Hacker

James McCollum

Professor Michael Benton

English 102-J010

21 August 2011

What A Hack

Ethical. Moral. Useful. Helpful. Criminal. Mischievous. Dishonest. Although it may come as a surprise to most, all of these words are used to define the term.  A ‘hacker’ is more commonly defined as “a computer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems’.  Like most, I fell into the lot that carried around this shared misconception of the term as a definition.  Thankfully I was able to carve out a more accurate description of the term after a little digging on the subject.

            The task of responding to a single word in any format seemed broad to say the least.  Being tasked with responding to a word as socially recognizable as ‘hacker’ seems damn-near impossible.  The difficulty didn’t come from lack of information available on the subject.  A Google search returns back about 314,000,000 (yes that’s million for you math whizzes) results on the topic.  The trouble came from a personal misunderstanding of what the act of hacking really was.  Defining the hacker after gaining a knowledge of this skill (some would call it art) would then be a fairly easy task. 

            My research into the topic began fairly common; reading definitions and perusing the first few results on popular search engines.   I moved on to search in other forms of media for insight.  Having the internet at my fingertips I was able to utilize one of my favorite forms of information gathering: documentaries.  Personally I find documentaries to be sort of like a visual encyclopedia entry; a fact-filled detailing of a topic or event in the form of a film.  A well made informative documentary will present as many different angles on the subject as is possible; and this was what I was after.  At the end of my research I found myself watching a 50 minute Discovery Channel documentary on YouTube called “Hackers: Outlaws and Angels”.  I was glued to the screen from beginning to end left wanting more.  I had gained an entirely new prospective on hackers, and the hacking community as a whole, while also sparking an interest in the topic that was previously absent. 

            Towards the latter part of my high school career I had developed into “Renaissance Man” of sorts.  I played a few different sports, dabbled in theatre, took a few art classes, and had always been fairly tech savvy.  A few of my friends started tinkering with some software and learning various programming languages.  As with many Renaissance Men I fell victim to over-involvement and barely scratched the surface of this new ‘hacking’ hobby.  I’d catch a few tips and tricks here and there and even installed a few programs onto my computer that I would eventually never learn to use.  Unfortunately, this tiny dip into the hacking culture left me with an uninformed view on hacking. 

With a little bit of reading, a well directed documentary, and some personal opinion on the subject thrown in for good measure, I have found the following to be true of the common idea of a ‘hacker’.    Very simply, hackers can be good or bad, right or wrong, ethical or unethical, or any combination thereof.  Most computer professionals will give them very definite distinctions.  These usually come in the form of White Hat and Black Hat hackers; with white being the good guys and the black being the contrary.  Black hat hackers are predominately linked with malicious hacking.  Attempting to gain access to bank accounts, company files, or any other form of electronic information with the intent on using it for personal gain or to somehow cause harm are examples of these black hatter’s “evildoing’s”.  On the other side of the law are the white hats.  Often ex-black hat hackers, these men and women are the sheriffs of the hacking community.  They will often assist companies with electronic security, helping to find holes in the security measures that are in place.  They can also come in the form of any person using their computer prowess and hacking skills for a positive means.  While the figurative ‘Grey Hat hacker’ can occasionally be found, most in the community tend to gravitate to one side or the other. 

            I have grown to appreciate assignments such as this one.  A word as recognizable as ‘hacker’ seems impossible to define, let alone write about.  Luckily through a little research I was able to expand on my own personal knowledge of the subject and develop a better understanding of what the word hacker means.  I’ve felt a bit of inspiration stem from this as well- a sort of desire to challenge my usual conceptions of a single word or idea.  Maybe I’ll start hacking into my vocabulary for a while and see what I come up with. 

Works Cited

Hackers: Outlaws and Angels. Dir. Ralph Lee. Perf. Ian Murphy, Steve Wozniak Kevin Mitnick. 2002.