What is a hacker?

I assume you are completely new to hacking when you read this article for the first time, so I congratulate you for arriving at the starting point.

This starting point is the focus on definitions, it is also the first important step in your learning.

One last word before starting: my goal is to help you in this field, I hope you will learn a lot here, do not hesitate to ask your questions!



What is a hacker?
The term Hacker comes from the English verb To Hack which means "to cut something". It makes the analogy with the decomposition of the stages into several parts in order to reassemble them to eventually make something new, more powerful.

What is a hacker?
The representation of the hacker not always realizes, as it is presented to us in the media
We also use the terms tweak or tinker. The hacker is therefore above all a hacker if one abstracts from any goal he may seek to achieve.

He simply seeks to improve his way of life by tweaking something to get his way.



What is hacking?

Hacking is the act of diverting an object or entity from its primary purpose. Note that we could again talk about hacking in general for everyday life. And not just about computers.

You can very well hack a drink vending machine by dropping a can on another that was stuck. The example is ready to smile but it is a small hack, the normal use of the distributor is diverted to obtain a second can.

The hacker in the computer sense is thus a person who seeks to know the detailed functioning of a system and to go in search of small combines that it considers practical and which make it possible to create something else or better. It therefore diverts a system or network from its original purpose.

This diversion can be quite legal and useful, for example, know that many of the inventions and systems you use today come from the work of hackers.

You may think that hackers have contributed to certain sites or technologies, but it is even better than that, hackers have created the Internet, created the first computers, invented graphic interfaces, created Unix / Linux operating systems and many more!

But as you can imagine, this diversion can also be illegal: typically it is to exploit bugs or weaknesses to gain access to a machine. And this is probably the most popular definition of this term. Unfortunately, it's hard to get those definitions out of order.

Hacker malicious (black-hat), benevolent (white-hat), script-kiddy (beginner) ... etc. So many types of hackers that are described in detail in the article you can now read: The different types of hackers.

I will ensure that the definition of the ethical hacker (which I now invite you to read) is applied in all circumstances. In summary, the ethical hacker is the one who seeks to understand how attacks work to protect themselves.

Thank you for your attention and see you soon!