Hacker Communities

Hackers
Hackers are intelligent computer professionals who are interested in learning advanced techniques about operating systems, programming languages, and application software. Hackers try to gain in-depth knowledge of a system, and then use that information to find out the possible security gaps in the system. They share their knowledge with other people, thus increasing security awareness, but do not intend to damage data or other system resources. For example, a system engineer who uncovers the vulnerabilities of a network with the intention of suggesting better security measures is a hacker.

Crackers
Crackers are individuals who break into computers with malicious intent. They try to get unauthorized access into a system and then cause damage or destroy confidential information. Crackers also manipulate the system to deny services to the authorized users of a system. The activities of crackers can cause financial losses to both organizations and individuals. For example, a cracker may break into a system and install a virus program to crash the system, causing a loss of money and data.

The main difference between a hacker and a cracker is in the intent behind breaking into a system. A real hacker is enthusiastic to know about the possible security gaps, while a cracker is interested in damaging information and harassing users.

Phreaks
Phreaks are persons who use computer devices and software to break into phone networks. There are two types of phreaks. The first type is interested only in learning the advanced technologies used in telephone networks and does not misuse telephone services.

The second type of phreak uses the security gaps in a phone network to make free phone calls and may also try to charge them to legitimate phone users.

Script Kiddies
Script kiddies are persons who do not have adequate technical skills to hack computers, but they utilize available information about known vulnerabilities to break into remote systems. Script kiddies break into remote systems by using the Internet, usually for fun or just out of curiosity. However, it is interesting to know that script kiddies usually do not have any specific targets for their attacks nor any special hacking tools or methodologies. They generally use free hacking tools available on the Internet to search for any computer connected to the Internet, which is not secure enough to predict and counter such an attack. After finding a target, script kiddies will usually unintentionally damage the resources and information stored on the target computer due to their lack of knowledge.

Now that you are familiar with the hacker community and its activities, it would be interesting to know when and how hacking activities originally started and the motivation behind hacking.