hacker

A hacker is most commonly a person who seeks unauthorized access to a computer system or network. The word is also used for a skilled programmer or computer enthusiast. In computer security, it may describe an intruder or an authorized specialist who tests systems and reports vulnerabilities. Programmer and free software communities apply the term to people who explore programmable systems, modify software, or find ways around technical limits. Its meaning depends on context, and communities disagree over who may claim it.
The computing use of the term developed in student culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the late 1950s and early 1960s. At MIT, hacking ranged from playful technical work and pranks to unauthorized interference. During the 1970s and 1980s, personal computers and modem-connected networks took hacker culture beyond academic laboratories. Publicized intrusions and arrests, the 1983 film WarGames, and computer-crime laws shifted public usage toward unauthorized access. Security consulting, conferences, coordinated vulnerability disclosure, and bug bounty programs later gave some hackers recognized professional roles.
Hacker communities include programmer and free-software hackers, hardware hackers, phreakers, members of the computer underground, security hackers, and hacktivists. Their aims and legal status vary. Many value technical skill, experimentation, information sharing, and recognition from peers. Communities form around software projects, online forums, informal groups, hackerspaces, and conferences. Access may depend on skill, trust, and familiarity with group norms; even formally open communities can have cultural barriers. In security work, authorization and agreed limits separate professional testing from access without permission. Copyright law and software licenses set conditions for studying, modifying, and distributing programs; some laws also restrict the circumvention of technical protections.
News and popular culture portray hackers variously as criminals, cyberterrorists, socially isolated technical prodigies, activists, defenders, and security professionals. The favorable use of hack for an inventive solution has spread beyond computing in terms such as hackathon, civic hacking, biohacking, growth hacking, and life hack.

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