What do you think of when you hear the word hacker--a leather-clad, mohawked, teenager with a malicious grin on his face just itching to destroy your computer? This is what the average person will picture in their head, but they fail to truly understand what it is that hackers do, and how it can actually be helpful to them. The reason this stereotype of hackers has not gone away is because the media shows only the bad. If a hacker has been stealing credit card numbers CNN reports it instantly, but if a hacker creates a program that helps keep a system secure, you would be hard pressed to find anything about it in a news source. (Dissident p. 1)
             Real hackers are not out to destroy systems, they simply want to break in for the challenge, to know that they can do it, and get away with it. "Don't ever maliciously hack a system. Do not delete or modify files unnecessarily, or intentionally slow down or crash a system." (Deicide p. 3) A statement similar to this one will be found in nearly any document you find about hacking. Movies and television create an image of hackers that is completely false in most cases. They show people breaking into a system in a matter of seconds and erasing the data to keep the bad guy or good guy from accessing it, which is not accurate. Many systems can take long hours or even days to get into. (Dissident p. 1)
             There are quite a few hackers who ruin systems and destroy files on other people's computers. The real hacking community usually shuns this type of hacker (or cracker as they are commonly called). Today they even have hacking conventions where hackers can share their latest creations with other hackers and also companies looking for safer methods to operate. The most famous of these, Defcon, is held in Las Vegas and is a giant gathering of hackers who trade ideas and programs with their fellow hackers, and to teach people who are just getting into hacking about how t...