With all of the negative press popping up all over the place about "hackers" and how malicious they are, I am doing some research into the terminology of "Hacker".

Ultimately, I am putting together a talk for various Cyber Security

events and both in person and online conferences.  I am looking a the term "hacker" and want to know why you do or do not consider yourself a hacker.

Questions like:

• Are you a Hacker?
  • What makes you a hacker?
• Where did you learn these hacking skills?
  • Books?
  • Conferences?
  • DarkWeb?
  • School?
  • After School?
• What Skills are they?
  • TCP/IP
  • Social Engineering
  • Application Penetration?
  • Network Penetration?
  • other?
• Do you share your hacking experiences?
  • Do you share your hacking tool sets?
  • Do you share your insight?
• Do you consider yourself a skilled or novice?
  • What level do you think you are at?
• Have you ever done anything malicious with these "hacking" skills?
  • Have you used your skills in a good way?

In my profession, I have had the opportunity to work with and talk with a huge amount of people within the industry, both white and black hats.  We all think that the term "hacker" is a catch all that is misused by the media.

The term "enthusiast" went out with the 80's decade, possibly sooner. 

So I'm looking for your input either with your name or anonymously.  I prefer anonymously because we all like to be mushrooms ;)

I'm not associated with any federal, state or local law enforcement organization, just looking to add to the talk with more information from a different perspective.

Thanks.

Email me at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or respond to this article with a more anonymous connection method.