The importance of definitions

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In a recent thread I posted about factors related to hacking, someone made a good point in their response about needing to know one's definition of hacking. I couldn't agree more.

The word 'hack' as a verb has been differentially defined overtime negatively as "to screw something up" as in a 'hack job' and positively "to demonstrate the ability to improve upon or advance technology. In the 1960s it was a compliment to be called a 'hacker.' At least among certain circles. Then moving into the 80s and 90s, as incidents of people using technical skills to commit crimes occurred, hacker became synonymous with criminal.

But in realty, the word hacker does not ascribe a positive or negative attribute. In today's world I would argue, it relates to having a certain skill or ability. How that skill or ability is used determines positive or negative labels.

Arguably, (setting aside the argument of whether one ascribes to governmental definitions of criminal behaviour and which government is to be followed), any time a person accesses a system without authorization to do so, they have committed a criminal offence (at least in North America, Western Europe).

If you have done this but without the intention to do any harm (exfiltrate data, damage or modify data or disable access for the authorized user, for example) are you still a criminal hacker/blackhat?

Is an ethical hacker who has gained access to a system without authorization in order to practice their skills a criminal hacker/blackhat?

Is criminal intent necessary for someone to be considered a criminal hacker?
 What are your thoughts on the definitions of a hacker vs. criminal hacker vs. ethical hacker???

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If you have done this but without the intention to do any harm (exfiltrate data, damage or modify data or disable access for the authorized user, for example) are you still a criminal hacker/blackhat?

Still a "Hacker" but not a criminal, since it was for educational research.

Is an ethical hacker who has gained access to a system without authorization in order to practice their skills a criminal hacker/blackhat?
It becomes a "Pentester", which is a "grayhat" thing, if he warns to the owner of the site about this and how to improve his security, all good, otherwise, you are a criminal for bypassing security with malicious intentions

Is criminal intent necessary for someone to be considered a criminal hacker?
Yes, since it determines if it is "Bad or Good", either way it just pentesting (Ethical or Unethical)

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[50]

In a recent thread I posted about factors related to hacking, someone made a good point in their response about needing to know one's definition of hacking. I couldn't agree more.

The word 'hack' as a verb has been differentially defined overtime negatively as "to screw something up" as in a 'hack job' and positively "to demonstrate the ability to improve upon or advance technology. In the 1960s it was a compliment to be called a 'hacker.' At least among certain circles. Then moving into the 80s and 90s, as incidents of people using technical skills to commit crimes occurred, hacker became synonymous with criminal.

But in realty, the word hacker does not ascribe a positive or negative attribute. In today's world I would argue, it relates to having a certain skill or ability. How that skill or ability is used determines positive or negative labels.

Arguably, (setting aside the argument of whether one ascribes to governmental definitions of criminal behaviour and which government is to be followed), any time a person accesses a system without authorization to do so, they have committed a criminal offence (at least in North America, Western Europe).

If you have done this but without the intention to do any harm (exfiltrate data, damage or modify data or disable access for the authorized user, for example) are you still a criminal hacker/blackhat?

Is an ethical hacker who has gained access to a system without authorization in order to practice their skills a criminal hacker/blackhat?

Is criminal intent necessary for someone to be considered a criminal hacker?
 What are your thoughts on the definitions of a hacker vs. criminal hacker vs. ethical hacker??I

When it comes to criminal/non-criminal hacking, there appears to be a lot of grey area (I guess this is why people use the term grey hat). If you are to use a strict definition of the law, then anyone who engages in any sort of pentesting without prior authorization, is guilty of a criminal offence. However, if you consider the intention and the impact, someone who enters a system without authorization but does not do any harm and might even advise the system owner of what they discovered, has actually done a service.