noteworthy wrote:

“Many times the problems you see that you try to correct are not the root causes of the problem,” he said.

We could be talking about a lot of things, but in this case, this is the CIO for the US Customs Agency, and he is talking about a faulty NIC at LAX.

I'm really growing tired of the use of the word "hacker" in this context. I talk about computer security issues with industry and the press on nearly a daily basis and I never, ever use the word hacker. It is deeply misleading to use the word hacker when you mean to say "computer intruder" or "computer criminal."

I recently saw an FBI agent present on computer security issues and it was "hacker" this and "hacker" that for 20 odd minutes. I came very close to saying something to him about it. Its like saying "hippie" when you mean to say "drug trafficers." Eastern European payment card fraud rings and Southeast Asian industrial spies have as much to do with "hackers" as Columbian narcoterrorists have to do with "hippies." By using the word "hacker" instead of using the word "computer criminal" the FBI makes it sounds as if they aren't really focused on computer crime so much as they are focused on people whose politics they don't like.

I think there is a need here for a website, perhaps organized as a non-profit, with form letters that people can send news media organizations that use the word "hacker" in a context that has nothing to do with the computer subculture that word refers to, and which has the ultimately goal of getting the AP style guide modified to prohibit the use of the word hacker where "computer intruder" or "computer criminal" is more appropriate, and includes a lot of text explaining where Eric Raymond went wrong in attempting to resolve this previously.

RE: Who Needs Hackers?