companies find useful in Hacker talent.
The down side of Hacker productivity is generally
agreed to be in maintainability, documentation, and completion. Very
talented hackers may become bored with a project once they have figured
out all of the hard parts, and be unwilling to finish off the details.
This attitude can cause friction in shops where other programmers are
expected to pick up the half finished work, decipher the structures and
ideas, and bullet-proof the code. In other cases, where a Hacker is
willing to maintain their own code, a company may be unable to find
anyone else who is capable or willing to dig through code to maintain
the program if the original programmer moves on to a new job.
Hacker -- Computer Criminal
The popular press has been known to use the terms
"hacker" and occasionally "cracker" for someone who attempts to break
into or otherwise subvert the security of a system or network. Both
usages are annoying to many in the developer community who grew up with
the primary meaning of "hacker" in the Guru sense, and who don't see the
problem solved by the invention of new and nebulous words like "cracker"
or "black hat". Instead, there has been a move to define terms when
describing these people. What makes someone a "hacker", a "computer
criminal", or just a regular computer user? Once these details are
known, the proper word (or combination) can be accurately applied.
While it will always be possible to use one's
"hacker" skills in a destructive way, this tends to go against the
loosely defined hacker ethic. One can certainly use hacking skills to
commit a crime. However, this means that this particular hacker is now a
criminal, vandal, malicious user, etc., existing words that do a much
better job of describing the person's actions than the nebulous
"cracker". If a locksmith used his skills to break into a building, few
would debate that he had crossed into the criminal world and there would
be no need to invent a word to define criminal or malicious locksmiths.
The reason hackers face these kinds of problems is because the mass
media tends to believe anyone who says they are a hacker - and people
say they are hackers because of the mass media's sensationalist
portrayals. This deceptive cycle will probably only come to an end with
the education of
reporters and the general public on what constitutes a hacker and what
does not. A group known as the "Hacker Antidefamation League" has this
goal.
But, indeed, it's likely that the confusion and
dissonance exists precisely because "hacking" describes a skill set --
akin to picking locks -- whose tools can be used both ethically and
unethically, by both people who are basically ethical, and those who are
not (these are two related, but separate distinctions -- what long-time
system administrator has not violated a company policy by breaking into
some company facility for an authorized user in order that that person
can complete an important project?) This may well be the crux of the
argument, in fact: so-called 'white-hat' hackers are uncomfortable at
the exposure of the darker side of their skill-set, notwithstanding the
fact that, like comic-book superheroes, they only utilize those skills
for Good.
Software cracking is the process of removing any sort of software
enforced protection scheme from a piece of software.
There are several recurring tools of the trade used
by hackers to gain unauthorized access to computers:
* Trojan horse -- These are applications that seem
to do useful work, but set up a back door so that the hacker can later
return and enter the system. These include programs which mimic login
screens. Viruses that fool a user into downloading and/or executing them
by pretending to be useful applications are also sometimes called trojan
horses.
* Snooper -- Applications that capture password and other data while it
is in transit either within the computer, or over the network
* virus -- An application that propagates itself opportunistically by
waiting in the background until the user offers it a new medium to
infect. The term came into usage by comparison with biological viruses,
which reproduce by infecting a cell and taking advantage of its life
functions. Similarly, computer viruses, unlike worms, embed themselves
within files on the host system. When "infected" executables run, or
sometimes when infected binary data files are read, the virus is able to
spread to other binary format files on the local system, floppy disks or
over the network. Viruses are often confused with worms.
* worm -- An application that actively probes for known weaknesses
across the network, then propagates itself through an exploitation of
those weaknesses. The original Usenet
post describing the MorrisWorm described the distinction between viruses
and worms thus: worms do not attach themselves to code. Popular usage
appears to favour worms being more active than viruses. However, the
Jargon File, as of version 4.4.1, maintains the original sense of the
term. A Worm in this original sense is any independent program which
reproduces itself over a network (a program reproducing itself on the
local machine only repeatedly until the machine crashes is known as a
wabbit). After the comparison between computer viruses and biological
viruses, the obvious comparison here is to a bacterium.
* Vulnerability Scanner --
A tool used to quickly check computers on a network for known
weaknesses. Hackers also use Port Scanners. These check to see which
ports on a specified computer are "open" or available to acess the
computer through.
* Exploit (computer science) -- A prepared application that takes
advantage of a known weakness
* Social engineering -- Asking someone for the password or account
(possibly over a beer.) Also includes looking over someone's shoulder
while they enter their password, or posing as someone else in order to
get sensitive information.
* Root kit -- A toolkit for hiding the fact that a computer's security
has been compromised. Root kits may include replacements for system
binaries so that it becomes impossible to see applications being run by
the intruder in the active process tables.
* Leet -- An English pidgin that helps to obscure hacker discussions and
web sites, and paradoxically it simplifies the location of resources in
public search engines for those who know the language.
Hacker -- Grey Hat
1) A black-hat hacker turned white-hat.
2) A white-hat hacker who uses black-hat techniques
to satisfy their employers, for whom they act as white-hat.
Hacker -- White Hat
White hat hackers often overlap with black hat
depending on your perspective. The primary difference is that a white
hat hacker observes the hacker ethic, a sort of golden rule of computing
similar to: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Like
black hats, white hats are often intimately familiar with the internal
details of security systems, and can delve into obscure machine code
when needed to find a solution to a tricky problem without requiring
support from a system manufacturer.
An example of a hack: Microsoft
Windows ships with the ability to use cryptographic libraries built into the operating system.
When shipped overseas this feature becomes nearly useless as the
operating system will refuse to load cryptographic libraries that
haven't been signed by Microsoft, and Microsoft will not sign a library
unless the US Government authorizes it for export. This allows the US
Government to maintain some perceived
level of control over the use of strong cryptography beyond its borders.
While hunting through the symbol table of a beta
release of Windows, a couple of overseas hackers managed to find a
second signing key in the Microsoft binaries. That is without disabling
the libraries that are included with Windows (even overseas) these
individuals learned of a way to trick the operating system into loading
a library that hadn't been signed by Microsoft, thus enabling the
functionality which had been lost to non-US users.
Whether this is good (white hat) or bad (black hat)
may depend on whether you are the US Government or not, but is generally
considered by the computing community to be a white hat type of
activity.
Notable Hackers
* Richard Stallman -- A hacker of the old school,
Stallman walked in off the street and got a job at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971. Stallman is a
legendary hacker, the founder
of the free software movement, a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient and
a programmer capable of prodigious exploits. Stallman is also the
founder of the GNU project, which produced the majority of the software
considered to be part of the Linux
operating system.
* Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie -- The driving creative force behind Bell
Labs' legendary computer science operating group, Ritchie and
Thompson created UNIX in 1969.
* Steve Wozniak --
The co-founder of Apple
Computer got his start making devices for phone phreaking.
* Linus Torvalds
-- Torvalds was a computer science student at the University of Helsinki
when he wrote the Linux kernel in 1991.
* Eric S. Raymond
-- He is one of the founder of the Open
Source Initiative and he wrote the famous text The Cathedral and
the Bazaar and many other essays. He also maintains the Jargon File for
the Hacker culture, which was previously maintained by Guy L. Steele,
Jr..
* Larry Wall -- The creator of the Perl programming language.
* Johan Helsingius -- Operated the world's most popular anonymous
remailer, the Penet remailer (called penet.fi), until he closed up shop
in September 1996.
Notable Crackers
Here are a few of the more famous crackers (many of whom have since
turned to positive hacking):
* Eric Corley (a.k.a Emmanuel Goldstein) -- Long
standing publisher of 2600 the Hacker Quarterly. He has been part of the
hacker community since the late 70's.
* John Draper (a.k.a. Captain Crunch) -- Figured out how to make free
phone calls using a plastic prize whistle he found in a cereal box.
* Mark Abene (a.k.a. Phiber
Optik) -- Inspired thousands of teenagers around the country to
"study" the internal workings of the United States's phone system. One
of the founders of Masters of Deception.
* Adrian Lamo -- Revised a Yahoo! news article and was prosecuted for a
New York Times break-in.
* Robert T. Morris -- This Cornell University graduate student
accidentally unleashed the first major Internet worm in 1988.
* Kevin Mitnick --
The first hacker to have his face immortalized
on an FBI "Most Wanted" poster.
* Kevin Poulsen -- In 1990 Poulsen took over all telephone lines going
into Los Angeles
area radio station KIIS-FM to win a call-in contest.
* Vladimir Levin -- This mathematician allegedly masterminded the
Russian hacker gang that tricked Citibank's computers into spitting out
$10 million.
* Hacking means to attack something with a blade in
an imprecise manner - "hacking down the tall grass with a machete".
* In connection with computers and computer
software
* Hacking also means to ride a horse cross-country
* Hacking is British slang for driving fast - " I
was hacking up the M1..."
* Hacking is the act of a person coughing up phlegm
pOrtal:
Reality Hacking - anonymous installations
Telex
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