Definition of
hacker
The first thing we have to establish about the term hacker is its etymological origin. In this case, we can indicate that it is an anglicism that is used within the field of computing and that it is the result of the sum of two lexical components of English:
-The verb “hack”, which can be translated as “damage” or “break”.
-The suffix “-er”, which is used to indicate the “agent”.
The term hacker refers to an expert computing. The concept has two major meanings since it can refer to a Hacker (a person who illegally accesses a system to take control of it or obtain private data) or a expert which is responsible for protecting and improving computer security.
Both meanings are accepted by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in your dictionary. In any case, the word is often used cracker to specifically name the computer criminal and the use of hacker is reserved for the specialist who analyzes the security of a system to improve it.
Illegal activity aside, therefore, a hacker is a programmer who, thanks to his technical knowledge, can study the security of a software. It is common for the hacker to look for failures or vulnerabilities in the system to report these failures to the developer or even to users in general.
Hackers, in this sense, are dedicated to solving problems that affect a system. Many times its function is to find an alternative or a path that the developers failed to discover.
there is a ethics hacker and one hacker attitude which are often food for thought. These principles are formed from postulates that indicate how hackers must act morally so as not to cause evil.
When the idea of a hacker is assigned to a computer hacker, there is no longer an ethic that regulates the action. In these cases, the hacker uses his knowledge to extract a personal gainviolating the rights from other persons.
It must be established that within the world of hackers there are different denominations to refer to them based, among others, on the degree of knowledge and skills they possess. Thus, for example, they mention the following typologies:
-The lammer. This other hacker is also known as script-kiddies, who has the particularity of being a novice who boasts knowledge and skills that he does not yet possess. Hence, what he does is “use” or “steal” the ideas and work of others.
-The wannabe, who is a rookie who has everything he needs to become a great hacker because, in addition to having knowledge, he learns from the experts and works hard to get to their level.
-The buccaneer. Under such a singular name other hackers appear who, more than technological knowledge, stand out for their commercial capacity.
-The copyhacker is a figure that has been growing in recent years and has a very specific mission regarding hardware cracking. Exactly what he does is stay close to hackers specializing in cracking and then copy their methods and work. For what purpose? Basically with the purpose of selling it to the so-called buccaneers, already mentioned.