Page "Hacker (term)" Paragraph 11

The mainstream media's current usage of the term may be traced back to the early 1980s.

When the term was introduced to wider society by the mainstream media in 1983, even those in the computer community referred to computer intrusion as " hacking ", although not as the exclusive use of that word.

In reaction to the increasing media use of the term exclusively with the criminal connotation, the computer community began to differentiate their terminology.

Alternative terms such as " cracker " were coined in an effort to distinguish between those adhering to the historical use of the term " hack " within the programmer community and those performing computer break-ins.

Further terms such as " black hat ", " white hats " and " gray hats " developed when laws against breaking into computers came into effect, to distinguish criminal activities and those whose activities were legal.

However, since network news use of the term pertained primarily to the criminal activities despite this attempt by the technical community to preserve and distinguish the original meaning, the mainstream media and general public continue to describe computer criminals with all levels of technical sophistication as " hackers " and does not generally make use of the word in any of its non-criminal connotations.

Members of the media sometimes seem unaware of the distinction, grouping legitimate " hackers " such as Linus Torvalds and Steve Wozniak along with criminal " crackers ".