Difference between Hacker and Cracker

Today i am going to explain what is the difference between hacker and cracker. There are lots of articles on internet about the difference between hackers and crackers. In those articles authors or publishers often try to correct the public misconceptions. For many years, media has erroneously used the hacker word with a cracker. So the general public now believes hacker is someone who breaks into computer systems,hack passwords, websites and misuse them. But this is absolutely untrue and it demoralizes some of our most talented hackers.

 The greatness of misconception you can determine from the fact that world's biggest authentic source WIKIPEDIA has defined hackers in a incorrect way. Wikipedia has defined hackers in the following way...

"Hacking is unauthorized use of computer and network resources. (The term "hacker" originally meant a very gifted programmer. In recent years though, with easier access to multiple systems, it now has negative implications.)"

There is a very thin line difference between the hacker and cracker. Like a coin has two faces heads or tails, similar is true for computer experts. Some uses their techniques and expertize to help the others and secure the systems or networks and some misuses them and use that for their own selfish reasons. 

There are several traditional ways that determines the difference between the hackers and crackers. I will provide you these ways in order of their acceptance in the computer and IT market.  First of all, let me provide you the basic definitions of both hackers and crackers. 

These definitions are as follows:

Hackers : A Hacker is a person who is extremely interested in exploring the things and recondite workings of any computer system or networking system. Most often, hackers are the expert programmers. These are also called Ethical Hackers or white hat hackers. And the technique or hacking they perform is called ethical hacking.

Ethical Hacking Means you think like Hackers. i.e First you Hack the Systems and find out the loop holes and then try to correct those Loop Holes..These type of hackers protect the cyberworld from every possible threat and fixes the future coming security loop holes. These peoples are also called as "GURU's" of Computer Security. 

 

Crackers:  Crackers or Black Hat hackers or cheaters or simply criminals, they are called criminals because they are having the mindset of causing harm to security and they steals very useful data and use it in wrong ways. Phishers also come in this category who steals account info and steal  your credit card nos. and money over the Net. 

 

 Below is the Diagrams which shows the basic difference between cracker or black hat hackers and Hackers or ethical hackers or white hat hackers.

I hope this will help you to clear most of your doubts about hackers and crackers. And the most important thing, until and unless a ethical hacker thinks like a cracker you can never become a expert ethical hacker because to get most out of any computer system you must understand the mindset of crackers that what they can do and up to what level they can damage. Now when you will identify the vulnerabilities and loopholes , If you fixes them so that in future anyone cannot breach that same vulnerability then you are Hacker or ethical hacker or White Hat hacker and if you utilize that loophole of misdeeds or for fun then its cracking or Black hat hacking. And black hat hackers are intelligent peoples but criminals or simply cyber cops call them evil genius.

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