Hacking / Hackers

    If you ask someone what they think a hacker is you are likely to get one main response. It would probably go somewhat like this "A hacker is someone who breaks into computers and steals stuff." Well, this is the highly promoted view of hackers by the government and law enforcement agencies. Now while it can't be denied that there are some hackers out there who do break into corporate or private computers to steal stuff, there are those who do not.

    The hackers that break into computers to wreak havoc or steal program code or other data are usually referred to as corporate hackers or malicous hackers. Then there are hackers who are just plain curious. These men and women do not go out and look through other peoples computers to steal anything or to do any damage. They want to just see what is out there and possibly what the large corporations and governments are trying to hide from us. They are the curious hacker. The vast majority of hackers actually fall into this catagory.

    The act of hacking is largely a mystery to many people, well most people in fact, considering the low amount of people who actually understand computer. I would venture to say about 25% of people who use computers may have an idea or know how to "hack". What is hacking then? Well, hacking is knowing loopholes in operating systems and security packages and using those to gain access to a computer or network of computers. For example on a machine running Windows95 there is a key stroke comination that will allow you to bypass login security and run programs and look throught the machines program files. Knowing things like this is hacking. It is not sitting at a computer and trying millions of password and login combinations to gain access to a system. Although this is a method used by some who have created their own programs to go out and do this for them. But for the vast majority of hackers hacking is just using a lot of computer tricks and knowledge they have gained to try and gain more knowledge.

    As long as there are people who are trying to hide information and knowledge from others hackers will always exist. As the now mildly famous hacker cry says "Information wants to be free." and hackers have the intention of making it free, to anyone who wants it.

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