What is a hacker?

Answer 1

a hacker is some one who is trying to electronically break in to your computer thru a network or over the internet, the way to combat this is to install a firewall, win xp has its own but ensure you have service pack two, otherwise there are some free firewalls on the net that are adequate like zone alarm

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB&lang=en&lid=nav_za

or beter still buy and antivirus package that includes full internet security like panda platinum, thats what i use and its fantastic

Answer 2

A hacker is someone “who wants to do something that one is passionate about, something in which one can realize oneself creatively, and something in which one can build things for the good of all” - Richard Stallman.
Then, a hacker is not only a person dealing with computers, is anyone anyplace.
Also, a hacker is either a cracker nor a criminal.
There are different documentals on YouTube and Google Videos that explain better the hacker spirit.

Answer 3

The term "hacker" was coined by MIT students, from the verb "to hack", which at MIT means "to do a clever bit of work". This could be a duct-tape-and-spit kind of job, or it could be a completely from-the-ground-up kind of thing; it's "hacking" only if it has the touch of genius to it, something that sparks admiration in other people for its technical cleverness.

There's also a tradition of "hacks" at MIT, which are clever, harmless little pranks (e.g. putting a police car on the roof of MIT's Great Dome). There's a hacker code of ethics, which emphasizes that hacks MUST not be damaging; however, this secondary meaning eventually led to the modern, colloquial usage of the term "hacker", which is "a malicious computer user bent on harm or destruction by improper infiltration of a computer system".

Many old-school hackers resent this use of the word, which they feel is a corruption of a term that was something of an honorific in the past, and in recent days the original usage has started to make a resurgence - i.e., "hacker" is someone who writes clever code, makes clever modifications, etc., otherwise displays genius.

Answer 4

a hacker is a person who hakcs, or break into accounts :p