Re:Have Your Say On Hackers

[SpydaByte]

that is the exact topic about this post. The difference between a good and a bad hacker. AND the term "hacker". A hacker is simpliy someone with the knowledge to do those things, but is also the type of people that DONT do those things. THINGS = causing chaos and damage. As the whole point is they are not bad. I will post again but i got 2 go.
-Spyda

(I wrote this b4 ure post aeallison, but it didn't send)

I also strongly agree with aeallison and could go on for days if not weeks on this subject. but i have 2 goto class now. L8r
-Spyda

(I will post again later)

[AciDriveHB]

Ah, I honestly don't know what to say to this. Being someone who grew up in the 90's, the media does shape the mind of the people who watch it. Yes, I would agree to the fact that when the word "hacker" comes up in a conversation people go quiet. I know the definitions of hacker and cracker, and yes I agree they are two totally different words with two different meanings behind them.

I'm 20 now, and even here I would be deathly afraid to say that I'm a hacker, because I would think people would get the wrong impression and think that I'm just out to cause damage. About the only systems I try to crack into anymore are my own, just to see where the security holes are at. But back to what I was saying, the media has made me afraid to call myself anything besides a "computer nerd" for the fact that I don't want to be labeled as someone who is out to corrupt and destroy computer systems and files.

What I think needs to be done, is more of an education for people. WE are among the technology age, we need to get out of being so general with everything (not calling plugs "thingy ma whats that pluggy"), and educate the little kids growing up that there are good "hackers" and bad "crackers". That way people in the IT department could be happy to call themselves hackers (or elite hackers) and not have the rest of their office members be scared of them.

If that makes sense? But I think this is a good question, and a very good post to have a discussion about!

[aeallison]

Cool deal Spyda...cya in the forums.

What I think needs to be done, is more of an education for people. WE are among the technology age, we need to get out of being so general with everything (not calling plugs "thingy ma whats that pluggy"), and educate the little kids growing up that there are good "hackers" and bad "crackers". That way people in the IT department could be happy to call themselves hackers (or elite hackers) and not have the rest of their office members be scared of them.

Education is the key, and AO is a very good way to learn them thar non-savvy newbies the basics and more... ( excuse my Ozark drawl...LOL )

[SpydaByte]

Excelent! Great! Terrific! AciDriveHB! That is it!
[quote]What I think needs to be done, is more of an education for people. WE are among the technology age, we need to get out of being so general with everything (not calling plugs "thingy ma whats that pluggy"), and educate the little kids growing up that there are good "hackers" and bad "crackers". That way people in the IT department could be happy to call themselves hackers (or elite hackers) and not have the rest of their office members be scared of them.[\quote]
That is great..... It makes total sense, in fact my mom (and also a good mentor of computers) is in the IT field and is trying to do that exact thing. She has taught me that exact way and I really appreciate it now. Education is the key. We do need to educate everyone and need to change the way the media looks at things. Something that the 99 confrence was all about but it never worked (99 or 98? o well)... i g2g 2 class again so i will continue... hasnt even been a day yet ;-)

L8r,
-Spyda

[AciDriveHB]

Ok, we agree then that education is the key. I'm glad that I'm getting some good feedback on my last post! Question I guess is how do we educate an entire population of people about the true meanings of the words they just spit out and think they know the meaning?



With the media the big influence, and movies/books like "Hackers", and "Hackers - Operation Takedown", how do we conteract those views? Especially us who are already labeled as "hackers"?

[aeallison]

You gotta fight fire with fire, use the media, pass it around to all of your friends and family, your peers and any way possible, if you are a student then place articles in your school newsletters. If you are employed by a company/corporation then pass it around in the lunchroom and newsletters. If we all here at AO want a thing like this to happen, it WILL happen we have the power if we all work together, we span the world now, use this to our advantage.

[AciDriveHB]

hey that's true. And not that I like fwd emails, but maybe someone can start an email that just states the facts about hackers and crackers. I know those things seem to fly really fast around the Internet.

There should be enough of us here to get things rolling I guess. "You can't save them all", but at least we could change those vies of the direct people around us, and use it as a worm to counteract all bad that is out there.

[aeallison]

Woah! I am not suggesting a revolution, or spamming of any sort, just pass on the words...eegads d00d you make what I said sound like what the uninformed public is afraid of, "hackers of the world unite" I may have to withdraw my statement...LOL

[SpydaByte]

LOL. well.... you guys are right, maybe we can't do a revolution but piece by piece we can do this. The public is afraid of

"hackers of the world unite"

. But the next step is quietly take it out for now, but its extremely hard because we are already labeled as hackers. My school (which is very computer oriented) knows the term Hacker as it is, atleast my group of friends, because most of them r themselves. But, its hard still to get adults who dont trust kids or don't even think we can fix a computer at all..... I g2g again so post later!
-Spyda

[AciDriveHB]

LOL, NO I am not saying do like a spam or anything. But I'm starting an email to pass around to friends and family. I know some of them love to forward anything they get to anyone they know. So it will spread itself around the Internet, those who care will read, those who don't will delete it. But SpydaByte got what I meant, piece by piece.

It's a revolution in a new way, not direct and all over the media, but one person at a time who has the right to say "this is true, this is right, I need to share this with my friends/family/co-workers"... or the right to say "this is commey BS" (I don't think I got the spelling on that).

Like what was said before, we need to change the wrong impression everyone in the general public has about how "hackers are bad, hackers are evil, I can't be around anyone who is a hacker". And let them know that "hey I know a lot of white hat hackers, who without them I might not have the security to send email or play online". To let them know the difference between hackers and crackers, to let them understand the labels more and to not assign the wrong one to a good person.

[gloworange]As a fellow co-worker said while we were on this subject today[/gloworange]: Not all (hackers) are bad, not all should be given the same label. The realm of the computer world should not have general terms of “hackers” and “newbie’s”. There are many levels and maybe types. In this new generation it might be better to learn that a hacker can be your friend, and should not be feared as an enemy. People should know, the kids of today need to grow up and learn the real definitions behind these terms, and not what is defined by media.