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Use the Source/Elite Hackers

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Try to go back to the origins of the names for as many common hacking terms; things like hacking, cracking, phreaking, l33t speak and the like.

Hackers versus Crackers

The quick run-down:

  1. most hackers have university level training in computer sciences while crackers are largely untrained in any formal environment - predominately self-taught or peer reviewed.
  2. crackers are viewed as pests by hackers while hackers are ignored or mocked by crackers
  3. hackers build things while crackers break things (as in security)
  4. Phreakers (a.k.a. phreaks), Phreaking - Phone intercepts, phone cracking, gaining control over phone networks.

Script Kitties

Script Kids, 'kiddies', or "kitties", use premade scripts in order to do as much damage as possible, these scripts are typically made by crackers so as to expand the amount of damage they do, without having to go to the work of actually cracking machines themselves.

Data Mining, (Ro)Bots: Some scripts -'Bots', replicate themselves, seek out specific information or data, copy it, and forward that information to a captive storage space on computers that have been previously taken over by the script kiddies ('owned', or 'Bot'ed', systems).

Sometimes involved in DataMining (a database search for keywords, email addresses), the 'bots' can reside in the "background' in a compromised computer, logging keystrokes, or collecting data, and forwarding it, until that computer is thoroughly cleaned of the bots by a knowledgeable technician.