Signs of the Times Hacking has definitely changed in the last 40 years. Talk to any hacker over 25, and he's likely to lament the passing of the good old days, when coding was an art form and learning how systems worked was an exercise in persistence. New hackers today are often younger and less skilled than their predecessors, and more likely to focus on showy exploits than the noble pursuit of knowledge, say older hackers. Ten years ago, he says, hackers respected information and machines, and had to possess knowledge and skills to hack. Now novices use hacking programs without understanding them and are more likely to leave havoc in their wake.
Script kiddies receive the bulk of hacker disdain.
The risk here is that an unskilled hacker could release wanton mayhem in your systems. The hacker might download a buggy hacking tool to your network that goes awry, or execute a wrong command and inadvertently damage your machines. But script kiddies tend to disappear after a year, says William Knowles of security training firm New Dimensions International.