A survey conducted at the Infosecurity Europe 2018 conference in London revealed that 70% of the attendees believe that Cambridge Dictionary needs to redefine the definition of “hacker.” Currently, the dictionary defines a hacker as conducting “illegal” online activities—which obviously could make white hat hackers roll their eyes and sigh. “One of the biggest misconceptions about digital crime is the view that hackers and cybercriminals are the same. Hackers are skilled individuals who are curious and enjoy challenges, while cybercriminals use the internet as a platform to commit crime. Hackers also play an important role in keeping the internet safe by leveraging their creativity and intelligence to find complex security flaws often missed by traditional methods. It is encouraging to see the perception of the broader security community shifting towards positivity,” a security researcher said. The poll merely would like Cambridge to remove the word “illegal” when describing all hackers. It would be a good start, anyway.
