Hacker vs. Cracker

[Grant Barrett]

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation defends its use of "hacker" although computer
geeks and coders say "cracker" is more accurate.

http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/hack.html

"Some of the most fervent anger came from members of another group, who wanted to
know why most news organizations were referring to the culprits as hackers instead of
crackers. Here is a sample of their complaints:

"'For at least the third time in as many months, CBC has run a news story about
'hackers' when the correct term for malicious computer vandals is 'cracker'. I would have
hoped that by now a professional news organization like CBC would properly research
things like this and realise what the correct terminology is . . . .'"

[snip]

"The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1999) describes a hacker as "a person who
uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data" or "an enthusiastic computer
programmer or user." The book, as thick as a loaf of bread, contains more than 350,000
definitions, but not one of them makes a connection between the word cracker and
computers."