Hackers or crackers ?

[Santa's little helper]

It just hit me that the description of the "Linux security" forum says

Discussion about keeping your machines secure, and the hackers out.

It should be crackers instead of hackers , shouldn't it ?

[serz]

Yeah, but I guess that it's easier to use that term...afterall, you know that he's refering to crackers.

[dylunio]

Hey you may want to keep the hackers out too, since a computer is more secure when no one can access it without permission, be it a malicious cracker or a non malicious hacker.

[Morgoth]

Hackers? What have hackers got to do with computers?

Just some cool nerds who do things like:
Putting a police car on the dome of the MIT campus

[Santa's little helper]

Yeah, but I guess that it's easier to use that term...afterall, you know that he's refering to crackers.

Why is it easier ? Seems just as easy to use either term to me.

...afterall, you know that he's refering to crackers.

I and probably most people here know he's referring to crackers.
But we may get the occasional random person who has
been misled by the misuse of the term hacker by mass media.
A specialized site like this should help correct misconceptions,
not spread them.

Hey you may want to keep the hackers out too, since a computer is more secure when no one can access it without permission, be it a malicious cracker or a non malicious hacker.

Someone who aims for unauthorized access is a cracker regardless
of what they're going to do with the access if they get it.See definition .

[dylunio]

Hey you may want to keep the hackers out too, since a computer is more secure when no one can access it without permission, be it a malicious cracker or a non malicious hacker.

Someone who aims for unauthorized access is a cracker regardless
of what they're going to do with the access if they get it. See definition .

We all seem to define such things diferently, a cracker to me is someone who tries to gain access to other systems, and then may do nothing, may crash the system, may steal some info etc. And to me a hacker is an avid coder etc. as well as being someone who gains access to other systems for the benifit of the people whe run that system, e.g. gain access and then tell the system admins how theyf did it and where the hole is (though one might express this later statmen as being an ethical cracker (if such a title exists). I accept that your defenition of cracker and hacker may be difarent to mine.

[valan]

Why is it easier ? Seems just as easy to use either term to me.

Cracker has one more letter to type than hacker

[anomie]

It should be crackers instead of hackers , shouldn't it ?

Yes.

[Santa's little helper]

Cracker has one more letter to type than hacker

Yes but they don't actually need to type anything.If they decide
to change the url of the page they can simply cut and paste the word
cracker from here

Actually I'll put it in a separate line for easy reference:

cracker

[jasonlambert]

sorted

J.