Re: Current definition of a hack

From: Christopher Nicholls (chrisnat_private)
Date: Mon May 18 1998 - 01:00:18 PDT

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    At 23:50 17/05/98 -0400, mhtat_private wrote:
    >Since the definition of a hack has been greatly exaggerated lately, what is
    >the current definition of a hack in the eyes of computer hacking..
    
    When I were a lad... A hacker was a computer wizard - someone who could
    "hack" software code and build systems - make software work in different
    and interesting ways... They were clever and essentially good; or benign
    anyway.
    
    Now it seems that a hacker is a bad type who "cracks" computer systems
    security (or lack thereof) and breaks into systems in order to steal,
    damage or destroy computer data. Really they should be crackers not hackers...
    
    So to answer your question, a hack *was* a creative or purposeful change of
    computer software code to enable something to work, but nowadays it seems
    to mean more the action of a cracker - to break or disrupt computer code or
    systems... Thank you very much -> the media.
    
    Regards
    
    Christopher
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