The term “hacking” has become one of those words today that are often frowned upon by people who occasionally have no idea what it involves. This homogenization of the signification of this term to the point of making it derogatory is possibly due to the fact that a number of cases of so-called “hacking computers” have been made known to the public via mass media as an act of violation, often explicitly dubbed as illegal.

The association of the word “hacking” with what one might call “cyber terrorism” in the age of the World Wide Web has led to this term being recognized as derogatory by most individuals. The very fact that it is an unauthorized means of access, along with all the legal implications attached, has endowed the idea of hacking computers as an act paralleling unlawful entry that can be legally persecuted. It must be remembered, however, that the term that is accurately applicable for such an act is “cracking”.

A side effect of this kind of signification has led to the confusion of the actual nature of the act as one that is potentially harmful. In reality, hacking computers is not essentially harmful. In other words, the very act of hacking may not be a direct source of potential harm to the user whose computer is being hacked. On the other hand, the act of hacking does expose a computer to other sources of harm.

Illustrating the above statement, a hacker merely opens a back door to another user’s computer with or without one’s consent. The actions that may be performed after the hacking has been completed may not necessarily be harmful. On the other hand, the hacker may also harbor hazardous intentions like accessing private data like credit card information, for example. Moreover, hacking computers allows a hacker to transfer harmful applications (viruses, trojans and spyware, for example) into the hacked computer.

Hacking computers (or more accurately, cracking) is done via several methods. A number of these methods employ the use of what is commonly known as a “backdoor program”. This program is an application that has to be placed in the computer to be hacked into, and opens the gateway for the hacker through the local area network or Internet connection.

However, not all methods of hacking computers require the use of such a program. An example is the NetBIOS hack. The worst thing about this kind of hack is that it is performed merely through a bug in operating systems like Windows 9x, and can be deployed over the Internet.

Leaving out this “popular” notion of hacking computers, it is astounding to note that the individuals formally called “hackers” are really academic geniuses excelling in the coding procedure. Sadly, due to a constriction in the meaning of the word, “hacking” has become close to being acknowledged as an essentially criminal act.