Users of the Signal messaging app got hit by a hacker attack. We analyze what happened and why the attack demonstrates that Signal is reliable.
Users of the Signal messaging app got hit by a hacker attack. We analyze what happened and why the attack demonstrates that Signal is reliable.
First, I did not make the title, I just linked an article.
Second, I get that you wish people did not use the word “hacker” the way they do, but… isn’t it how natural languages work? Words mean what people them for. I wish “crypto” did not mean “cryptocurrencies”, butibn many contexts it does. That’s life.
Talking about clickbaits, what about linking to your blog everywhere you can? It’s completely off topic (the link is about Signal, your blog is about how people misuse a word according to you), but nobody complains, because apparently you thought it was relevant, just like the author thought that calling them “hackers” was fine.
Great. No need to take stuff personally. But since you did: one thing you could have done is to replace “hackers” with “[malicious actors]” (yes, in square brackets, to signify modification).
I linked to the specific entry on my blog, because I expected that exact type of response. I give pretty specific arguments why I find the abuse of the word “hacker” problematic. And not just from the perspective of hackers (i.e. tinkerers, techies, etc) themselves, but also from the broader perspective of being able to have informed public debate about information security.
You are using the same argument that has been used against Black activists trying to reclaim the N-word, and against LGBTQ+ activists who tried to reclaim the F-word. And you know what? They both succeeded.
So there’s that.
So you’re saying that a “black hat hacker” cannot exist, because by definition a hacker is not a malicious actor. So everyone who is using the word “blackhat” is disrespectful towards those who identify as “hackers”, as much as using the N-word or F-word is disrespectful towards the respective communities. Am I getting that right?
I never said that. I said:
Many of these cybercriminals, attackers, and malicious agents are, in fact, hackers. They are also techies. Would it make sense to say “Signal got hit by a techies’ attack”? No, obviously not — one chooses the most specific term that fits in the context. But “hacker” is not that in this particular case.
If a bank is robbed and it just so happens that every single member of the robbers’ team happens to be a driver, would you write “Bank robbed by drivers”? Or, to be even closer to the absurdity in that article, “Bank driven by drivers”? No, that would be silly. You would write instead: “Bank robbed by robbers”.
So instead of writing “Signal hacked by hackers” it really makes way more sense (and happens to also be more informative) to write “Signal attacked by state-sponsored attackers”, or whatever the specific case might be.
No, but I would agree that people who knowingly misuse the word “hacker” when they mean “attacker”, etc., are disrespectful to the amazing, creative, inventive and inspiring people who often identify themselves as “hackers”. Come to a hacker con or camp one day and maybe you’ll get it.
No, you are clearly arguing in bad faith, trying to put in my mouth something I did not say. And you know it very well.
Pretty sure it was “Signal attacked by hackers”, but I get your point about “Signal hacked by hackers”, though I don’t think this would be worth an entire blog post :-).
On the contrary, I am trying to reformulate what I understood, so that you can confirm (or not) that I got your point. Don’t assume that people who disagree with you are in bad faith, and you’ll generally have a better experience communicating.
Anyway, that’s not constructive, let’s stop here.
Complaining about use of the word hacker is the tech nerd’s equivalent of complaining about clips vs magazines. It doesn’t matter and everyone understands it anyway, there is absolutely no reason to be bent out of shape by it except in situations where being specific and clear instead of generalising actually matters.
Gun nerds deserve being laughed at for getting upset over it and so do tech nerds.
I disagree. The nuance between the words “hacker” and “cybercriminal” is so different that it should not even be contested. If you are a socialist, be critical and consistent. These nuances matter a lot. A hacker is not necessarily a criminal. And a criminal is not necessarily a hacker.
There is nobody reading an article from Kaspersky that does not already know the meaning.
Fair enough.
But probably those who made this attack were hackers, right? So “hit by a hacker attack” does not say that hackers are malicious, it’s just a way of saying that it was an attack made with computers (and not with, say, fighter jets).
I don’t think it’s inaccurate or generalizing (hackers are not necessarily cybercriminals, and cybercriminals are not necessarily hackers, but cybercriminal who attack a computer system with a hack are indeed hackers). It’s just a shortcut for “hit by an attack by cybercriminals who happen to be hackers, and used a skillset commonly attributed to hackers to execute their attack”.
If that makes sense :)