Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Do We Need a New Word For Hacking?
goombah99 writes: Hacking and Hackers get a bum rap. Headline scream "Every Nitendo switch can be hacked." But that's good right? Just like farmers hacking their tractors or someone re-purposing a talking teddy bear. On the other hand, remote hacking a Intel processor backdoor or looting medical data base, that are also described as hacking, are ill-motivated. It seems like we need words with different connotations for hacking. One for things you should definitely do, like program an Arduino or teddy bear. One for things that are pernicious. And finally one for things that are disputably good/bad such as hacking DRM protected appliances you own. What viral sounds terms and their nuances would you suggest? Editor's note: We suggest reading this New Yorker piece "A Short History of 'Hack'", and watching this Defcon talk by veteran journalist Steven Levy on the creativeness and chutzpah of the early hackers.
Pigjizzlekor
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
We need a lot of new words, language can be quite ambiguous. Hammer, for example. I can hammer a nail or I can hammer a server with flood pings. Do we need a new word for everything now? As with anything in language, context helps determine and define the meaning.
What you're asking for is not a new word, but for the public to understand a nuance of something they don't frankly give a shit about. A new word is just as likely to be misunderstood/misused by I-can't-be-arsed-to-report-precisely journalists and bloggers, and far more likely to actually ADD confusion.
Face it: words like 'hack' 'drone' and 'troll' have vanished into the collective linguistics of the culture; we're no longer able to recover them and insist they still have the specificity of meaning they used to carry when used by insiders in the tech culture.
-Styopa
I suggest the absolutely, 100%, brand new, just thought of, totally original word: cracking.
We should call it screwing. I know a lot of hackers that would love to finally be able to say they were tired because they were up all night screwing. Otherwise, no... It doesn't matter what some people try to change the term to.. it'll always be hacking.
There's already a word for it: cracking. The fact that Slashdot editors apparently aren't aware of this - well I was going to say it was disgraceful, but sadly it's what we all expect.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
A new world will NOT solve the problem. The media will just hijack it like they have in the past:
i.e.
* Piracy = practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea --> illegal copying of numbers
* Hacking = implementing a quick fix or investing systems for curiosity's sake --> digital breaking and entering
A kludge is a solution that works, even if it's inelegant. Seems close enough to me.
Hacking a tractor is actually usually illegal these days because farm suppliers like to lock in their customers to support contracts, and they are backed by the law in doing so. Hacking is objectively good in the context of freedom and bad in the context of anyone seeking control. Whether that control is from the government or over your own machines is irrelevant to the term "hacking." The word you're looking for in the case of malware is "theft," because that's what it is. The questions also comes down to who owns it - you, the company that made it, or whomever can control it. DIY hackers tend to universally say the person who bought it owns it, corporations and governments tend to say whomever built it owns it, script kiddies tend to think either they own it or "you can't own things, man." We already have words for all the things "hacking" can mean in any context, "hacking" is more akin to the word "fucking," it can be a wide variety of things.
We already kindof do. We have cracker for the bad hacker and maker for the good hacker. Makerspaces use the term maker. We have cracking for bad hacking but I've never seem "making" used for good hacking. We also have the word tinkerers. Many places still use the term hackerspace but many more use the more politically correct makerspace to distance themselves from the bad connotations of hacking.
..."white hat" and "black hat" were for...?
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
what about saying renting = landlord needs to fix it that there own cost. If john deer wants to clam that you are renting the software then they need to fix it for free.
Back in the heady days of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the space race, as a non-English-native speaker, I was fascinated how the lexicon smartly evolved to include succinct, precise and short nomeclature of every part, procedure or metodology of the new evolving technology. Lexical engineering at its best, if you will. In that spirit, maybe it is the time and the place to do the same with these new and growing computer actions. But beware of going overboard and overburdening the language with a clog of senseless gobbledygook unfanthomable by most.
Language is supposed to aid in communicating, not segment the population into elites.
What good did EVER result from inventing new words? Just think of all the politically correct bullshit circulating. You used to call people with dark skin something I can't even write here anymore. Then colored. Then it was Afro Americans. Then black. Then ... whatever, I don't keep up with the PC bullshit. And what exactly did it change for them? Zip, nada, zilch, not even nothing.
And now the racists use those "PC words" to make fun of the whole politically correctness and mock it. You think it would be any different if you invent something new for "hacking"? You think the media would suddenly start using the "polite" word for "good" hacking? What's "good" anyway? I'm pretty sure Nintendo thinks the whole Switch-hack is pretty bad.
If you want to vilify something, you will find a way. No matter how "correct" your wording is. If anything, it helps them pretend that they want to be "unbiased" while slandering.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
IMO, the word "hack" is a lot like the word "shoot". The target is what matters, not the verb. Shoot a Nazi? Get a medal. Shoot up a school? Lethal injection.
Context is what matters.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Hint: The "Hackers and hacking is a good thing, don't let those nasty crackers tarnish our name!" camp lost.
Because it’s spelled with an X therefore it’s Xtreme.
I often use the phrase "Classical Hacker" to distinguish from the contemporary adulterated use of the word.
The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
Hacking and Hackers get a bum rap. Headline scream "Every Nitendo switch can be hacked." But that's good right? Just like farmers hacking their tractors or someone re-purposing a talking teddy bear. On the other hand, remote hacking a Intel processor backdoor or looting medical data base, that are also described as hacking, are ill-motivated.
This conflates the activity with the motivation. Inappropriately in my opinion. All the activities described above are "hacking" because both are a form of tinkering with a piece of technology to do something. The motivation behind such activities is irrelevant to what it is. We already have separate words for the motivations which are perfectly adequate. We don't need a single word to describe the activity and the motivation or if you get such a word you'll need at least two of them and probably more. There is nothing wrong with saying "criminal hacking" or "security hacking" or "playful hacking" or etc.
There have been attempts to do this in the past (see cracking) which have largely been ignored by the public at large because it provides no additional information. There is legal hacking and illegal hacking. There is creative hacking and malicious hacking. Don't make the problem more complicated than it is.
Definitions of words change over time.
You can accept this, or you can keep holding on to an older definition that the vast majority will never know the history of and not accept.
Surprised someone didn't offer up 'slice'.
I think a new word that should be used when someone is ill-driven when hacking could be simply PHACKING. "He phacked the system". "The website was phacked". Good, right? No need to thank me.
Good idea in theory, but in practice stipulate that the tenant is responsible for the cost of repairing anything which breaks these days (including paying their hourly rate to fix it.)
From your own post *Hijack = illegally seize (an aircraft, ship, or vehicle) in transit --> change the meaning of a word or term What you're demonstrating isn't something bad, it's just language evolving like it always does. Hell, even "computer" is a "hijacked" word.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
There are those who do not like having hackers not under their control; it's been very convenient for them that the word has acquired negative connotations. It seems likely that any new word invented would acquire similar connotations if it became popular.
I think the most appropriate work would be asshatting!
I think the point is that "crack" got specialized to mean circumventing digital restrictions management, such as cracking a game. I've used "intrude" to refer to the sort of malicious network activity that people associate with a website or someone's email getting "hacked". An intrusion authorized by a resource's owner is called a "pen test".
What good did EVER result from inventing new words?
Lots actually. New words are routinely required to accurately or concisely communicate new concepts. For example when a new particle is discovered we assign it a new word to describe the particle ("positron" for example) so that people can talk about it without using an entire paragraph. The word hacking was utilized to describe a particular activity. Over time it's come to mean something slightly different. That's how language works.
Just think of all the politically correct bullshit circulating. You used to call people with dark skin something I can't even write here anymore.
Are you seriously complaining that society now frowns on you using a vile racial epithet?
And now the racists use those "PC words" to make fun of the whole politically correctness and mock it.
And what is the problem? That's how language works.
You think it would be any different if you invent something new for "hacking"?
Maybe but you'll have to convince a lot of people to use the term. It will happen organically if it does happen. In the mean time it really isn't something that matters much. All you have to do to clarify that some form of hacking his helpful is to use a second word to clarify what you are saying. Not a big deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
How about digital criminal?
The question is not just why you do it, but who you do it for and why.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Back in my day we referred to malicious hackers as blackhats and they read 2600
Society could correct the "hacker" term by including security hacker or blackhat hacker or malicious hacker in news articles. Throughout history lots of benign hobbies have been related to criminal or social negative behavior. Though it is difficult to reprogram society at large to understand the difference between good and bad behavior via a single word or description, we can tackle the issue of applying pre-crime and profiling to these words and descriptions.
For example let's say I hacked a nissan diesel pickup to run on vegetable oil by changing out the hoses. If a police officer overhears a conversation I have with someone that I "hacked a Nissan truck", by simply hearing the description they shouldn't have a lawful way to arrest me or at minimum should attempt to get more information before giving me a hard time. This same situation and argument should be able to be applied to any other benign hobby that doesn't harm others.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
The definition. Cracking is not a new word. Has always referred to what people in the media refer to as "hacking." Hacking was always considered good except for the lazy ass-hole in the media who couldn't be bothered to look things up....
A portmanteau of cyber and hijacking. You got cyjacked!
For Black and White hat hacking? Uhhh, maybe not...
I LOVE it when someone gets an email with something that looks like my name in the "From" field and they tell me "YOU'VE BEEN HACKED!!!"
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Are most of you too young to remember the battle lines drawn between cracking and hacking?
Defeating security systems, cracking codes, and cracking safes is known as cracking. Duh.
How the hell hacking became cracking is a mystery to me. Hacking was always about one of two things:
1) coming up with something clever such as hacking an X-Box to run Linux.
2) Hacking code to death as in "sales said the customer wanted right now so I hacked it to death until I got something to run"
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Let's call it Smock.
Not that it really describes the action or anything. I just like to say smock. Smock Smock Smock Smock Smock Smock.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
By John Brunner, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The "title" of the protagonist was in German: "Computer Sabotage Spezialist", unfortunately the wikipedia article does not give an english term. Freely translated it means "Computer Sabotage Specialist", who had guessed that?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The original synonyms when I started ...umm.. hacking...in the early 1970s were "wizard" (person) and something close to "trick" (creative solution). "That's a good hack" was pretty close to "that's a neat trick", but the undertones could also imply that a lot of just hard work went into it. If someone was "hacking" on something it meant they were working on it, probably with at least some obsession to get it to work.
If someone cracked into a system in some way, they might not be a hacker; that association came because there was some overlap in the mind set and the general knowledge required to accomplish the break-in or subversion. Knowledge of systems was more obscure back then.
Let me give you a perfect example. At MIT we had a computer connected to the ARPANET. It ran a sophisticated operating system that was crafted to our specific needs. This was created from scratch by "hackers" at the lab. The ARPANET provided remote access, but was restricted to a few research labs (including some Government contractors).
There were no "home computers" in this era -- microcomputer chips had not quite been invented yet. Ordinary people had absolutely no knowledge of computers. If some kid could get access to a computer terminal (perhaps at a college) and could find out the dialup number to the local ARPANET access node, then they could connect to any of the computers on the ARPANET. To have this obscure knowledge and wrangle this privileged access would be relatively unusual. A few weird college kids and even some high schoolers traded in this knowledge, and were prone to go exploring. This would be done covertly because the terminals were only supposed to be used to access the school's own computer. Sometimes you had to subvert a mechanical lock or bang on the switchhook in order to dial (because it was supposed to be restricted to autodialing just one number). And you had to be careful not be observed using the wrong computer - such unauthorized practice could get you in trouble.
Once on the ARPANET, you would connect to systems by their global port number. For exampe, 2/6 (ARPANET node 2, port 6). That's more obscure information that you obtained, perhaps by just sitting there trying random numbers all day and taking notes about what (if anything) answered.
Once connected, some systems will let you issue a few limited commands (typically system-status reporting) in addition to a LOGIN command. Now comes the usual id/password guessing exercise. If you can get this far, you might be considered something of a "hacker". You worked very hard. and even covertly, to figure out how to do all this. Now you're logged in, and the most typical thing to do is play with the computer to see what it can do, probably trying to write some simple BASIC or FORTRAN program. Learning the set of commands it will respond to is always fun. All of this is done without access to any documentation, about this computer, and probably without much knowledge of *any* computer.
Now you come to our computer at MIT. By design, it has no security at all. You have full access to the system, no login required. (However, it will badger you to login after each command. That means: please type the command :LOGIN choosing any user name you would desire, and it will be happy that you have a name now.)
We might say that you are an "ARPANET hacker" because you had to do a lot of work to get this far. We would not consider you a "hacker" in the same sense as the people who wrote the operating system that you're now using. The skills and knowledge for those two things are light years apart, but the spirit of working hard and figuring something out, and perhaps the potential, are the same idea.
If you use this quasi-unauthorized (it was pretty damn inviting!) access to our computer to write some interesting programs, and follow our resource policies by only using the computer when it's not otherwise busy, and are trying to learn useful things, we will give yo
Good and bad guys both do the same thing but for different reasons. Let's just leave it at "White Hat Hackers" amd "Assholes".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Definitions of words change over time.
You can accept this, or you can keep holding on to an older definition that the vast majority will never know the history of and not accept.
Definitions of words happen by the way they are used. Words can have multiple meanings - even mutually-contradictory ones.
There is no either/or to accepting this vs. striving to promote one meaning over another - especially an older meaning vs. a pejorative corruption - or at least bring to more public attention the existence of the preferred meaning.
It's not tilting at windmills, either. Language doesn't change once and stop. It KEEPS changing. Older meanings often reappear. Newer corruptions fade or become unpopular, to the point that uttering a sentence using the word that way can bring strong reaction from listeners. If all was lost once an undesired meaning was the commonest usage, the politically-correct speech movement would be a bunch of curmudgeons, not something between a major religion and a thriving industry. (And why should THOSE guys be the only ones that get to hack the language? Especially our own term for ourselves?)
I am a hacker in the MIT / Steven Levy sense, and have been recognized as one by a number of the people he wrote about, for a quarter century. (Unlike "(computer) guru", which is never properly self-awarded but only valid if applied by others who are competent to recognize the skill level, a person can legitimately claim to be a hacker without such recognition. But it's nice to have, and relevant to this post.)
My personal definition for hacker is "Someone who can use skill and persistence as a substitute for adequate tools." (You need them at the start of any new tech, or aspect of it. Somebody has to build the tools, after all.) I don't claim this is how other hackers all use it. (See the jargon file.) But it seems close enough for communication.
A close friend of half my life (RIP, Mary) once claimed that "hacker" was also a long preexisting Yiddish term, meaning "someone who makes furniture with an axe" - simultaneously carrying both the same meaning as mine and the question "Is he a dufus to NOT use better tools?", in humorous juxtaposition.
The popular misuse of "(computer) hacker" for "(computer) cracker" (one who breaks into systems), "(computer) pirate" (one who misappropriates data, software, "content", etc. and distributes it) or "(compiter) vandal" (one who alters or destroys information and/or system functionality), has always been, to us, a misuse. In the early days (before distribution of cracking tools enabled "script-kiddies") it took hacker skills to do cracking, piracy, or vandalism. But saying "hacker" when you meant "cracker", "pirate", or "vandal" was akin to saying "sailor" when you meant "(sea) pirate", "cowboy" when you meant "cattle rustler", "painter" when you meant "graffiti tagger", and so on. In each case the bad actor was a member of a larger set, but using the name of the larger set for the malicious actors defamed a whole class of people for the misdeeds of a handful among them.
The origin of this misuse has long been a puzzle to us. In one of the previous rounds of this, another hacker came to the conclusion that it went something like this:
1) In the relevant period, computer operations in business were just expanding from accounting number-crunching to more functions in businesses and similar organizations. "IT" wasn't yet a term, let alone a C-suite position. The need for data security against early crackers and vandals, and the threat of piracy, was just coming into management's attention.
2) One of the earliest self-styled "computer security experts" gave a presentation at a large business conference, attended by many CEOs (and other C-suite denizens). In it he consistently misused "hacker" for crackers/vandals/pirates, much to the confusion of the hackers and other information tech trench-workers in attendance. This was the first exposure of the upper-management types to
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I was about to post what THIS says.
Yep. And the only people who cared were the "good" hackers, while the media and general populace kept right on using "hacker" primarily for crackers.
So. Since the rest of the world refuses to adapt, maybe its time for those of us who enjoy "good" hacking to admit defeat and come up with a new word. "Makers" seems to be gathering momentum as a noun, but leaves much to be desired in verb form. Though of course "making" doesn't apply to the Nintendo example, which legitimately is an example of cracking security.
Still, at least "Makers find an unstoppable way hack any Nintendo switch" would at least give you better context.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Another example is motor vs engine, most people use the term interchangeably but when referring to a gas powered car it is an engine and not a motor. How many people care? I don't even care, I just know the difference.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
I suggest using the word Cyber since the media and governments seem so in love with it.
Who wouldn't want to cyber Fannie Mae?
"Frequently wrong, never in doubt."
AK Komputing?
AR Computing?
Far-Right Computing?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Isn't that why forking is proposed? We're abandoning the unsalvageable, not chasing it.
I got the impression that he was trying to face that, by giving up on those words and coining some new ones.
Isn't the whole point of inventing a new word for hack, that you're giving up on "hack," abandoning it as a lost cause?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Instead people (media especially) should take the 20 seconds necessary to learn the proper definition of hacker, and realize they are really talking about crackers when they say hackers.
Hackers penetrate systems without consent after all.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
The media embracing the lowest common denominator.
The media does understand computing and most of the ears they have don't understand the difference.
In other words it is whatever the media calls it.
Anything that happens at a keyboard that is not shopping or downloading porn is hacking.
Rick B.
What is commonly used today as 'hacker' used to be referred to as 'cracker', because they crack security open. Hackers hacked stuff together.
But as usual, words brought into the public theatre gets multilated beyond recognition because people can't be bothered to use the correct terminology for things, (assuming they don't completely reinvent words to suit their purposes, eg: fake news).
But almost nobody uses "Cracker" anymore, and I'm betting a lot of people had never even heard of the word due to disuse.
I've personally given up on trying to use the correct terminology in casual conversation, cause people will get outright angry with you if you point out they are wrong.
The big thing is the corporate media, will never use a positive or benign word to describe something that multimillion dollar companies hate. So a word for modifying something you own when it comes to ipad's, consoles etc... will always be reffered to as whatever word has a negative connotation.
Perhaps we can import a word used from another language as a way to have a ready made set of new words?
Sadly when I google for the translation of hacker in another language all I get back is Hacker!
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Data dissenter.
Secrecy seditionist.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Time flies!
+0 Meh
For example, putting anyone who uses the phrase, "life hack", into a coma.
The word is informative
The most common uses of the word cracker are as a flat piece of dried bread and as a racial epithet. No journalist is going to use that word to describe computer related activities. Get over it.
That's the job of a journalist, to educate people.
No it isn't. The job of a journalist is to report news. This is not news. It's an old and lame attempt by a group of computer geeks to try to claim a word means something other than what it means to 99.9% of the general public.
They missed used the word.
No they did not. They used it in exactly the way it is most commonly used. If that irritates you that is your problem not theirs.
Which meaning? Breaking into computers? Or cleverly/expediently accomplishing something in an unconventional way?
We've got to stop letting journalists redefine our words. They're the ones who created this unfortunate situation.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
Richard Stallman has long pointed out the contradiction between how the word "hacker" was used ("playful cleverness") dating back to the 1960's and how it is used by mainstream media dating back to the 1980's ("security breaker").
Digital Citizen