Re: Current definition of a hack

Christopher Nicholls (chrisnsoftway.com.au)
Mon, 18 May 1998 18:00:18 +1000

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At 23:50 17/05/98 -0400, mhtclark.net 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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