----- Original Message ----- From: "Philip S Tellis" philip.tellis@iname.com Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Expecting boo if you are a regular COMPUTER user.
Sometime Today, Nikhil Joshi assembled some asciibets to say:
Heck Hackers in general r baddies right? And their primary job IS to break security (hacking websites,steal passwords....) Or am I wrong?
Absolutely wrong. No hacker in the world is a baddie. Those are crackers. Further clarification available at http://www.ncst.ernet.in/~philip/writings/hackers-not-crackers.html
Much as I agree with you, I've been observing with increasing despair, the acceptance by the technical community of the perception that hacker=baddie... this is amply evident in the technical literature..even security experts use the term loosely... if security companies market their "ethical hacking labs" , how can we expect novices to get an accurate picture? With time, the true meaning of 'hacker' will be lost, such is the power of the popular media, and people like us will be branded 'purists' or some such other adjective...
regards, aaaaarrrgghhh(literally)