See also: People And Personae | Bad Guys | Hacker | Privacy | hpvac | Honeypot
1. Those who exploit vulnerabilities in networks, such as the Internet or phone system for their own gain or for general chaos. Also referred to as “Black Hat” Hackers as well as a variety of other names including “Phreakers” for phone hackers. This is considered unethical by many.
Usually referred to in the mainstream press as a “malignant user” or “malignant hacker” – considered incorrect by the Hacker community.
2. Those who reverse engineer software to remove copyright protection from proprietary software. See Cracks And Serials. Potentially unethical (see Piracy).
Both types of crackers use similar attacks to those that to un-protect software, such as the brute force attack among others.
The illegality of an action depends on a number of factors including:
- Method used during exploitation
- Type of system targetted
- Jurisdiction from which activity took place
- Scale of damage or of distribution
Famous Crackers, cases
- Kevin Mitnick, Free Kevin
- Phrozen Crew
TakeDown.NET -> “Cracker”