I am a Hacker and proud of it

***No hoodies were used in writing this article #freethehoodie

I am writing this article because I think it’s time that we as a community of professionals stand up and take back the word and definition of “hacker.” I remember years ago when the Internet was in its infancy watching friends build their first computers. I had to watch them because I hadn’t saved enough allowance to buy my own so I had to live off of their glory as they booted their first startup screen. I remember those days and it was glorious, there was no cyber warfare, no ransomware, Trojans or viruses. It was just geeks fascinated with this new technology and the prospects of what we could do with it.

Over time as that technology matured and I bought my own computer <smile> I remember when I heard the term hacker for the first time. I was at college, and one of my classmates had extraordinary skills to make the university mainframe do things that even our professor couldn’t explain. I remember people calling him a hacker and he was proud of it, there were no negative connotations to being a hacker. In fact, we looked at him as a digital Superman. I can imagine there were many of us today who at that time in the early 1990’s can remember people like him who had skills and were happy to use them for the benefit of the community. Later, after I joined the military, I would meet many of his fellow brothers and sisters who had the knack for using computers in innovative ways and findings issues with programs and workarounds to fix them. I found that I gravitated to their company and enjoyed learning from them. Many of us felt it was a badge of honor to be like them and as such, we worked hard to learn about computers, operating systems, networks, and various network tools that had dual purposes.  It wasn’t until the early 2000’s that I remember hearing hacker used in a negative context. Even then it was more along the lines of individuals who had gone rogue, not criminal organizations or nation states using highly trained people for their different purposes.

I bring this issue up because as a community I think we need to push back on how the term hacker is now being used to describe anyone that gets creative with a computer, software application, mobile app, IoT device, etc. I think we need to demand the media and society call it like it is, if you are a criminal then you are not a hacker, you don’t deserve that title. You are instead a:

·        Cyber Criminal

·        Cracker

·        Script Kiddie

·        Cyber Intruder

·        Cyber-terrorist

·        Digital Criminal

·        Computer Criminal

·        Digital Squirrel gone rogue

·        Dum@$$ with a laptop – just seeing if you are paying attention

I find it amazing how our term for being gifted with specific technical aptitude is now a term of derision. It is sad that today we have people in our community who have incredible skills with numerous technologies and the insight to use them in unconventional ways for the benefit of society, but they don’t want to be known as hackers because the word holds such a negative impact and they are concerned about employment opportunities. This needs to stop, it is our community and we should push back and tell those who are lazy with the word to get it right and use the correct terminology when talking about criminals and criminal behavior. I mean if you are an innovator and use technology in different ways to be a successful entrepreneur I consider you to be a hacker, not a criminal. Society considers innovation to be good, I wonder in ten years if being an innovator will go the way of being a hacker. Your thoughts?