The Word Hacked

The Scrap Value of a Hacked PC

Security Fix - Brian Krebs, May 26, 2009

Computer users often dismiss Internet security best practices because they find them inconvenient, or because they think the rules don't apply to them. Many cling to the misguided belief that because they don't bank or shop online, that bad guys won't target them. The next time you hear this claim, please refer the misguided person to this blog post, which attempts to examine some of the more common -- yet often overlooked -- ways that cyber crooks can put your PC to criminal use.

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I think that I understand why Brian Krebs used the word hacked in this blog post on Security fix.  He wanted to reach out to the public and especially to people who say, I don’t have anything on my computer that is of any value to a cyber-criminal.  To reach out to them with this very useful information, it is understandable that you must use basic terms.  Terms that anyone can relate to in order to gain knowledge.

The word hacked brings up the controversy of the word hacker or cracker to me.  My personal opinion is that you should call people by their name.  An example of this is that an Identity Thief steals identities.  An Identity Thief can be further categorized as a cyber-criminal, if they use a computer to commit the crime.  The word hacker is best described by Bruce Schneier in his book “Beyond Fear.”

Hackers are as old as curiosity, although the term itself is modern. Galileo was a hacker. Mme. Curie was one, too. Aristotle wasn't. (Aristotle had some theoretical proof that women had fewer teeth than men. A hacker would have simply counted his wife's teeth. A good hacker would have counted his wife's teeth without her knowing about it, while she was asleep. A good bad hacker might remove some of them, just to prove a point.)   Bruce Schneier

My husband had a great idea of getting out of Canada as fast as we could on way home from Alaska. His plan was to cut down to the United States from Calgary instead of Winnipeg. We came out in Montana and drove Highway 90 through Wyoming and South Dakota. I will never forget that leg of the journey because we ended up driving through Sturgis, South Dakota in August. I do not know anything about motorcycles , but to see that many Harleys in one location is a breathtaking event. The reason I mention this story was that the motorcycle enthusiasts that flock to Sturgis once a year come from all different professions and have had bad encounters with the media. This led me to realize that they could be compared to hackers in the sense that you cannot judge the entire group only by the ones that receive bad press.

I could name just as many good hackers as bad hackers, but understand that anyone can learn many valuable lessons from both of them.  This in itself is a double edged sword.  Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.  Douglas Adams