Girl Geekette dotNet

For those who can appreciate the old-school definition and are not following the "mass hysteria" of the media by using the wrong word (meaning those who use "hacker" instead of "cracker"), there is some hope Not all of the media is ignorant in these things thankfully. There are a lot of people associated with media outlets that do use the term correctly. And for this, I am very thankful. Over the years, I have written articles (or rants) such as Hacking to Learn - What the Media Does’t Tell You and others in hope that the general population would someday come to understand the difference and learn to appreciate hacking again.. as an Art or even a Science.

From one of those who know and understand the difference,  I was very happy and intrigued to run across was an article on the Whitedust Security Site. Hacking: Art or Science? is a very informative article about another point of view of hacking that I actually had not though of before. Mark Hinge has done an excellent job of explaining the ultimate question in this article: "Does the creative thinking required to be a successful “hacker” outweigh the necessity for scientific process?

In the article, Mark sums up "hacking" as just another way of "tinkering". I love how this is presented! I really feel the way he has brought this out depicts the true meaning of hacking. He goes on to stress the points and differences between hacking and cracking. Although a cracker can use hacking to achieve his or her goals, all hackers are not malicious crackers. Kudos to Mark for being among the ones who know and can appreciate the real meaning of hacking.

** <rant> These days, a week does not go by without hearing or reading the media’s exclamation of "Hackers" and what they have done now. How did "hacking" - which used to be a positive action and characteristic - get such a negative connotation? In the 1970’s if you were called a "Hacker" - then it was a major compliment! Even up until the early 1980’s, if you could hack away at something, then you were merely an expert in that field - you went above and beyond the manual and learned the in’s and out’s of that subject. A Garden hacker could grow the best Tomatoes and Watermelons around. Someone who hacked at chemistry might have been a leading chemical engineer. But now, thanks to all the media that is not educated enough to know difference between a "hacker" and a "cracker"… a "hacker" is now someone who one who is known to cause malicious damage with a computer. The media now has misinformed the general public enough times that when you hear the word "hacker" , "hacking" or "hack", the person associated with that is assumed to be malicious and bad. In other words - they are what "hackers" - the good guys - coined "crackers". I guess either the media wasn’t smart enough to use the correct term and use the correct word, or the media though "hack" had a better ring to it than "crack", </rant>

For further reading view:
Whitedust Security Site
Hacking: Art or Science?
Hacking to Learn - What the Media Does’t Tell You