@Branthog said:

No, Patrick. Some of the power behind the word "hacking" has been lost over the last two DECADES as people in the media - like yourself and many, many others - wrongly apply it to the abusive or even illegal activities conducted by *crackers* and script kiddies.

It does real hackers in the technology professions a huge disservice when people continue to refer to such activities as "hacking" and such people as "hackers". It'd be a bit like if we all started referring to plagiarism as "journalism" and then real journalists would be pissed, because the term had been misappropriated for devious activities which don't have anything to do with "real journalists".

Also, whether or not there are crackers out there causing mischief, you are still responsible for as much of your own security as you can control. For example, not using the same password on every website you use and not using obvious or common passwords. If you use a different complex password at every site and service, then when one is compromised, it means very little to you - as long as they haven't compromised actual *data*, like a credit card number. Which, of course, you can also have control over if your bank offers something like "Save Shop" where you can use a specific credit card number generated just for each specific service, therefore limiting the extent of any of that data being lost.

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@Branthog: I'll agree that script kiddies that just run software that other people wrote don't really deserve the title of hacker, but the other two groups both call themselves hackers. Why is one correct and the other incorrect? Do your hackers win the name just because they chose it first? After all, it is the speakers of a language that decide the meanings of that language's words, and English speakers overwhelmingly call "crackers" hackers. Words change meaning over time. "Geek" used to mean "A carnival performer who does wild or disgusting acts". Now it also means "A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest".

These hackers need to get over themselves already. Nobody cares what there cause is, they are just pissed that their games and networks are getting intruded on and delayed. Hacking game companies will probably make good games come out later by delaying development.

Hackers don't look that good and you know it.

At the very least, I'm glad all this is happening so that "hacking" has firmly placed itself into the realm of, "Things that used to be kind of mysterious and seemed cool, but now appear as really sad attempts to try to be special."

LulzSec fans! Good news!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/21/hackers-lulzsec-arrest-essex-census

At least they didn't get any credit card information.