Oh well, I suppose all it did was end it up in a different part of the site
When you hear the term “hacker” you likely think about a nasty person who has no regard for privacy or others. Someone who is a social outcast and lives only to destroy what others have created using today’s recent technology. However, jumping to conclusions like this could unjustly put somebody in jail.
If I said “network security administrator,” you probably think about someone who looks after a network and ensures that it is secured for use. What you may not know is that in order to ensure that a network is safe and secure; it must be tested by the “hacking” skills of a Network Security Administrator.
On many occasions are people unjustly accused of “terrible crimes”, just because somebody used the word “hack” in front of the judge. If you were an FBI agent, that is likely all you would have to do to put somebody behind bars for a large portion of their life.
Many law officials take the term as a greatly negative sign. This stereotypical view is brought on by material that the media distorts for its public audience. Only the black-hat hackers(people that hack without the regard for others) are given their fifteen minutes of fame. White-hat hacker achievements pass along silently, rarely with any media attention. Only in the network security community are they recognized, and often not very well known.
In the case of our dear Jeremy Hammond, 5000 credit card numbers were acquired by a means... deemed not legally acceptable. Although he did not use them at all, and the Judge concurred that he was likely not going to end up using them, he was still charged a hefty fine of $500 a piece(ended up to be valued at 24 months in prison, 3 years probation after 'intent of use' laws were applied). In my opinion, someone who say... stole a company computer that had access to the database and printed off the credit card numbers would have accumulated a much smaller fine, mainly because hacking is viewed socially unacceptable by such a large portion of the community.
It just goes to show that no matter who you are, someone (*cough* media *cough*) will always find a way to bend the truth away from what it really is. So, the next time some guy in a black suit and sunglasses shows up at your door asking what you like to do on your computer, make sure you replace all instances of the word "hacker" with "network security tester".
