To me hacking is...

hello_world();

As a relative new comer to the security world I have found a staggering amount of people who answer in the negative to the following prompt.

"To me hacking is... "

My question to you AO is how would you respond. */ Drunken rambling rants are ok; all I ask is honesty. */

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as always thank you very much in advance for any feedback.
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Can't speak for everybody, but to myself, hacking is reading Eric Raymond's digest on Hackers && The Jargon File (which is mostly worthless jargon!).

Hackers are notorious for not getting along with each other, some instantly proclaim "script-kiddie!" when they've spent the majority of there own time hanging around on site's stealing other peoples scripts. Majority of the time the hacking articles being published are done so by spotty 17 year olds sitting in there bedroom.

To me hacking is, avoiding flame war's, reading material published by so called experts whilst bearing in mind that most of these self proclaimed experts seem to forget that X is an unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure.

To me Hacking is, knowing when your тσσ ∂яυик тσ нα¢к! :drink:

So you've gone this far, but where are you going and what do you do next?

To me Hacking is, re-reading articles of phrack cover to cover and remembering that nothing is secure... ;)

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I have found a staggering amount of people who answer in the negative to the following prompt.

"To me hacking is... "

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They only have the intellect to read tabloid newspapers and watch ignorant TV programmes.;)

Hacking, is having the ability to understand systems and to make them perform outside of their specifications or instruction manual. It is the ability to devise workarounds, and resolve novel problem situations. It is being a professional who really understands what they are dealing with, and knows what to do..........or try.

The gutter press and scum television are responsible for the current perception of "hackers", when the creatures they refer to could never aspire to the title whilst they have a hole in their rectums.

The turdpress can generally be detected by failure to identify skiddiewinks, and thinking that gaining illegal access is "hacking", when the cognoscenti know that is "cracking"

Errr...............you don't "hack" safes or codes..............you "crack" them;)

There is no such things as a refined cracker (hacker). Always keep that in mind.

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Hacking, is having the ability to understand systems and to make them perform outside of their specifications or instruction manual. It is the ability to devise workarounds, and resolve novel problem situations

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Thats abot the best definition possible. The term "Hacking" doesn't really have anything to do with computes. It was originally a group of avid toy train enthusiasts that came up with the term. It just means to come up with a non-standard solution to resolve a problem.

Using a "script kiddie" program isn't hacking, because your using the software the way it was intended to be used. But fixing a muffler on your car with a coat hanger is just as much hacking as finding a way around the security protocols used in SIPERNET. Although any more, a coat hanger muffler is rather common, so you wouldn't be elite unless you found a way to McGiver it.

The first hackers I read about were the track designers of the MIT model railroad society.

A good history is Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

It even documents the Hacker's Code of Ethics

I like the expression "That was an elegant hack". It could refer to a software fix or something done to get my car to the service center.

Cheers,
-D

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Originally Posted by nihil

They only have the intellect to read tabloid newspapers and watch ignorant TV programmes.;)

Hacking, is having the ability to understand systems and to make them perform outside of their specifications or instruction manual. It is the ability to devise workarounds, and resolve novel problem situations. It is being a professional who really understands what they are dealing with, and knows what to do..........or try.

The gutter press and scum television are responsible for the current perception of "hackers", when the creatures they refer to could never aspire to the title whilst they have a hole in their rectums.

The turdpress can generally be detected by failure to identify skiddiewinks, and thinking that gaining illegal access is "hacking", when the cognoscenti know that is "cracking"

Errr...............you don't "hack" safes or codes..............you "crack" them;)

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i agree media in general doesn't take the time to get the full story on this subject they present hacking in a way that sells papers and gets viewers to tune in it basically boils down to media using fear to get people to tune in there main objective is to sell advertising place in case of visual and audio media and advertising and papers in the case of papers and magazines it all boils down to we have a society that doesn't think for itself and doesn't want to take the time and research things of interest themselves

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Originally Posted by souleman

Thats abot the best definition possible. The term "Hacking" doesn't really have anything to do with computes. It was originally a group of avid toy train enthusiasts that came up with the term. It just means to come up with a non-standard solution to resolve a problem.

Using a "script kiddie" program isn't hacking, because your using the software the way it was intended to be used. But fixing a muffler on your car with a coat hanger is just as much hacking as finding a way around the security protocols used in SIPERNET. Although any more, a coat hanger muffler is rather common, so you wouldn't be elite unless you found a way to McGiver it.

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i used to use my old guitar strings for hanging mufflers and made money selling the plain ones to tattoo artists for tattoo needles lol

Hacking is when you get a speck of dust in your throat and you cough really violently and for a long time, often spewing mucus and saliva across the room.