Are you a Hacker or Cracker ?

Now, I want to share you information about Hacker : What, Who and Why ?

Definition of “hacker”

RFC 1392: “a person who delights in having intimate understanding of the internal working of a system, computers, and computer networks in particular.”

Hacker definition and categorization are disputed by many, especially by those who wants to be one, or would like to be called as one.

Hacker category:

- Free software hacker 

ex : Torvalds, Deraadt, rms, djb

- Security hacker

ex : Fyodor, Schneier, hdm

- General hacker

 ex : Anyone who demonstrate hacker    characteristic in their respective field.

Hacker characteristics

- High curiosity; a hacker will have vast knowledge on   their respective field, and will have an in-depth understanding on specific areas of interest (which can be many as well).

- Think out of the box; especially good in practical solution (which not necessarily elegant).

- Stimulated by challenge; get bored easily by repetition and/or mundane tasks.

- Love to share, and WILL have information and genuine work (mostly software) available for free.

- Emphasis on ‘what’ instead of ‘who’.

Classification of security hacker based on ethics:

- Whitehat: perform security tests only after obtaining approval/consent from the target’s authorized representative. Will follow applicable law, rules, and regulation in performing the tests.

- Greyhat: will perform security tests without authorization, but will not use the results for malicious intent (Robinhood style).

- Blackhat: will perform security tests without authorization, and will use the results for all kinds of purpose, not limited to any ethical values.

If you assume hacker is a bad person who can damage all system or stole any account information and password, you are wrong. Because that is what called "Cracker".

A cracker is someone who breaks into someone else's computer system, often on a network; bypasses passwords or licenses in computer programs; or in other ways intentionally breaches computer security.

That’s the point of view about Hacker. Are you interested to be a Hacker ? Be the Whitehat J.