Hacker
Person who uses computers to access (‘hack’) systems they are not supposed to have access to, eg other people’s financial details, personnel files, military secrets etc. Hacking can get you arrested .
• Originally used to describe a computer enthusiast who pushed a system to its highest performance through clever programming. More commonly it is becoming synonymous with ‘cracker’ which is used to describe people who break into secured computer systems.
• An expert programmer who likes to spend a lot of time figuring out the finer details of computer systems or networks, as opposed to those who learn only the minimum necessary.
• A programmer or computer user who attempts illegal access to a computer system or network .
Longman Exams Dictionary / Ed. by Stephen Bullon. – Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2009. – 1949