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"Hackers" are Dumb

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the did-it-again! dept.

_alpha_ wrote in to send us an article about Detectives in a digital age which makes the most blatant Hacker/Cracker error I've seen lately... "Hackers are dumb" . Read the article, its obviously about crackers. I think that the media can just s/hacker/Script Kiddie/gi; and call it good.

2 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Gartner Group by John+Fulmer · · Score: 2

    I am STILL trying to figure out WHY the Gartner Group is considered "expert" in the realm of security.

    I am a network security admin/manager by profession, have been for almost 4 years now, and have NEVER heard anything from Gartner that wasn't:

    a) So completely obvious that it wasn't even funny.

    b) Marketing-speak

    c) Guesswork; or

    d) Completely wrong.

    I especially (dis)liked the last quote:


    "The good thing about the Sherlock Holmeses of the Internet is that they are showing us that the locks are not so good," says Gartner's Zboray. "And if Sherlock says so, then you better go out and get new locks."


    Huh? It's not the 'Sherlock Holmses' of the FBI or Gartner group or Phar Lap that are examining the locks. The locks are already busted. Nor is it the 'script kiddies'. Its the hundreds of security people and programmers that continously watch their networks, test software, examine code, report to BugTraq and CERT, and get little or no credit for it. Many of them are true 'hackers'.

    And we ALREADY knew that the 'locks' were weak in many areas. Puh-LEASE!

  2. Crackers don't make money, Hackers need new name by Cooty · · Score: 2
    Beyond the obvious cracker/hacker error is the declaration that cracking is on the rise because of e-commerce. Certainly virus authors do not make money. Typically cracking is for fun and not profit.

    What has happened to "hacker" is the same thing that happened to "negative feedback". A good engineer knows that negative feedback acts to preserve the current state, but your typical suit thinks of negative feedback as something that discourages what someone is already doing.

    It is noble to try to clear up the confusion surrounding the misuse of terms, but the problem is the confusion is too strong. "Hacker" now means both enthusiast and criminal, just as negative feedback has two contradictory meanings.

    I don't have a good suggestion for a replacement, however, and after all these years there isn't a replacement for negative feedback either. A good name would have to be immediately recognizable. If anyone has a suggestion I'd like to hear it.