I hate the word hacker. There has to be a better word. I just don’t know what it is.
When someone says they’re a hacker, it could mean nearly anything. Are they tinkering with electronics? Reverse engineering software? Pentesting? Physical security? Social engineering? Blue team? Red team? Purple team? Cheating in video games? Writing ransomware? OSINT?
Some people hear it and assume you’re a tinkerer. Others assume you work in infosec. Depending on the context, they might assume you’re a script kiddie trying to seem cool. Ask the majority of the general public, they assume you’re trying to steal their data.
In the age of ransomware and data leaks, the word alone scares people. This is a communication problem. People fear the unknown, and “hacker” is a big unknown. We see this clearly as hotels refuse to host DEF CON and search rooms during hacker cons because they’re worried about ransomware.
So then, what am I? I tinker with hardware, take things apart to figure out how they work, pick locks and write (usually bad) software. For now, I’ll go with “tinkerer”, but I don’t love it. Surely theres something better.
This was originally a rant I posted on Discord but I figured I might as well post it here too.