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Published online 2 April 2008 | Nature 452, 514 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452514a
News in Brief: Sidelines
Sidelines
Scribbles on the margins of science.
GOING UP: Fingerprint hackers
GOING DOWN: Spiteful hackers
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Please note this is News in Brief, and so will be a short article.
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Please get the terms correct. A hacker is defined as anyone who goes at a problem with a passion. A cracker is a person who tries to break into computer systems for malicious intent. Many scientists are Hackers by nature (or nurture).
Please accept changes in word definitions due to common usage. Most English speakers treat the word "hacker" as having, among its meanings, one that refers to a person using computers to gain unintended access. In fact, this meaning has made it into the American Heritage Dictionary as definition 2 (the definition referring to a person passionate about any [non-computer-related] problem is, in this dictionary, definition 3).