Most people think of hackers as computer vandals. But, call a real hacker a criminal and believe me, he would do more than lose his computer temper.
Hackers are not computer criminals. Why do most people think of hackers as criminal the media is responsible for this erroneous assumption. Almost all people taking in and bullet there opinions on what they are feed by the media. They do not think twice before believing something that has been printed in the newspapers and magazines. The media has projected hackers to be computer vandals who damage system files after breaking into servers, make and release viruses, deface web sites and a whole lot more.

Real hackers like to call peoples who breaker to systems. Crackers in fast peoples who code and release virus are not necessarily hackers, they are viriicoders.

Traditionally, hackers were computer geeks who knew almost everything about computers (both hardware and software) and were widely inspected for their wide array of knowledge. But over the years, the reputation of hackers has been steadily going down. Today they are feared by most people and are looked upon as icons representing the underground community of our populations.

Hackers know everything about the way software of an application works. They have this uncanny ability of finding out ways of doing the impossible.
They do not accept software application in the from they are meant to be in but more often than not find ways of making software works the way they want to. They debug and code and use trial and error methods to discover unknown and new tricks and secrets. They do try to break into systems but have there decency not to cause any damage a still passwords, etc. but instead of they report the hole or vulnerability to the system administrator they try to break free from restrictions and discover new hidden features. You see, hacking is about knowledge. Hackers are those really intellectual people who have the extra bit of information. They know of things normal people would only dream of.

There top signs that give away fast that the person is not real hackers are:
1. He uses weird handles (names) like Avenger, Dark Cloud, Skull, Kewl Dual, etc. However, these signs are not necessarily fool proof.
2. He boasts about how much he knows a sure sign of a person who lacks real knowledge.
3. He flames newbie’s of people who ask questions, instead of helping them learn.

Hackers are actually nice people from whom you could actually learn a lot. Hackers (nice people) and crackers (not –so-nice people) and not many people can resist the temptation of crossing it.

The reason as to why so-called hackers want to cross the line and become crackers is that they can get quick popularity is negative, it is not respect but people fail to understand is that this popularity is negative, it is not respect but hatred. Believe me, it is no big deal to break into systems and create havoc. Doing such a stupid stuff, might make you popular in the hacking underground world, but this respect is short lived. Today, the number of hackers has increased so much that people very quickly tend to forget what you did.
http://skcomputerworld.blogspot.com/
Also, normal people do not find your achievements respectful. They do not believe that a person, who defaces sites, performs Denial of Services attacks, releases viruses, etc, is good enough to be respected. This, combined with the media hype, makes people quickly stamp hackers as computer criminals.

A cracker gains popularity only amongst a small part of the population that is the underground world. An ethical hacker, however, gains popularity amongst a larger section of society. And believe me, a hacker who is popular among the normal people is also envied and respected by crackers.


In addition, a cracker is unpopular, unwanted by system administrators and the police. Tell a system administrator about vulnerability in one of his systems, he would surely start respecting you. And besides thinking you, he might even give you the permission to break into the systems. Wow!!! Isn’t that what all hackers dream of?

Besides, cyber crime has become punishable under law, and is considered a serious offence. Amongst the common punishments given to cyber criminals are improvement, huge fines and even life bans from using computers. Also, cyber criminals are not easily given bail.

This is not the space to address legal issues. Instead, let me give you a living example which will surely point you in the right direction and help you choose between a cracker and hacker.

There was a 13-year-old hacker in the US who with his other friend used to relish programming and hacking. They always enjoyed breaking into each other’s systems and proving theirs superiority. They both were immensely intelligent and had the perfect mind needed for business.

These geeks too could have crossed the ‘line’ and become crackers and do all sorts of stupid things, in effect ruin the lives. But fortunately for them, and also fortunately for us, they did nothing like that. Today, we know them as Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Both of them as most of you must be knowing are practically zillionaires.

If they had crossed the line, they would probabley have been spending their entire lives in jail. People would have been calling them computer criminals and system administrators would be wanting to #&^**#. However, they were wise and are today in a position which most of us dream to be in.

I am not suggestion that we should not hack. I in fact support hacking and want more people to become hackers, break into systems, but do only right things. Do something that does no harm to anyone. All real hackers know that an important hacker’s ethic is to never delete any files, or cause any damage that an important hacker ethic is to never delete files, or cause any damage to the system which you have broken into. Make good use of your additional bit of knowledge by doing something legal, something to improve the services and quality offered by companies, something which will do good to the software industry, and something which will do good to the economy. If you do even one of the above, I assure you; you will definitely become famous and would probably be sitting on a pot of gold.

Sachin
Sys Admin
SK Computer World