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Hacking is the practice of exploiting flaws in computer hardware and software systems. It is commonly associated with cyber criminals, but the term has a more positive context as well. Ethical hackers often work in areas such as information security, bug hunting, and quality assurance testing.

The word hacker has taken on a pejorative connotation, but the negative definition was never the original intent. The word’s origin has been traced back to the members of MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club, who would alter their high-tech train sets in order to expand and test the limits of their functions. Later, the same mindset migrated to the world of computers, and early hackers who obsessively explored low-tech ways of getting around secure telecommunication networks and expensive long-distance telephone calls were called phreaks. This was the beginning of a subculture that eventually morphed into the computer security hacker subculture of today.

Some hackers have made a career out of hacking, with some famous examples including Jonathan James and Adrian Lamo. James was a teenage hacker who hacked into the systems of several organizations, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the New York Times, and was one of the first juvenile hackers to be incarcerated. Lamo gained notoriety for exposing software security flaws while he was a teenager, and was sentenced to prison as an adult in 2004.

Most hackers don’t break into systems for malicious reasons, but rather because they enjoy the challenge of finding a way to breach a system. They often experience a sense of pride in their accomplishments, and are more interested in the adrenaline rush of successfully cracking a system than they are in stealing or damaging data.