Hacker: The misunderstood innovator

Hacker! What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear this word? Security systems penetrated, important information stolen or some other type of cyber crime. However, let’s pause for a moment and think , what comes to our mind when we read “10 life hacks you must know” or “5 relationship hacks “; doesn’t this refer to things that would make our lives or relationships easier. So, a hack is a useful innovation that uses a different approach to chores to achieve ease and efficiency.

To brand security breaking as hacking is unjust because if one goes by the history of the word hacking, it traces back to the early 70s. Even the origins suggest that hacking is all about wit, it makes life easier, and it is pure innovation. Yes, there are people who have used this wit and innovation to achieve unscrupulous objectives but those people can be correctly termed as crackers and not hackers.

The word hacker has long been misused and portrayed with a negative aura. It has gone ahead in demeaning all those creative souls who have hacked to glory and given amazing innovation to the world. We are a large community of coding enthusiasts, we are hackers. Thus, we have taken up this initiative to separate the word “hacker” from the infamy attached, we want to help ourselves and our co-hackers achieve the deserved identity. We aren’t alone; many people in the media are also talking about it.

It is time that the term “ethical hacking” loses meaning because hacking is always ethical and unethical hacking is better referred to as cracking.

Going ahead with our objective to make the difference between hacking and cracking conspicuous, we are filing a petition to take this cause to as many people as possible. The petition aims at the achievement of the deserved status.

You can sign the petition at – https://www.change.org/p/hackerearth-dear-media-know-the-difference-between-a-cracker-and-a-hacker

Our initiative aims at giving everyone the creative freedom to bring out the hacker in them. There is a hacker potential in each one of us and we aim to harness it to achieve results. As hackers start coming to limelight with their work of art and results of wisdom our objective will near fulfillment.

Smriti Tuteja Author 15 Blogs