Overview
At least three major hacker subcultures, characterized by their
largely distinct historical development, use the term 'Hacker' in their
jargon for self-identification.
[2]
They are centered around different, but partially overlapping aspects
of computers and have conflicting ideas about who may legitimately be
called a hacker (see hacker definition controversy).
In computer security, a hacker is someone who focuses on security
mechanisms. In common use, which was popularized by the mass media,
that refers to someone who illegally breaks into computer and network
systems. That is, the media portrays the 'hacker' as a villain.
Nevertheless, parts of the subculture see their aim in correcting
security problems and use the word in a positive sense. They operate
under a code of the Hacker Ethic,
in which it's acknowledged that breaking into other people's computers
is bad, but that discovering and exploiting security mechanisms and
breaking into computers is nevertheless an interesting aspect that can
be done in an ethical and legal way.
This use is contrasted by the different understanding of the word as
a person who follows a spirit of playful cleverness and loves
programming. It is found in an originally academic movement unrelated
to computer security and most visibly associated with free software and open source. It also has a hacker ethic,
based on the idea that writing software and sharing the result is a
good idea, but only on a voluntary basis, and that information should
be free, but that it's not up to the hacker to make it free by breaking
into private computer systems. Academic hackers disassociate from the
mass media's pejorative use of the word 'hacker' referring to computer
security, and usually prefer the term 'cracker' for that meaning. In a
third meaning, the term refers to computer hobbyists who push the
limits of their software or hardware.
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