Is hacker a criminal?

Hacking is hacking, no matter how you look at it and those who do the hacking are commonly referred to as computer criminals. It is not true always.

The term hacker hasn't always been the negative title that it is today. A hacker originally described a person with a desire to learn about technology and to experiment and who was technically proficient with whatever systems they hacked.

Ethical hacking is the term used to describe hacking performed by a company or individual to help identify potential threats on a computer or network. An ethical hacker attempts to search for any weak points that could be exploited by malicious hackers. This information is then used by the organization to improve the system security, in an effort to reduce or eliminate, any potential attacks.
                               

                                 

Ethical and Unethical Hacking:

The technical differences between Ethical and Unethical Hacking is ZERO, but what counts here is Moral difference, which is substantive.

Though many of us are really confused between these two terms but still, at some point we do understand the benefits and curses coming with hacking. To us, hacking is itself, automatically called as Unethical or illegal. Normally, hacking can be defined as unauthorized breach of barriers put for the protection of important data, information and people as well.

Initially hacking was all about breaking laws and accessing unauthorized information by certain groups of people, specializing in Information Technology and Computer Programming. These hackers, however are not breaking the laws, so far nobody can tell. For an ethical hacker, their job includes to test the newly developed program to find loopholes in security system of the program.

In simple words, an ethical hacker is a computer expert, who attacks a highly protected security system on behalf of his owner with care and prevents the exploitation of the program that an unethical hacker might cause harm. In order to test the program, ethical hacker makes use of methods as their less principled counterparts but unethical hacker utilizes each resources and opportunity available to create malicious attack the security system. On other hand, an unethical hacker is more of a vigilante, who is basically involve in exploiting security vulnerabilities for some hacktivists or person who wants to get unauthorized access to the system. Unethical hacker steals data for their own personal gain most of the times.

I do not and will not ever understand how someone can get personal satisfaction from watching others suffer.

Also, a brief information on Types of hackers:

White Hat Hackers:

White hat hackers or ‘Ethical Hackers’, are computer security professionals, who focus in vulnerability testing, and other system testing methods, to ensure that a company's information systems and networks are secure. These are employed by companies where these professionals may utilize different types of methods to carry out tests like use of hacking tools, social engineering tactics and attempts to evade security to gain entry into secured areas and to prove that whether system/network is safe.

Grey Hat Hackers:

Grey Hat hacker is who sometimes acts illegally and sometimes legally & in good will. They normally do not hack for personal gain or with wicked intention, but may or may commit crimes during their technological exploit.

Black Hat Hacker:

Black hat hacker or ‘Crackers’, are hackers who specialize in unauthorized access.
The may use computers to attack another computer/system/network for personal use, profit, or social cause, or for terrorist activity or for political issue. His activity involves modification and/or destruction of data, and is done without authorization.

We can say that, all crackers are hackers, but not all hackers are crackers.

The term cracker and hacker are used interchangeably largely due to the lack of knowledge.

A cracker doesn’t need to be particularly knowledgeable or skillful; in fact, most of them aren’t. Few crackers are skilled enough to create their own software tools, so most rely on automated programs that they download from disreputable Web sites.


Has anyone out there ever hacked or been hacked. Please feel free to share your stories.