Difference Between Cracker and Hacker
A person who breaks in to a safety system with a malicious intent is a cracker, whereas, one who breaks in to a computer system for earning profit, finding security loopholes of the system, showing protest or just for the sake of challenge is called a hacker. In recent times the differentiation amid the definitions of the two terms has become indistinct due to the exploitation of them by the mass media and the survival of the people belonging to both categories.
What is a Hacker?
A person who breaks in to a computer system for the purpose of finding security loopholes, earning profit, showing protest or just for the sake of challenge is called a hacker. This is the meaning of hacker, which comes up in the computer security. They are of several types such asblack hat hacker, white hat hackers, elite hacker, grey hat hacker, script kiddie, neophyte, blue hat and hactivist. A white hat (ethical) hacker breaks in to systems without any harmful intentions. Their task is to test the security level of a certain system. A black hat hacker is a true computer criminal who has malicious intentions. Their aim is the destruction of data and making the system not accessible to the authorized user of the system. A grey hat hacker has the individuality of both the white hat hackers and black hat hackers. Fortunate hackers are the most accomplished hackers who typically determine the newest opportunities nameless to the community. Script kiddie is not an expert hacker, but merely breaks in to systems using automated tools developed by others. Neophyte is a novice hacker without any sort of hacking understanding or experience. A blue hat hacker (who does not belong to a certain security firm) will check for security vulnerabilities before beginning a system. Hacktivist is an activist who uses hacking to announce a major event or a cause.
What is a Cracker?
A Cracker is a person who breaks in to a security system only with a malicious intent. They are very analogous to black hat hackers. In other words, there cannot be crackers who break in for reasons other than harmful ones (unlike some types of hackers such as white and blue hat hackers). His intention is to violate the systemintegrity and possibly harm data or make the system unreachable to the authorized users.
What is the difference between Cracker and Hacker?
Commonly, both hackers and crackers are people who break in to computer systems. Those who do it only with malicious intent are identified as crackers or black hat hackers. Other types of hackers such as white hat hackers do not have purely malicious intention. But, there is a long running argument about the real meanings of these terms (cracker and hacker). According to the general public (thanks to the misuse of terms by mass media for a prolonged period of time) a hacker is acknowledged as a person who breaks in to computer system with harmful intentions (almost exactly similar to a cracker). Though, this is not true according to the technical community. According to them, a hacker should be acknowledged as a positive persona (who is highly talented in dealing with computers – a very clever programmer), while a cracker is really the person who always commits criminal acts with regard to computer security.