Outsider Hacker or Cracker

A hacker or cracker known as an outsider is not an employee of a company or government agency whose computer systems have been attacked.

The “outsider” personality profile is based primarily on crackers under age 30 who were caught and convicted on cracking-related crimes. As with insiders caught for computer crimes, outsider crackers have multidimensional rather than unidimensional motivational needs. For example, in a piece written in 1994, the infamous British “Prestel Hacker” Schifreen described the motivational factors of outsider hackers as being broad and existing in degrees of White Hat and Black Hat traits. These motivational factors included seizing the cracking opportunity available because of poor system controls as well as the cracker’s internal need for a challenge, to relieve boredom, to get revenge, or to satisfy greed.

See Also: Black Hats; Cracker; Hacker; Schifreen, Robert; White Hats or Ethical Hackers or Sumarai Hackers.