Sure enough, later that year, a group of teenagers cracked the computer systems of major organizations like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Security Pacific Bank, and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Two years later, two movies, Tron and WarGames, were released, in which the lead characters set about hacking into computer systems, which introduced the concept of hacking to a wide audience and as a potential national security risk. An article in a 1980 edition of Psychology Today ran the headline “The Hacker Papers” in an exploration of computer usage's addictive nature.

Hacking first appeared as a term in the 1970s but became more popular through the next decade. It is a multibillion-dollar industry with extremely sophisticated and successful techniques.

They are also highly skilled in creating attack vectors that trick users into opening malicious attachments or links and freely giving up their sensitive personal data.Īs a result, modern-day hacking involves far more than just an angry kid in their bedroom. Hackers are increasingly growing in sophistication, using stealthy attack methods designed to go completely unnoticed by cybersecurity software and IT teams. But this narrow view does not cover the true technical nature of hacking. Hacking in cyber security refers to the misuse of devices like computers, smartphones, tablets, and networks to cause damage to or corrupt systems, gather information on users, steal data and documents, or disrupt data-related activity.Ī traditional view of hackers is a lone rogue programmer who is highly skilled in coding and modifying computer software and hardware systems. Hacking is not always a malicious act, but it is most commonly associated with illegal activity and data theft by cyber criminals.īut what is hacking in a cyber security context? A commonly used hacking definition is the act of compromising digital devices and networks through unauthorized access to an account or computer system.

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