Cambridge is told to put in a good word for hackers

CAMPAIGNERS are demanding the Cambridge Dictionary change its definition of hackers because it makes them out to be criminals.

A group of “compassionate hackers” has objected to Cambridge University Press describing a hacker as someone “skilled in the use of computer systems, often one who illegally obtains access to private computer systems”.

Hackerone, a cybersecurity company, which is calling on the oldest publishing house in the world to change the definition, often recruits these experts to expose and resolve vulnerabilities in online security.

Businesses such as Google, Twitter, Starbucks and Intel have also paid these hackers who say their aim is to “make the world a better place”.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about digital crime is the view that hackers and cybercriminals are the same,” said Laurie Mercer, security engineer at Hackerone.

“Hackers play an important role in keeping the internet safe.”

Around 70 per cent of world leaders in the cybersecurity industry believe the Cambridge Dictionary should update its definition of a hacker so the word “illegally” is removed, a poll by Hackerone found this month.

In the Oxford English Dictionary it states a hacker is someone who “gains unauthorised access to data”, but it diplomatically adds he or she could also be: “An enthusiastic and skilful computer programmer or user.”

Agroup who say they represent the “global hacker community” want the Cambridge Dictionary to change its definition of hacker. They say that part of it – “often one who illegally obtains access to private computer systems” – is a “negative” stereotype. This is a surprising reaction from people who pride themselves on their logical powers. They are wrong to think a dictionary’s function is to suggest what a word should mean. In fact dictionaries record words and what they do mean, or meant in the past. The earliest citation by the rival Oxford English Dictionary for hack (in the sense of “gaining unauthorised access or control over a computer system”) is from 1984, in The Daily

Telegraph, as it happens. Trust a newspaper hack (a word deriving from a Hackney horse) to know a computer hack (a word deriving from a chop).