The Heroic Hacker: Legends of the Computer Age
Erik L. Brunvand · 2013
The computer hacker has been depicted in the popularpress as a socially maladjustedteenager whose goal is to wreak malicious havoc on unsuspecting computer users. In the culture of the computer programmer however, the hacker takes on a far different aspect. The true hacker is raised to heroic status with tales of amazing feats circulated through computer networks in the form of stories and legends. In this paper I discuss the persona of the true hacker, illustrated using hacker legends collected from the Internet. 1 Introduction You have probably read about computer hackers in the newspaper and seen stories on the evening news about gangs of teenage hackers breaking into computer systems and causing tremendous damage. If so, then your impression of what it means to be a hacker is likely be quite negative. The popular press tends to depict the hacker as a criminal, or at the very least someone who enjoys causing lots of people lots of trouble. He is usually teenage and very smart, but ...