Hacker or cracker: after all, what is the correct nomenclature and what are the differences?

Answer quickly: hacker or cracker? Do you know the difference? Which term should be used in a given situation? It is normal to be confused between these two nomenclatures, and although they may be explained in simple terms, it is important to delve a bit deeper into this topic to clearly understand the distinction between these two concepts. Want a quick answer? Hackers are good and crackers are bad. But, of course, this involves much more than that.

To understand this alphabet soup, it is necessary, first of all, to remember that the term “hacking” encompasses a variety of techniques, arts, and lifestyles which are similar in one characteristic: in general, hackers are curious people who like to get their hands dirty, understand how things work, and to think “outside the box” to solve problems. And this is not limited to the computer world: the hacker mentality can be applied to biology, politics, sociology…

Fighting for their own image

As in many other scenarios, a tool or technique which was developed for a particular purpose can end up being used to do good or evil. In the mid-1980s, the mainstream media — that had little or no knowledge of the computer hacker community — began to use the term “hacker” to refer to cybercriminals who developed viruses and attacked computer networks.

As a way of protesting against this forced generalization that "every hacker is evil", the community itself coined the term cracker — in English, the verb "to crack" can also mean "to break" — to refer to individuals who break through layers of digital protection with malicious intent. However, to this day, it seems that this attempt to distinguish the two sides of the hacker lifestyle has not worked very well, as we frequently see headlines citing “hacker attacks” in major newspapers.

Crackers can use hacking techniques for a number of malicious activities: digital graffiti (practice popularly known as defacement), espionage, embezzlement, data theft, and digital extortion. A few other terms have been created in the past few years to specifically refer to criminals that specialize in certain areas. Carders, for example, focus on cloned cards, while a phreaker masters tricks to bypass the security of telecommunication systems.

Ethics is everything

It is also very common to come across the terms ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’. They are analogous to the terms hacker and cracker: while a "white hat" is someone who helps and collaborates to optimize the security of computer systems, a "black hat" does exactly the opposite by looking for flaws, vulnerabilities, and loopholes that can be exploited for their own profit. It is an eternal war that has gone on for years.

Today, there are globally recognized certifications for those who want to work as ethical hackers. The most famous is the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), which certifies that the professional is able to act responsibly in the professional environment — mainly performing intrusion tests at the request of a company, or participating in so-called network teams (internal teams that simulate the behavior of cybercriminals to find weaknesses in the IT ecosystem). 

So, remember: if you want to refer to a malicious cyber attack, always prefer to use the term 'cracker'!

Article translated from: Hacker ou cracker: afinal, qual é a nomenclatura correta e quais são as diferenças? — Perallis Security