Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cs.utexas.edu!sm.unisys.com!csun!lkw
From: lkw@csun.edu (Larry Wake)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Security checkup
Message-ID: <1583@csun.edu>
Date: 7 Oct 88 16:38:11 GMT
References: <167@carpet.WLK.COM> <1454@lznv.ATT.COM> <1834@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <307@mccc.UUCP> <2985@mipos3.intel.com>
Reply-To: lkw@csun.edu (Larry Wake)
Distribution: na
Organization: California State University, Northridge
Lines: 32

The call has gone out to promote a new term for "the media" to use when
referring to system intruders.  Most of the traditional names have
various drawbacks:

hacker:     Besides being a once-honorable term for those who grind,
	    the general public already uses this word to refer to
	    golfers.  Even with their similar taste in clothes, it's
	    still easy to distinguish the two groups, as golf typically
	    involves spending at least brief periods of time outdoors.
	    Also, for silly plastic clothing accessories, golfers prefer
	    green plastic eyeshades to pocket protectors.

cracker:    Really only accurate if they're breaking into systems at the
	    Bank of Atlanta or BellSouth.

syscrack:   Bleah.  Do *you* really want to say this?  It's at least as
	    bad as "sysadmin" or "sysop."

asshole:    Satisfying, yes.  Accurate, yes.  But it won't get you
	    quoted in Newsweek or USA Today (aka "McPaper" or "My Daily
	    Reader").  If you're looking to get published in the latter
	    paper, you should instead provide a cute line drawing of a
	    stick figure with devil's horns placing a bundle of
	    dynamite sticks under a tape drive or a card sorter.

I'm holding out for "bad guy," a la Morris and Thompson.  It's accurate,
pithy, yet obscure enough to sound like real computeroid jargon.
-- 
Larry Wake                   		 lkw@csun.edu
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