by Joseph Whalen

Created on: August 18, 2008   Last Updated: September 05, 2011

The concept of hacking in today's society is a gross misrepresentation of what the original concept of Hacking was when the term was first coined back in the 1970s. Originally Hacking referred to the actual assembly and construction of computers and manipulation of computer programming through hard wiring components (or hacking them) together. The negative connotations associated with what was originally a skillful hobby are inaccurate and unwarranted.

Today hacking generally refers to illegally accessing other computer systems with malicious or criminal intent. The question of whether this activity is morally wrong or not is so blatantly obvious as to make the question unnecessary. Committing a felony by accessing or manipulating another person or companies property is without question morally wrong. The real question is, is this form of electronic crime Hacking? In the true sense of the word it is not, however popular culture has ascribed such acts the term of Hacking.

Mislabeling illegal electronic access as Hacking is no different than labeling joy riding a stolen car as borrowing. If you steal a car as a prank and decide to joy ride it around town with the intent on abandoning it when you're finished you could consider this as borrowing the car rather than stealing it since you do not intend to retain possession of the car. While this example may seem ridiculous the parallel between this and the misuse of the term hacking is relevant. "Hackers" today use creative programming and social engineering to gain access to restricted systems. While there are some similarities between this activity and the legitimate creative hobby activity of hardware hacking the actual actions, intentions and consequences are greatly different.

Simply because two acts share similarities does not justify sharing the same label. A politician taking a political contribution from a special interest group is legal. A politician taking a monetary gift from an individual may be seen as a bribe. Both acts share many similarities but the circumstances in which they occur and the implications of each are very different. This is the same thing with hacking and whatever society labels the illegal accessing of electronic data that we commonly refer to as "hacking". Whatever term you ascribe to this illegal act it is not the same thing as Hacking. Society needs to understand the differences in these two things.

Legitimate Hacking today has taken on a new form and purpose. Much of what the open source community of software developers are doing is considered Hacking in the truest sense. Instead of hacking together hardware they are hacking away on their keyboards developing new software that is beneficial to society and to the computing community. They take their skills and talents and put them to work in a constructive and meaningful way by developing low or no cost software that businesses, individuals and charities can use to operate their computers today. This is what real Hacking is, not using your natural skills for illegal purposes.

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