From what I know of hackers and whatnot, if you hack something you really shouldn't, they're already onto you. So I wouldn't worry too much, it's really up to the authorities to decide things like this.
Depends on if it's just hacking not cracking. Hacking is typically just poking around and looking. Cracking is malicious in intent. However, hacking can be seen as breaking into a house and just looking around. It depends on the circumstances. Hackers are benevolent in most cases and if they do break in, it's more about the challenge than trashing something. Still, it's kind of a fine line.
I think its important to make a distinction between hackers ( hardcore techs ) and idiot crackers ( eg script kiddies). I find crackers to be pathetic losers who need to use other peoples work to break computer security with malicious intent, not very clever people, normally kids who think its cool to "hack". Real hackers, and when i say that i mean software/ hardware experts that live and breath computers (eg Brian Kernighan or Dennis Ritchie ) and exceptionally clever people who deserve the handle of hackers, in the real tech sense of the word. Hakcers is just a word that caught on with joe public to descibe crackers. If you can write a programming language like C or help develop the original Unix kernel then you're a hacker my son and probably have more power than god when it comes to computers! I'm not even sure if its possible to hack with a Microsoft product! If he does he's an amateur and of no real threat to anybody............, besides himself. lol Oh, and this is my first post here so hi to everybody
Welcome to hardwareforums Tech_1709 :beer: Its good to know that there are other people that know the true definition of the word 'hacker'. There is quite a collection of skiddie tools available to crack from winblows, 90%+ of them where ported from Linux tho The only reason that i can think of for this is for the serious penetration testers (The guys that social engineer there way into there target and work they way into everything) as they might not always be able to carry there laptop around with them (and LiveCD's can be very slow!).... but yeah, anyway, windows 'hacker' = lame skiddie
Thanks for the welcome Impotence. Maybe i was a little insensitive with that remark but after using Linux it just seems a "professionals" system ( no insult intended to Windows users ) As for the original question, it depends what your friends motives are. Does your friend brag about being a hacker? If so, yes they should be arrested for being stupid enough to be telling people about their activities! I have no problem with educated crackers ( as long as they don't mess up the internet for us all ) its the "hack because its cool " brigade that makes me angry.
[OT] Your quite welcome Tech Having been using Linux for... [uhm, how long have i been using Linux?] ... When i have to use a windows box i find myself insulting everyone! [and cursing whoever installed it] [/OT]
