So it appears some of you really don't want us to use the word 'hacker' when we really mean 'criminal'
- Reference: 1615287618
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/09/debate_hacker_result/
- Source link:
This [1]debate came about after infosec pro Alyssa Miller and a few others from the [2]Hacking Is Not A Crime movement politely asked Register vultures on Twitter to quit using the h-word as a lazy shorthand for criminal.
[3]
We said we'd think about it. And we thought about it, and we thought about it some more. And in the end, since we're writing for you, we decided to put it to the audience: we published an article for and an article against the proposal, and let everyone vote for whichever side they agreed with.
On Wednesday, Alyssa argued [4]in favor of the media no longer using hacker as a pejorative.
[5]
It was an articulate, well-written opening that horrified hacks hoping to hang on to hacking. Essentially, she argued that associating the unlawful intrusion of computers and the theft of data with those who innocently hack together unconventional or unorthodox solutions drives a wedge between those relying on today's computer systems and the people trying to protect it all.
And besides, the original meaning of hacker and hacking, in the context of computing, didn't denote criminality nor ill-intent, and referred to an avoidance of a standard solution.
She observed: "Stating that hackers stole 3 million health records when the actors are not known is akin to claiming firearms enthusiasts robbed a bank simply because they were armed with guns."
And that words have consequences: "Allowing our media representations to portray hacker as equivalent to criminal actors makes the work of principled hackers even harder."
Over in the comments, readers reckoned the battle to rescue the word was already lost. Chris G [6]sympathized with the for argument, though thought it would be "easier to invent a new word to describe cuddly hackers" than try to reclaim hacker.
The discussion slipped into the comfy space of hack versus kludge, suddenly [7]lurched toward those who put "life" and "hack" next to each other ("10 Life Hacks to Improve Your Fitness," anyone?), and was perforated by yetanotheraoc's [8]anecdote :
I was a volunteer at the library, and they complained one of their printers wasn't printing. They had called support and it would be some time before the tech arrived from downtown. I walked over to the printer, went through the menu, and saw the IP address was blank. So I typed in the IP address from the label on the front of the printer, and it sprang to life. Let's not ponder the cost of an onsite visit for such a fix. They asked me how I fixed it, and I jokingly said "I hacked it in". I had to go to a meeting, at which they read me the riot act and told me I couldn't be a volunteer any more. The shame! Fired as a volunteer.
OK, definitely don't use the word hack, then. And so we segue to the [9]against argument put forward on Friday by El Reg 's US news editor Iain Thomson. By the time we published this piece, despite overwhelming support from comment-posting readers, from the votes cast so far at that point, our man had a lot of ground to gain if he was to win the debate. Just about 10 per cent of the vote was against the motion, the rest for.
Having covered countless security conferences, Iain was supportive of the for argument, yet he highlighted some important points against.
One being that if you will allow for there to be a distinction between ethical and unethical hacking, the vast majority of people will be aware of just the latter – from ransomware, phishing, and account hijacking all the way up to corporate an government espionage. The only hacking people will know is the unethical kind.
"Sad to say, someone developing a particularly elegant hack, in the ethical sense, often won't get the widespread respect they deserve," he noted. "For the non-technical audience, hackers remains a term loaded with suspicion."
Tablet, catfish, and cloud were given as examples of words with meanings that have changed over time, too. "Any living language evolves," said Iain. "It's possible for hack, hacker, and hacking to sustain multiple meanings."
Apple emits patches for iOS, macOS, Safari, etc to stop dodgy websites hijacking people's gadgets [10]READ MORE
Over in the comments, the spotlight was turned on the press. "It could be argued," [11]said uro, "that it's a complete failure on the part of mainstream media in such that in order to create the controversial headlines they use to actively drive sales, which they do with with everything, they have completely failed their readers and customers by not fully explaining in non-technical terms the differences between, hacking, cracking, scripting, skimmer, black-hat, white-hat, etc."
Too right, never trust what you read on the internet. "These days, hacking for the great unwashed is anything to do with a computer. Even entering a password is hacking," Madonna herself [12]complained .
On Twitter, people were... surprisingly kind. For instance, Jahid Küreci [13]tweeted : "After reading the for argument I was almost convinced to vote for it, but decided to wait and read the against, and I'm almost equally convinced! I honestly cannot decide, both sides have equally valid points."
Well, my friend, the Reg -frequenting internet believes some points are more valid than others: 84 per cent of votes cast were in favor of the motion, and 16 per cent against. The for motion – the media should stop using the word hacker as a pejorative – wins.
Thanks to Alyssa, Iain, and yourselves for contributing. And so, what does this mean for us journalists? Is this where we're supposed to say the poll's outcome was the result of a sophisticated hacker attack? Ah, if only it were that easy.
[14]
We'll take the voting on board, have a confab, and you never know: hacker and hacking as a shorthand for criminality might be put on the banned list, slotted in somewhere near "holistic," "digital transformation," and "brandwidth." ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/Debates/2021/03/03/hacking_not_crime/
[2] https://www.hackingisnotacrime.org/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YEeprh1MyFglJtrMbd-HuwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/03/debate_hackers_for/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YEeprh1MyFglJtrMbd-HuwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/03/debate_hackers_for/#c_4215135
[7] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/03/debate_hackers_for/#c_4215129
[8] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/03/debate_hackers_for/#c_4215507
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/05/debate_hackers_against/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/09/apple_security_update/
[11] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/05/debate_hackers_against/#c_4216731
[12] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/05/debate_hackers_against/#c_4217381
[13] https://twitter.com/jahidkureci/status/1367896157670825984
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YEeprh1MyFglJtrMbd-HuwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Hacking is honourable
"I agree that English is a living language and meanings change over time
Bad example. When the Latin decimatus (past participle of decimare ) was imported into the English Language in the 1660s as the cognate decimate , it had pretty much the same meaning as it has today.
Journalism died with Herb Caen and Stan Delaplane.
...-boffin
Boffin is a plus-karma word. Can't we find something like techo-whizz or uber-boffin for the white hats (white-boffin?).
The best I can invent for a 'black-boffin' is Techneredowell. . Maybe 'shark' has the right sound to be mixed in.
The trouble with labelling people is that it leaves the verb 'to hack' in the wild. Fix and build versus Break or Steal? (Also a 'bungler' for well-meaning hackers.)
More work needed.
Re: ...-boffin
Someone noted my detailed, close and personal approach to weeding. Wondering if I would be amenable to 'consulting' on their lawn. Sure I said, I'm a lawn proctologist. Whaa? said they.
I replied that I dig down deep looking for the roots of problems, bringing things to light that you never want to know about, applying powders and ointments as required, patching over the spots that need it, fix things up right, and I won't tell you about all the nasty bits if you don't want me to. Just pay me.
So... how about we call ourselves computer proctologists? In general, confess a medical approach to problems. The public never want to practice good hygiene or lifestyle with PCs but start begging for help and life when things go wrong. We can start to tell them the details of the state of their innards but they just want to know when the pain will go away. Just like with doctors.
Computer proctologists. Think about it. People already get the strange ideas when we talk about code smell and use unknown jargon for the various organs.
Have fun, walk in and announce "I'll have to pop the cover off and reach deep inside to find this problem. Do you want to be awake for the procedure?"
Re: ...-boffin
The problem with the verb to hack is that it can be used in different senses, to hack together generally indicates something positive and creative, to hack apart tends to feature more heavily in true crime magazines.
Re: ...-boffin
".... to hack together generally indicates something positive and creative..."
Not to me it doesn't. You hack something together to see if it works ok. It might, possibly, be creative. But it's a hack, and has a definite transitory feel about it - it's going to be a prototype, or used just once, or just by me. It's not properly debugged or tested, it's certainly not a finished article.
It's a hack.
Re: ...-boffin
One man's hack is another man's release code...
Iterative design. Agile development. Nimble coding.
Unfortunately, those terms are often redefined to function as justification for poor coding, lack of planning, avoidance of testing, and a general disdain for user-focused design. In short - a hack.
An anecdote along the same lines. A number of years ago I found myself having to come up with all kinds of "workarounds" and "creative hosting solutions" to fix poorly coded applications. This lasted for years, until I started calling my 'creative solutions' and 'workarounds' by the happy name of "kludges".
Calling a spade a spade was quite satisfactory, especially in the titles of Change Requests. Oh, the fun I had defending my solutions in CAB-meetings! What do you mean by "Implement kludge to ensure data integrity"?
As expected, it caused quite a bit of consternation among management - especially on the development side of the house. Although I was pressured to refrain from calling my hacks "kludges" in the end it resulted in a focus on quality among the developers.
Re: ...-boffin
"One man's hack is another man's release code..."
Indeed. For example, if you are reading this, you're probably using the hack that I put together in 4.1BSD (now called 4.1aBSD) for part of the TCP/IP stack to be included in 4.2BSD[0]. It was supposed to be one of those "just get us through the demo, dammit" hacks. I got 'er done over Christmas/NewYears break in 1981. Virtually every version of TCP/IP since has used it. Not too bad for a quick hack ...
[0] Just to cut the usual pack of idiots putting words into my mouth off at the socks, no, I didn't write the whole stack. That's why I said "part of". It was only about 120 lines of C in total.
Woops
I can't speak to all the other votes but I cast a 'for' ballot on the second article thinking I was voting in favour of the article's viewpoint rather than the previous article. Maybe I was just being thick. Also, how many people voted before the second article was even published? Doesn't really make sense to allow voting before both sides have been presented imho.
NEXT WEEK: why we shouldn't tarnish the noble art of trolling by labelling flamers as "trolls".
Yes, my coat it is the asbestos-lined, troll skin one.
Moot. I haven't seen a good flame in probably 20 years. It's a lost art. Seem they don't teach tactical syntax in schools anymore ... It would probably upset the little dears.
Besides, most folks labeled as "trolls" today are actually just baiters. Some are particularly good at it, one might even say they are master baiters.
(That's not to say there aren't still a few decent trolls around ... you know who you are. Have a beer.)
'If 'lifehack' isn't pejorative, 'hack' shouldn't be either.
But as long as you keep 'mobe' from returning we're good.
Re: 'If 'lifehack' isn't pejorative, 'hack' shouldn't be either.
The only trouble with that is I think thoughts that could definitely be classed as pejorative about people who use phrases like lifehacks. Mind you I have similar thoughts about headlines that begin with "So" so the problem is likely me in this case.
Re: 'If 'lifehack' isn't pejorative, 'hack' shouldn't be either.
"Lifehack" isn't pejorative? All those smarmy, holisticker-than-thou, practitioners of the "art" are only interested in separating the gullible from their money. And yet referring to them and thier "art" is not pejorative?
Guess you learn something new every day....
I was a volunteer at the library
Did they had a copy of [1]The New Hacker's Dictionary on their shelves?
[1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-hackers-dictionary
"8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term is {cracker}."
Sigh, better times.
I think that book is all on-line:
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/
In an ideal world...
In an ideal world people won't use the term pejoratively, but in my world that ship has sailed:-(
Tablet, catfish, and cloud were given as examples of words with meanings that have changed over time, too.
Notwithstanding abuse of the English language by marketroids, I'd suggest that:
- Tablet, as used to refer to touch-screen computers isn't really a new use of the word, as it's very similar to the original use ( cf stone tablet, wax tablet). Arguably use of it to refer to it as a capsule or pill is a neologism, but not exactly a recent one.
- I think the modern usage of "catfish" is likely transient, like referring to something as being "wicked" or "ace" in the '90s. The word has not lost its original meaning. The plecos in my fish tank are still catfish, none of them are pretending to be someone else on social media.
- "cloud" might be used to refer to "someone else's computer" at the moment, but I get the sense that this usage is already declining, as fashions in computing also change. A couple of years ago, every random marketing droid was trying to sell you SaaS on "the cloud", but these days they're likely to be more specifically trying to sell it to you on AWS or Azure, or talking about Kubernetes. Give it five years, and on-prem computing will be back in fashion. Meanwhile, to the average Joe in the street, a cloud is, and remains a fluffy white thing in the sky.
I remember someone seriously asking me of the risks of dataloss when it starts raining. I had to explain, as patiently as I could, that when we speak of storing data in the cloud we are talking figuratively. We aren’t literally uploading into the big white fluffy wet things.
the risks of dataloss when it starts raining.
I dunno. Were they trying to upload their data via a microwave link?
"We aren’t literally uploading into the big white fluffy wet things."
Some would say of cloud computing, that we may as well be.
"it's not data-loss, it's precipitation"
Wishful thinking....
I don't want to be called "coder" either, but guess what happens?
Re: Wishful thinking....
"Coder", those who live at Cape Cod?...
a warning sign that your child is turning into a naughty hacker
https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-police-distance-themselves-from-poster-warning-parents-to-report-kids-for-using-kali-linux/
Re: a warning sign that your child is turning into a naughty hacker
I've just hacked your post to create a simple [1]link (it's the same link and it's good).
[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-police-distance-themselves-from-poster-warning-parents-to-report-kids-for-using-kali-linux/
Re: a warning sign that your child is turning into a naughty hacker
"I've just hacked your post to create a simple [1]link (it's the same [2]link and it's good)."
I've just hacked your hacked post to re-update the link in two positions within the context of your original comment.
Also, [3]permalinked.
[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-police-distance-themselves-from-poster-warning-parents-to-report-kids-for-using-kali-linux/
[2] https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-police-distance-themselves-from-poster-warning-parents-to-report-kids-for-using-kali-linux/
[3] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/03/09/debate_hacker_result/#c_4218160
Re: a warning sign that your child is turning into a naughty hacker
"I've just hacked your post to create a simple [1]link (it's the same [2]link and it's good)."
I've just hacked your hacked post to re-update the [3]link in two positions within the context of your original comment.
Also, [4]permalinked .
I just "hacked" your post to correct all those links for you.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
It's a landslide because we're nerds and we understand the difference.
I voted against, however, because that fight was lost decades ago. Trying to reclaim the word "hacker" as a good thing will be about as effective as shouting at the moon. In mainstream media, hackers dress in black, like long coats, and do a lot of nasty shit using fancy graphical terminals, inch high text, and no hint of a command line anywhere...
How about...
... when writing about wrong'uns who've done an IT naughty, rather than calling them 'hackers' you instead simply call them 'criminals'?
Re: How about...
"Criminals" are businessmen (and -women) who don't play by the rules, while a "hacker" was (till recently) somebody who would enter or damage a system just for the Lolz and the bragging rights.
Now the businessmen (and -women) are recently taking over the scene, so your suggestion is quite valid. I would just specify "computer criminals", because they usually (still?) have little in common with the guys who peddle drugs, pick your pockets, or steal your car at gunpoint.
I knew this would happen...
Everyone! Join Mr. Peabody and Sherman in their way back machine for the 1990's when this argument began!
Back then we had two terms: Hackers and Crackers.
Hackers were "white hats" looking for system vulnerabilities and trying for as many "See if they could" moments as possible. Not to do damage or theft, but because there was a mountain needing to be climbed.
Crackers were "black hats" in it for the cash and mayhem.
The hacking community didn't like the distinction and did everything they could to stamp out the differences based on some bizarre moral objections; they won. The Cracker community said nothing because this added a layer of free cloaking to their activities.
So we're back to this again... wasting calories on a moot argument.
Hack
Writer with hacking cough hacked off more than they could chew and so hacks together a story about the hacked code that allowing hackers to hack into a hacksaw factory.
It's all rather more nuanced ...
Some cracks are achieved by hacking. Calling the cracker who perpetrates such a crack a "hacker" is not incorrect (it may be missing the point, but that's another story).
Not all cracking is achieved by hacking, not all hacking results in cracking.
Many activities described by the press as "hacking" are neither hacking nor cracking.
It would be nice if something could be done to make the general public as aware of the word "cracker" as they are of the word "hacker", and to instill in them a sense of the distinction between a hack and a crack.
Whatever El Reg decides...
...it'll eventually backtrack. Anyone else remember "mobe"?
Hacking is honourable
Mainstream media, on the other hand, generally has honour, accuracy and ethics a fair way down the ladder and these seem to be totally overwhelmed when a lurid story involving celebrities or politicians (or, dare I say, The Royals) is at stake. If the media can coin an expression that is simple and easy to remember, they'll use it regardless of its accuracy. The average reporter's copy about aviation (my old stomping ground) is enough to make you want to stay at home.
I agree that English is a living language and meanings change over time but with the rise of the 24/7 news cycle and the slow demise of decent journalism thanks to the likes of Murdick and co, I expect this will only get worse.
Must away to read the Apostrophe Police's latest missive.