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Internet Hackers, Crackers, Hacking

The IAB strongly endorses the view of the Division Advisory Panel of the National Science Foundation Division of Network, Communications Research and Infrastructure which, in paraphrase, characterized as unethical and unacceptable any activity which purposely:

(a) seeks to gain unauthorized access to the resources of the Internet,
(b) disrupts the intended use of the Internet,
(c) wastes resources (people, capacity, computer) through such actions,
(d) destroys the integrity of computer-based information, and/or
(e) compromises the privacy of users.

Internet Activities Board, Ethics and the Internet, RFC 1087, January 1989.

The originally definition of a hacker was a talented computer programmer that could solve almost any problem very quickly, often by innovative, unconventional means. Today it is sometimes used to mean someone that tries to break into other people's computers or creates a computer virus, which isn't quite as noble a concept -- these folks are more properly called "crackers". The following sections provide descriptions of various famous Internet hackers and crackers and provides references to a few well-known hacker related sites.

The last of the true hackers:

Some well known crackers:

Cracker sites:

Resources. Request For Comments 602, published in December 1973, includes descriptions of incidents of hacking only four years after the birth of the ARPANET.

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