Security hacker
Explores methods for breaching or bypassing computer defenses.
A security hacker or security researcher is someone who explores methods for breaching or bypassing defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, sabotage, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or evaluation of a system weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers. The subculture around such hackers is termed network hacker subculture, hacker scene, or computer underground, and it initially developed in the context of phreaking during the 1960s and the microcomputer BBS scene of the 1980s.
- field
- Computer security
- known_for
- Exploring methods for breaching or bypassing defenses and exploiting weaknesses in computer systems or networks
- subculture
- Network hacker subculture, hacker scene, or computer underground
- earliest_known_context
- Phreaking during the 1960s and microcomputer BBS scene of the 1980s
Lore & Background
The subculture around hackers initially developed in the context of phreaking during the 1960s and the microcomputer BBS scene of the 1980s. The release of the film WarGames that year, featuring a computer intrusion into NORAD, raised the public belief that computer security hackers could be a threat to national security. This concern became real when, in the same year, a gang of teenage hackers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, known as The 414s, broke into computer systems throughout the United States and Canada, including those of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Security Pacific Bank. The case quickly grew media attention, and 17-year-old Neal Patrick emerged as the spokesman for the gang, including a cover story in Newsweek entitled 'Beware: Hackers at play,' with Patrick's photograph on the cover. Pressured by media coverage, congressman Dan Glickman called for an investigation and began work on new laws against computer hacking.
Reader's Guide
The term 'security hacker' carries a longstanding controversy. Computer programmers reclaim the term hacker, arguing that it refers simply to someone with an advanced understanding of computers and computer networks, and that cracker is the more appropriate term for those who break into computers, whether computer criminals (black hats) or computer security experts (white hats). Hackers can include someone who endeavors to strengthen security mechanisms by exploring their weaknesses and also those who seek to access secure, unauthorized information despite security measures. Nevertheless, parts of the subculture see their aim in correcting security problems and use the word in a positive sense. White hat is the name given to ethical computer hackers, who utilize hacking in a helpful way. White hats are becoming a necessary part of the information security field. Subgroups of the computer underground with different attitudes and motives use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other. These classifications include white hat, grey hat, black hat, script kiddie, neophyte, blue hat, hacktivist, and organized criminal gangs. Hackers can usually be sorted into two types of attacks: mass attacks and targeted attacks. A typical approach in an attack on Internet-connected system involves network enumeration, vulnerability analysis, and exploitation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Security hacker?
Security hacker is a figure in the computer security field who probes for vulnerabilities in systems and networks by testing how their protective layers can be circumvented. They operate within a broader community often called the hacker scene or the computer underground.
What are Security hacker's powers/role?
The core activity of a security hacker involves identifying and exploiting weaknesses in digital defenses, whether driven by personal challenge, financial gain, political protest, or a desire to help organizations shore up their own security posture. Their skill set centers on understanding how systems fail rather than on building them.
How does Security hacker's story end?
The narrative arc of the security hacker is not a single conclusion but a continuous evolution, tracing from early telephone phreaking in the 1960s through the 1980s bulletin-board-system scene to today's professional penetration-testing industry. The subculture keeps reshaping itself as new technologies and threats emerge.
Why is Security hacker important?
Security hackers expose hidden flaws that would otherwise go unnoticed, compelling both individuals and institutions to harden their digital infrastructure. They occupy a contested space in crime-and-deviance studies because the very techniques used to break into systems can be repurposed to defend them.
What subculture surrounds Security hacker?
The community around security hacking is commonly referred to as the network hacker subculture, the hacker scene, or the computer underground. It first coalesced around telephone phreaking in the 1960s and the microcomputer BBS culture of the 1980s before expanding into the modern digital landscape.
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