Nevertheless, some readers may be interested in understanding or reviewing the original, pre-pundit, meaning of these terms, so I include a brief definition, history and discussion of them here. Understanding the Difference between Hackers and Crackers Hackers are individuals who have the will and the ability to explore new areas of computer science. Hackers, for instance, created Linux and Apache, two huge Open Source programming projects. The people the press writes about in the Denial of Service attacks are called crackers. A cracker is a computer user who spends long hours trying to compromise the security of various computer systems.
Hackers are, by definition, programmers.
Crackers are not necessarily programmers. A hacker may or may not be interested in security issues, but there is no such thing as a cracker who is not interested in computer security. A cracker is tending his trade when he or she spends hours on the phone trying to trick someone into giving them their password. A hacker would not be hacking if they spent long boring hours on the phone doing anything, let alone trying to perpetrate a fraud. A hacker might write a security system, but then again, he or she would be just as likely, in fact even more likely, to be writing a device driver, or an email protocol or some other piece of code.