HACKERS; VICTIMS OF MEDIA STEREOTYPE
written by; Violent Work Of Art

It seems like you're always hearing in the news about hackers¹ who are
getting put in jail for "hacking" into websites, stealing vital
information and unleashing harmful computer viruses. What the public
doesn't know is, it's not hackers who are breaking into those sites,
it's crackers²; a completely different thing! Crackers are the one's
who are cracking into websites, crashing networks, infecting online
users with viruses and simply causing mayhem! But the media has put a
stereotype all over hacker name claiming that they're the one's to
blame for all the damage done! What they dont know is, hackers are the
one's who made the Internet and the World Wide Web! Hackers are the
one's who are testing security, making fully functional OS's
(operating systems) for the everyday computer user, making firewalls,
anti-virus programs and other security related software. But with the
stereotyping that the media has put all over the hacker name companies
are shutting down hacking related sites, getting people fired from
their jobs because they're suspected of being a hacker and simply
giving hackers a bad name. For example, I submitted a shorter version
of this article to the website Adequacy (http://www.adequacy.org), but
with their poor excuse of humor this is the response that I got
(my Adequacy user name was "shadowfox"):

---
"Dear shadowfox,
We at Adequacy.org were offended by your recent submission entitled
"Hackers; Victims of media stereotype." While we do not deny that many
web site defacements and information thefts are the work of Caucasians,
we find your unfounded assertion that all such attacks are performed
by whites to be extremely distasteful. This was only compounded by
your use of the ethnic slur "cracker."

Please take your hatred of persons of European extraction elsewhere.
We will not be publishing racist statements.

Yours,
Peter Johnson
Senior Editor, Adequacy.org"
---

They knew perfectly well what I meant by the term cracker, they just
want to assure that hackers will become nothing more than a memory.
It's websites like this that are giving hackers a bad name. If only
the media and the public could see the truth behind all this, they
would truly know that hackers are the people trying to protect online
users, such as yourself, from the evil intentions of crackers! But
until the media sees that they're wrong, hackers may never get the
praise that they so rightfully deserve. If we dont do something about
this now hackers may become a figment of the past. Then who will
protect you from the malicious crackers? Exactly....no one. So please
do something now to ensure that hackers will always be here to keep
the online world a better place, thank you.


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DEFINITIONS
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¹HACKER;
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems
and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who
prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys
programming rather than just theorizing about programming.
3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work
using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'.
(Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them
congregate.)
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy
hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming
or circumventing limitations.
8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive
information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network
hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker².

²CRACKER;
One who breaks security on a system or program.

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     All information was provided entirely by Violent Work Of Art
          Article copyright © of Violent Work Of Art 2002
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