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Bagi media massa sendiri Hacker diartikan sebagai cybercrime. Bagi komunitas Hacker, istilah penjahat komputer disebut Cracker. Bedanya, Hacker membuat sesuatu, sedangkan Cracker menghancurkan/merusaknya. Komunitas Hacker ada tanpa Jenderal tanpa Presiden. Di dunia Hacker ada sebuah kalimat yang terkenal "Show me the Code". Hacker di bagi dua kategori:
1. White-Hat Hackers
Hacker dengan topi putih, adalah tokoh-tokoh yang mengagumkan dari segi pencapaian teknis dan filosofis mereka yang turut mengembangkan budaya hacker di dunia. Ini adalah tokoh-tokoh yang ikut mendorong banyak revolusi dalam dunia komputer dan teknologi informasi. Mereka yang berani melakukan kreatifitas di luar kebiasaan sehari-hari. Merekalah pemikir-pemikir out-of-the-box, revolusionis dalam dunia yang semakin kabur.
^ Tim Berners-Lee: Sang Penemu Web
^ Linus Torvalds: Pemikir Linux
^ Richard Stallman: Penggagas GNU
^ Gordon Lyon: Pembuat Nmap
2. Black-Hat Hackers
Hacker dengan topi hitam, adalah tokoh-tokoh yang kerap melupakan batasan moral dan etika dalam melakukan inovasi teknologi. Mereka juga ikut mendorong banyak revolusi dalam dunia komputer dan teknologi informasi, salah satunya dari sisi pihak-pihak yang tak ingin lagi menjadi korban dari aksi-aksi para Black-Hat ini.
Contohnya :
^ Robert Tappan Morris: Pembuat Worm (Worm-Virus) Pertama Di Dunia
^ Kevin Mitnick: America's Most Wanted Hacker
^ Vladimir Levin: Pembobol Citibank Agustus 2004
^ Loyd Blankenship: The Mentor
^ Kevin Poulsen: "Win a Porsche by Friday". Lotere by U.S radio.
^ Joe Engresia: Phreaker Buta yang Legenda.
^ John Draper: Captain Crunch, Crunchman, atau Crunch
^ Adrian Lamo: Pembobol Yahoo!, Microsoft, Excite@Home, WorldCom, New York Times
Kalau kalian mau mengetahui lebih lanjut kisah para hacker legendaris tersebut, kalian bisa melakukannya secara googling di Google.com Ada semacam romantisme kenakalan remaja pada budaya hacker. Napas-napas pemberontakan yang memikat, sama memikatnya seperti Jim Morisson, Che Guevara, Soe Hok Gie, Chairil Anwar, Iwan Fals, atau Eminem. Romatisme tersebut berasal dari idealisme kebebasan dan rasa ingin tahu. Seperti tercermin dalam dokumen "The Conscience of a Hacker" (Hati Nurani Seorang Hacker) yang dituliskan seorang bernama The Mentor.
Berikut cuplikan yang kerap disebut "Manifesto Hacker" itu: Ini adalah dalam bahasa inggris atau aslinya: The Conscience of a Hacker by Mentor Written on January 8, 1986 Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers.
"Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"... Damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world... Mine is a world that begins with school. I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Damn underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me... Or thinks I'm a smart ass... Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened. A door opened to a world rushing through my phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all. Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike. You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will
never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... After all, we're all alike.
Dan berikut ini adalah sebagian terjemahannya: Inilah dunia kami... dunia elektron dan switch, beauty of the baud. Kalian menyebut kami penjahat.. karena kami menggunakan layanan yang sudah ada tanpa membayar, padahal layanan itu seharusnya sangat murah jika tidak dikuasai oleh orang-orang rakus. Kami kalian sebut penjahat... karena kami gemar menjelajah. Kami kalian sebut penjahat... karena kami mengejar ilmu pengetahuan. Kami ada tanpa warna kulit, tanpa kebangsaan, tanpa bias agama... tapi bagi kalian kami penjahat. Kami adalah penjahat.