Hacker vs. Cracker

[Joseph McCollum]

I think "cracker" is used in the sense of "safecracker."  I've heard it
frequently enough.
A cracker has cracked the code of a particular file format, for instance.


Hacker -- Let's see...there's "political hack," and the like, but hackers
have more talent than that.  There's "hack" in the sense of "chop" --
you've hacked your way in --  and "hack" in the sense of "to do something
over and over" -- a taxicab driver is a "hack"  and then there's "hacking
at the keyboard."

Just yesterday I heard "scripter," which refers to someone who takes
someone else's virus, makes only minor changes, and sends it out as his
own work.  There needs to be a better term than that.