The 1995 film Hackers has a lot to answer for. Not only was their egregious product placement for a certain fizzy beverage with red and white branding, but it helped reinforce the notion that hacking was all good-looking edgy types breaking into other people’s computers and causing havoc.
Today that notion (along with the idea that an oversized black hoodie and V for Vendetta mask are essential attire for this hacking) is fairly entrenched among the non-tech savvy, ever the more reinforced by so many unlikely movies and shoddy media reporting.
Readers of this fine publication ought not to buy into that. “Hacking” originally meant the breaking, modifying , and repurposing of technology so it functions differently from how the manufacturer intended. Today, many programmers call themselves hackers and only a fraction of those are up to no good.
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