The Glossary

<<

Cyberculture
It is a collection of cultures and cultural products that exist on and/or
are made possible by the Internet, along with the stories told about these cultures
and cultural products.

David Silver

http://otal.umd.edu/~rccs/

Old hackers
The hackers originating from the 1960's. They respect the original Hacker Ethic.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Hacker (Crackers, system intruders)
These are people who attempt to penetrate security systems on remote computers. This is the new sense of the term, whereas the old sense of the term simply referred to a person who was capable of creating hacks, or elegant, unusual, and unexpected uses of technology. Typical magazines (both print and online) read by hackers include 2600 and Iron Feather Journal.
by Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

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 cracker.
http://murrow.journalism.wisc.edu/jargon/jargon_22.html#TAG831

Check out also the whole site at http://murrow.journalism.wisc.edu/jargon/jargon_toc.html

True hackers are intelligent, they have to be. Either they do really great in school because they have nothing better to do, or they don't do so good because school is terribly boring. And the ones who are bored aren't that way because they don't give a shit about learning anything. A true hacker wants to know everything. They're bored because schools teach the same dulll things over and over and over, nothing new, nothing challenging.

True hackers are curious and patient. If you aren't, how can you work so very hard hacking away at a single system for even one small PEEK at what may be on it? A true hacker DOESN'T get into the system to kill everything or to sell what he gets to someone else.

True hackers want to learn, or want to satisfy their curiosity, that's why they get into the system. To search around inside of a place they've never been, to explore all the little nooks and crannies of a world so unlike the boring cess-poll we live in. Why destroy something and take away the pleasure you had from someone else? Why bring down the whole world on the few true hackers who aren't cruising the phone lines with malicious intent?

True hackers are disgusted at the way things are in this world. All the wonderful technology of the world costs three arms and four legs to get these days. It costs a fortune to call up a board in an adjoining stats! So why pay for it? To borrow something from a file I will name later, why pay for what could be "dirt cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons"? Why be forced, due to lack of the hellacious cash flow it would reuqire to call all the great places, to stay around a bunch of schmuck losers in your home town? Calling out and entering a system you've never seen before are
two of the most exhilirating experiences known to man, but it is a pleasure
that could not be enjoyed were it not for the ability to phreak...

True hackers are quiet. I don't mean they talk at about .5 dB, I mean
they keep their mouths shut and don't brag. The number one killer of those
the media would have us call hackers is bragging. You tell a friend, or you
run your mouth on a board, and sooner or later people in power will find out
what you did, who you are, and you're gone...

by Dissident

http://www.attrition.org/~modify/texts/ethics/the.ethics.of.hacking.html

Phreaks (Phone Phreakers, Blue Boxers)
These are people who attempt to use technology to explore and/or control the telephone system. Originally, this involved the use of "blue boxes" or tone generators, but as the phone company began using digital instead of electro-mechanical switches, the phreaks became more like hackers. Typical magazines read by Phreaks include Phrack, Line Noize, and New Fone Express.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Virus writers
(also, creators of Trojans, worms, logic bombs) -
These are people who write code which attempts to a) reproduce itself on other systems without authorization and b) often has a side effect, whether that be to display a message, play a prank, or trash a hard drive. Agents and spiders are essentially 'benevolent' virii, raising the question of how underground this activity really is. Typical magazines read by Virus writers include 40HEX.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Pirates
Piracy is sort of a non-technical matter. Originally, it involved breaking copy protection on software, and this activity was called "cracking." Nowadays, few software vendors use copy protection, but there are still various minor measures used to prevent the unauthorized duplication of software. Pirates devote themselves to thwarting these things and sharing commercial software freely with their friends. They usually read Pirate Newsletter and Pirate magazine.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Cypherpunks (cryptoanarchists)
Cypherpunks freely distribute the tools and methods for making use of strong encryption, which is basically unbreakable except by massive supercomputers. Because the NSA and FBI cannot break strong encryption (which is the basis of the PGP or Pretty Good Privacy), programs that employ it are classified as munitions, and distribution of algorithms that make use of it is a felony. Some cryptoanarchists advocate strong encryption as a tool to completely evade the State, by preventing any access whatsoever to financial or personal information. They typically read the Cypherpunks mailing list.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Cyberpunks
Cyberpunk is usually some combination of the above, plus interest in technological self-modification, science fiction of the Neuromancer genre, and interest in hardware hacking and "street tech." A youth subculture in its own right, with some overlaps with the "modern primitive" and "raver" subcultures.
Steve Mizrach

http://www.infowar.com/hacker/hackzf.html-ssi

Cyberpunk is also a literary movement, born in the 1980's, that seeks to completely integrate the realms of high tech and of pop culture, both mainstream and
underground, and break down the separation between the organic and the artificial. Cyberpunk is a member of the genre of fiction known as Hard (or Hard Core) Science
Fiction. It is called Hard Science Fiction because of its heavy reliance on technology or biology to tell a story. The works of cyberpunk science fiction writers are the
birthplace of the concept of "cyberspace". This concept was first introduced to the world by writer William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer", probably the most
famous cyberpunk book ever.

The Cyberpunk Project

http://www.cyberpunkproject.org/idb/scifi.html

<<