I recommend this thread for further discussion of the off-topic-yet-of-critical-import “hacker vs cracker” issue (taking careful note of my astoundingly insightful comment with respect to hypersensitive dorks, naturally).
I’ve seen a documentary on Captain Crunch, and the culture of “phone phreaking” which took place in the late 60’s, early 70’s.
If memory serves me correctly, Steve Wozniak of Apple fame actually owned one of Captain Crunch’s “black boxes” and used to make free long distance calls all the time prior to the Apple Corporation being founded. And even for the first few years - say circa 1975-1978 he used to regularly attend local San Jose computer geek club meetings. I know that they used to refer to themselves (back then) as hackers, in so far as they interpreted the word (back then) as being self-taught tinkerers who used to enjoy pushing the envelope of hardware and software which they could get their hands on and then share it amongst themselves.
But at some point in time, say the mid 80’s, the word hacker took on a more malevolent interpretation and it’s stuck. Also, it’s fair to say the the era of private R & D which Steve Wozniak used to enjoy at a club level has long since passed on to give way to massive multi-billion dollar R & D programs, so in that context, the meaning of the original word long ago died and it’s evolved into something which now reflects the asshole aspect of “hacking”.
That’s my take on the etimology of the word.
Certainly, it has to be said (as an earlier poster noted) that an understanding of “phone phreaking” is vital to get an understanding of the genesis of the culture.
I love seeing someone say that Unix was created by hackers. Having seen their coding, etc., I couldn’t agree more. Of course, this view is merely 180 degrees from what some people might (naively) think.
Another useful reference; “The Cuckoo’s Egg”, by Chris Stoll, I believe. It tells about one of the first times a computer system was entered inappropriately, and how they tracked it down.
Another good book to learn about hacker culture is Free as in Freedom, published by O’Reilly. Although mainly a biography of Richard Stallman, there’s ample coverage of topics common to all hackers.
Who ever is right or wrong, (one trick pony or not), It is an interesting subject. You didn’t ask but I will state something of my experience and how I have always thought of the two words. My knowledge of computers comes from pure curiosity, when I learned in the mid 80’s that there were ways to communicate with other computers and users via phone modem I was hooked! I started dialing in to bbs systems allover Southern California. Mostly for games. A lot of them had a requirement where by, if you downloaded 300kb (a lot in those days) you had to upload 300kb before you could download anything else. Consequently a lot of out right bull shit was uploaded to those boards along with a lot of info on how to illegally accomplish certain (stupid/juvenile) goals. Any thing from how to build a stink bomb, falsify a note from your parents, where to find credit card information – and how to use it, make thermite, bring rival boards to their knees, get free cable access, black box plans etc. Some of this stuff actually worked, most of it didn’t. So through all this I got the idea that:
To crack, meant to break open, as in crack an egg, not really to break into anything.
To hack meant to hack into not really hack open anything.
So, (as I understood it) one would * hack * into a system, perhaps, looking for something. Either a trophy which was proof that you were actually there, or perhaps one would down load a password file. Since this file was usually encrypted/coded it would be necessary to crack it open in order to gain administrative access to the system which you had hacked into.
As it stands now, I still think of it this way because of all the patches one can get for various protected software programs – once the patch has been run, the program, or its protections have been
cracked. Nobody has hacked into anything. BUT, if some one manages to access a companies customer info data base and download customer information, I always thought someone had *hacked into * that system. Much like one might hack through jungle underbrush to obtain something of value there.
So would one of you experts please set me straight here?
Thanks.
Noone can set you straight. This has been done to death here and on other boards.
The bottom line is that some people think it’s one way, others think it’s another. That’s all there is to it.
** Berkut ** wrote…
Hmmm. I have yet to see this. Ok then I will stick with: “The jerks hacked into our network then * cracked * the password file!” I hope this won’t make me sound like a total noob!
Repeat after me:
“We were pwn3d. Our passwords were h4xx0r3d.”
Anyone remotely involved in IT will know exactly what you mean.
** Berkut ** wrote…
Groovy.
So um… how do you, like ya know, * pronounce * that?
(Oh and propz ta all you leet d00dz out there who made this thread possible )
Janx,
The Master speaks on “leetspeek” http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030110.html.