Hacker
|
Hackers are sometimes portrayed as mysterious and strange. |
A
hacker is a person who creates and modifies
computer software and
computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and security-related items. The term usually bears strong connotations, but may be either positive or negative depending on cultural context (see the
Hacker definition controversy).
In
computer programming, a hacker is a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to
exploit or extend existing
code or resources. For some, hacker has a negative connotation and refers to a person who "
hacks" or uses
kludges to accomplish programming tasks that are ugly, inelegant, and inefficient. This negative form of the noun "hack" is even used among users of the positive sense of "hacker".
In
computer security, a hacker is a person who specializes in work with the security mechanisms for computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it more often is used (especially in the
mass media) to refer to those who seek access despite them.
In other technical fields, hacker is extended to mean a person who makes things work beyond perceived limits through their own technical skill, such as a
hardware hacker, or
reality hacker.
In
hacker culture, a hacker is a person who has attained a certain social status and is recognized among members of the culture for commitment to the culture's values and a certain amount of technical knowledge.
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 four partially overlapping categories. Sometimes alternate terms such as "cracker" are used in an attempt to more exactly distinguish which category of hacker is intended, or when attempting to put a contextual distance between the categories due to the
Hacker definition controversy.
Hacker: Highly skilled programmer
The positive usage of
hacker is one who knows a (sometimes specified) set of programming interfaces well enough to write software rapidly and expertly. This type of hacker is well-respected (although the term still carries some of the meaning of
hack), and is capable of developing programs without adequate planning or where pre-planning is difficult or impossible to achieve. This
zugzwang gives freedom and the ability to be creative against methodical careful progress. At their best, hackers can be very productive. The technical downside of hacker productivity is often 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 environments 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.
Additionally, there is sometimes a social downside associated with hacking. The stereotype of a hacker as having gained technical ability at a cost in social ability may have an uncomfortable amount of factual foundation in many individuals. While not universal, nor even restricted to hackers, the difficulty in relating to other individuals and often abrasive personalities of some hackers makes some of them difficult to work with or to organize into teams; However this is a stereotype that does not always fit. Many hackers thrive on social interaction to create a "balance" in their lives, between human interaction and computer interaction.
Hacker: Computer and network security expert
In the networking sense, a
hacker is one who specializes in work with the access control mechanisms for computer and network systems. This includes individuals who work toward maintaining and improving the integrity of such mechanisms. However, the most common usage of
hacker in this respect refers to someone who exploits systems or gains unauthorized access by means of clever tactics and detailed knowledge, while taking advantage of any carelessness or ignorance on the part of system operators. This use of hacker as intruder (frequent in the media) generally has a strong negative connotation, and is disparaged and discouraged within the computer community, resulting in the modern
Hacker definition controversy.
For such hackers specializing in intrusion, the highly derogatory term
Script kiddies is often used to indicate those who either claim to have far more skill than they actually have, or who exclusively use programs developed by others to achieve a successful
security exploit.
Hacker: Hardware modifier
Another type of hacker is one who creates novel hardware modifications. At the most basic end of this spectrum are those who make frequent changes to the hardware in their computers using standard components, or make semi-cosmetic themed modifications to the appearance of the machine. This type of Hacker modifes his/her computer for performance needs and/or attractiveness. These changes often include adding memory, storage or LEDs and cold cathode tubes for light effects. These people often show off their talents in contests, and many enjoy
LAN parties. At the more advanced end of the hardware hackers are those who modify hardware (not limited to computers) to expand capabilities; this group blurs into the culture of hobbyist
inventors and professional electronics engineering. An example of such modification includes the addition of
TCP/IP Internet capabilities to a number of
vending machines and
coffee makers during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Hackers who have the ability to write circuit-level code,
device drivers,
firmware, low-level networking, (and even more impressively, using these techniques to make devices do things outside of their spec sheets), are typically in very high regard among hacker communities. This is primarily due to the enormous difficulty, complexity and specialized domain knowledge required for this type of work, as well as the electrical engineering expertice that plays a large role. Such hackers are rare, and almost always considered to be wizards or gurus of a very high degree.
There are theoretical types of hackers who are considered to possess an atypical level of skill beyond that of other meanings of the positive form of "hacker", which include the
Guru and the
Wizard.
In some portions of the computer community, a Wizard is one who can do anything a hacker can, but elegantly; while a Guru not only can do so elegantly, but instruct those who do not know how. In other sub-communities, a Guru is one with a very broad degree of expertise, while a Wizard is expert in a very narrow field. In practice, such exact distinction are usually more at home in a
RPG world, and not often heard in actual conversation.
Due to the overlapping nature of the hacker concept space, many of these individuals could be included in more than one category. See also
Hacker (computer security), which has a list of people in that category, including criminal or unethical hackers.
Skilled programmers
*
Linus Torvalds, who was a computer science student at the University of Helsinki when he began writing the
Linux kernel in 1991.
*
Mel Kaye, a near-legendary figure and the archetypal Real Programmer[
1]. He was credited with doing "the bulk of the programming" for the Royal McBee LGP-30 drum-memory computer in the 1950s. Ed Nather, another hacker, published the "Story of Mel" in the 1980s, which is now regarded as one of the most famous pieces of hacker folklore.
*
Dan Bernstein, the author of
qmail and
djbdns, also a mathematician and cryptographer.
*
John Carmack, a widely recognized and influential game programmer. Through his work, he has made significant contributions to the field of 3D computer graphics and his games have sold in the millions. In 1999, Carmack appeared as number 10 in TIME's list of the 50 most influential people in technology.
*
Bill Gosper, mathematician and programmer, and contemporary of Richard Greenblatt.
*
Richard Greenblatt, primary designer of the MIT
Lisp machine and pioneer of computerized
chess.
*
Grace Hopper, the first
programmer of the
Mark I Calculator, also developed the first
compiler for a
computer programming language.
*
Bill Joy, the co-founder of
Sun Microsystems and author of many fundamental
UNIX utilities.
*
John McCarthy, the inventor of the
Lisp programming language. Also coined the term "
Artificial Intelligence".
*
Rob Pike, a software engineer and author. He is best known for his work at Bell Labs, where he was a member of the Unix team and was involved in the creation of the
Plan 9 and
Inferno operating systems.
*
Richard Stallman, the founder of the free software movement and the
GNU project, and original author of
Emacs and
gcc.
*
Ken Thompson and
Dennis Ritchie, who created Unix in 1969. Ritchie is also notable for having created the
C programming language.
*
Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of the C++ programming language.
*
Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of the
PHP scripting language.
*
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the
Python programming language.
*
Wietse Venema, best known for writing the
Postfix mail system and co-creating the
Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN), a remote vulnerability scanner.
*
Larry Wall, the creator of the
Perl programming language.
*
Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of
Apple Computer (with
Steve Jobs). Got his start making devices for phone
phreaking, working with
John Draper.
*
Theo de Raadt, the founder of the
OpenBSD project.
Security experts
*
Fyodor â€" The author of
Nmap & STC.
*
Johan "Julf" Helsingius â€" Operated the world's most popular anonymous remailer, the Penet remailer (called penet.fi), until he closed up shop in September 1996.
*
Adrian Lamo - American hacker who gained notoriety by hacking high-profile websites using common flaws in their webpages. Hacks include
The New York Times,
AOL,
MCI Worldcom,
Cingular,
Google, and the
NSA.
*
Mark Russinovich - Expert on Windows architecture and programming; noted for identifying the limited differences between Windows NT Server and Workstation, and discovering the
2005 Sony Rootkit software
*
Bruce Schneier - Founder and
CTO of
Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.*
Solar Designer â€" Founder of the
Openwall Project.
Hardware modifiers
*
Don Lancaster — author of the
Hardware Hacker column in
Radio Electronics magazine.
*
Steve Wozniak — co-founder of
Apple Computer, credited with contributing greatly to the
personal computer revolution of the 1970s.
Hacker media personalities
Listed below are individuals who, while fitting in one or more of the above categories, are currently more widely famous (especially among the general public) for their media presence than their technical accomplishments.
*
Loyd Blankenship (also known as
The Mentor) — Author of
The Conscience of a Hacker (Hacker's Manifesto).
*
Eric Corley (also known as
Emmanuel Goldstein) — Long standing publisher of
2600: The Hacker Quarterly and founder of the
H.O.P.E. conferences. He has been part of the hacker community since the late '70s.
*
Kevin Mitnick*
CULT OF THE DEAD COW — A high profile hacker group that has both made news and been consulted by the media on numerous occasions.
*
William Henry Gates III (Bill Gates) — is the co-founder, chairman, and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation. Although he personally demonstrated considerable personal coding skill early in his company's history, he is most widely recognizable today as the world's richest individual.
*
Eric S. Raymond — One of the founders of the
Open Source Initiative. 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..
*
Bruce Perens — Also one of the founders of the
Open Source Initiative. He was the former
Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader, and is the primary author of the
Open Source Definition.
*
The 414s and Neal Patrick, subjects of brief but widespread media coverage in
1983, as the United States media was becoming aware of hackers
*
Gary McKinnon, accused of hacking into 97
United States military and
NASA computers in
2001 and
2002. [
2]
*
General**
Computer crime**
Hacker culture**
Hacker ethic**
Life hacking**
Hacker Emblem **
Hacker Manifesto**
Biohacker**
Reality hacker**
Wetware hacker**
Information wants to be free**
Video hacker*
Related**
Quick-and-dirty**
The Hacker Test**The
Snoopy Calendar program is the classic Fortran program referenced in the Hacker Test
**
Hackathon*
Lists**
List of fictional hackers
*
*
*
The Jargon File*
The New Jargon File: An effort to establish an open hacker culture document, in the tradition of the
Jargon File*
How To Become A Hacker by
Eric S. Raymond (ESR)
*
On Hacking by
Richard M. Stallman (RMS)
*
The Conscience of a Hacker (Hacker's Manifesto)*
2600: The Hacker Quarterly*
The Secret History of Hacking*
The MIT Gallery of Hacks*
The Hacker Dictionary*
The Broken video series on hacking*
Paul Graham's website with
Hackers & Painters and
Great Hackers essays
*
WPI Hackers of the '70s*
A Brief History of Hackerdom (2000)*
HackCanada.com A fairly large collection of original files written mostly by Canadian hackers
