Hacker Wikipedia. The popular culture image is of a hacker operating in a darkened room. In computing, a hacker is any skilled computer expert that uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem. While hacker can refer to any skilled computer programmer, the term has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker, someone who, with their technical knowledge, uses bugs or exploits to break into computer systems. Hacker cultureeditHacker culture is an idea derived from a community of enthusiast computer programmers and systems designers in the 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technologys MITs Tech Model Railroad Club TMRC1 and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The concept expanded to the hobbyist home computing community, focusing on hardware in the late 1. Homebrew Computer Club3 and on software video games,4software cracking, the demoscene in the 1. Later, this would go on to encompass many new definitions such as art, and Life hacking. Security related hackingeditSecurity hackers are people involved with circumvention of computer security. Among security hackers, there are several types, including White hats are hackers who work to keep data safe from other hackers by finding system vulnerabilities that can be mitigated. White hats are usually employed by the target systems owner, and are typically paid sometimes quite well for their work. Their work is not illegal, because it is done with the system owners consent. Black hats or crackers are hackers with malicious intentions. They often steal, exploit, and sell data, and are usually motivated by personal gain. Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' title='Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' />Their work is usually illegal. A cracker is like a black hat hacker,5 but is specifically someone who is very skilled and tries via hacking to make profits or to benefit, not just to vandalize. Crackers find exploits for system vulnerabilities, and often use them to their advantage by either selling the fix to the system owner, or selling the exploit to other black hat hackers, who in turn use the it to steal information or gain royalties. Grey hats include those who hack for fun or to troll. They may both fix and exploit vulnerabilities, but usually not for financial gain. Even if not malicious, their work can still be illegal, if done without the target system owners consent, and grey hats are usually associated with black hat hackers. DefinitionseditReflecting the two types of hackers, there are two definitions of the word hacker an adherent of the technology and programming subculture. If doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker. Today, mainstream usage of hacker mostly refers to computer criminals, due to the mass media usage of the word since the 1. This includes what hacker slang calls script kiddies, people breaking into computers using programs written by others, with very little knowledge about the way they work. This usage has become so predominant that the general public is largely unaware that different meanings exist. While the self designation of hobbyists as hackers is generally acknowledged and accepted by computer security hackers, people from the programmer subculture consider the computer intrusion related usage incorrect, and emphasize the difference between the two by calling security breakers crackers analogous to a safecracker. Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' title='Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' />Certified Ethical Hacker CEH online training is ECCouncils official ethical hacking training and certification course. Get CEH certified with iClass. WiFi Hacker With our Advanced WiFi Hacker WiFi Password Hacker tool you will know, how to hack WiFi password for any wireless network that is in range. Take SANS SEC504 online to learn hacker tools, techniques, exploits, and incident handling through applicable course content and technical, handson lab exercises. The controversy is usually based on the assertion that the term originally meant someone messing about with something in a positive sense, that is, using playful cleverness to achieve a goal. But then, it is supposed, the meaning of the term shifted over the decades and came to refer to computer criminals. As the security related usage has spread more widely, the original meaning has become less known. In popular usage and in the media, computer intruders or computer criminals is the exclusive meaning of the word today. For example, An Internet hacker broke through state government security systems in March. In the computer enthusiast Hacker Culture community, the primary meaning is a complimentary description for a particularly brilliant programmer or technical expert. Renault Engine Serial Number there. For example, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is considered by some to be a hacker. A large segment of the technical community insist the latter is the correct usage of the word see the Jargon File definition below. Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' title='Detecting Wireless Hacker Program' />The mainstream medias current usage of the term may be traced back to the early 1. When the term was introduced to wider society by the mainstream media in 1. In reaction to the increasing media use of the term exclusively with the criminal connotation, the computer community began to differentiate their terminology. Alternative terms such as cracker were coined in an effort to maintain the distinction between hackers within the legitimate programmer community and those performing computer break ins. Further terms such as black hat, white hat and gray hat developed when laws against breaking into computers came into effect, to distinguish criminal activities from those activities which were legal. However, network news use of the term consistently pertained primarily to the criminal activities, despite the attempt by the technical community to preserve and distinguish the original meaning, so today the mainstream media and general public continue to describe computer criminals, with all levels of technical sophistication, as hackers and do not generally make use of the word in any of its non criminal connotations. Members of the media sometimes seem unaware of the distinction, grouping legitimate hackers such as Linus Torvalds and Steve Wozniak along with criminal crackers. As a result, the definition is still the subject of heated controversy. The wider dominance of the pejorative connotation is resented by many who object to the term being taken from their cultural jargon and used negatively,1. Many advocate using the more recent and nuanced alternate terms when describing criminals and others who negatively take advantage of security flaws in software and hardware. Others prefer to follow common popular usage, arguing that the positive form is confusing and unlikely to become widespread in the general public. A minority still use the term in both senses despite the controversy, leaving context to clarify or leave ambiguous which meaning is intended. However, because the positive definition of hacker was widely used as the predominant form for many years before the negative definition was popularized, hacker can therefore be seen as a shibboleth, identifying those who use the technically oriented sense as opposed to the exclusively intrusion oriented sense as members of the computing community. On the other hand, due to the variety of industries software designers may find themselves in, many prefer not to be referred to as hackers, because the word holds a negative denotation in many of those industries. A possible middle ground position has been suggested, based on the observation that hacking describes a collection of skills and tools which are used by hackers of both descriptions for differing reasons. The analogy is made to locksmithing, specifically picking locks, which is a skill which can be used for good or evil. The primary weakness of this analogy is the inclusion of script kiddies in the popular usage of hacker, despite their lack of an underlying skill and knowledge base.