Nowadays, different people have different views on the hacking scene. Often times people of similar skill level have similar opinions. There is no official definition of a hacker, rather a vague idea amongst the masses. In addition, the media loves to add false information to draw audiences' attention across the nation, for the pure sake of money.

It all began in the 1960s at MIT, origin of the term "hacker", where extremely skilled individuals practiced hardcore programming in FORTRAN and other older languages. Some may ignorantly dub them "nerds" or "geeks" but these individuals were, by far, the most intelligent, individual, and intellectually advanced people who happen to be the pioneers and forefathers of the talented individuals that are today the true hackers. The true hackers amongst our societies have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Boredom is never an object of challenge for hackers. They have an almost anomalous ability to absorb, retain, and exert vast amounts of knowledge with regard to intricate details. In 1969, Bell Labs employee Ken Thompson invented UNIX and permanently changed the future of the computer industry. Then in the very early 1970s, Dennis Ritchie invented the computer programming language "C" which was specifically invented to be used with UNIX. Programmers ceased to use assembler, while developing an appreciation for the portability of "C."


Hackers used to be viewed as people who sat locked in a room all day programming nonstop, hours on end. No one seemed to mind hackers back in the 1960s when this was the most widely excepted reputation. In fact, most people had no idea what hacking was. The term hacker was accepted as a positive label slapped onto computer gurus who could push computer systems beyond the defined limits. Hackers emerged out of the artificial intelligence labs at MIT in the 1960s. A network known as ARPANET was founded by the Department of Defense as a means to link government offices. In time, ARPANET evolved into what is today known as the Internet.

In the 1970s, "Captain Crunch" devised a way to make free long distance calls and groups of phone hackers, later dubbed "phreakers" emerged. Throughout the 1970s and halfway into the 1980s, XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) spit out fresh new innovations such as the laser printer and LANs.