Problems with the White Hat Hacking Discourse

"Juvenile" behavior is not limited to crackers. Hackers and hacker groups have fights. They will insult each other in public (like in Phrack where the editors wrote entire articles "ragging" on a person and were sarcastically replying to over a dozen letters per issue, on BBS message forums, or on IRC) disconnect a target’s phone service or stick them with a huge long distance bell (in the case of phreaks), or hack into their computer accounts with malicious intent. At conferences, hackers tend to wreck mild-havoc in the main hotel – setting off alarms, trying to hack into any hotel phone or computer systems, drinking large quantities of alcohol – including many under-age hackers, watching pornography, hiring strippers, etc. Also it is probable that some self-proclaimed "ethical" hackers have participated and profited from "unethical" behavior (perhaps the lower-key crime of using a calling card for free calls, though refraining the more serious crime of credit card fraud), but just never got caught and keep it a secret. So while there is an argument to be made for distinguishing between hackers and crackers, there are clearly times when the categories are inaccurate or when people transcend them.