When the public hears the term hacking, they often think of theft, defacement, crime, and other words associated with criminal activity. Nowadays this view is, in a certain sense, correct, but it is not entirely true. It's safe to say that quite a few hackers are bad, but that's because we're in the 21st century. We are the most technologically advanced generation to date. Good hackers do much more than the harm that some individuals commit. Hackers' vision has changed dramatically over time; hackers are now seen as criminals, but this is not always the case: many hackers are in fact harmless individuals trying to make a difference. The view of hacking has changed drastically over time. To fully understand why the change occurred, you need to explore the time period when the hacking originally began. “[Early hackers] were college students and employees – some as young as 12 – primarily at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and later at universities such as Stanford and Cornell” (Clemmitt 3). Steven Levy describes these individuals as “digital explorers” (Clemmitt 3). The actual term hacker was a slang derived from MIT in the 1960s, the term meant "computer nerd" (Clemmitt 3). Steven Levy stated that these “geniuses behind the scenes understood the machine at its deepest levels” (Clemmitt 3). As stated in the previous sentences, hacking began in the 1960s. Shortly thereafter, in 1972, "pioneering hacker John Draper [was] arrested for infiltrating AT&T's long-distance telephone system using a toy whistle found in Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes" ("Key Events" 1). Over time, hacking has become an increasingly common theme in everyday life and so the meaning of the term “hacking” has begun to change. As time went by...... half of the paper...... very world giving it 2 operating systems that changed everything. Works Cited Adams, Mark R. "Hacking Terminology." Documentation area. Network. December 9, 2011. Clemmitt, Marcia. “Computer hacking.” QC Researcher. CQ Researcher, 16 September 2011.Web. November 11, 2011. “Computer Hacking Terminology (Sidebar).” Issues and controversies on file: n. pag.Problems and controversies. Facts On File News Services, June 6, 2008. Web. December 5, 2011."Key Events in the History of Computer Hacking (Sidebar)." OnFile Problems and Disputes: n. page Problems and controversies. Facts On File News Services, June 6, 2008.Web. December 5, 2011.Scholes, Dan. “Kevin Mitnick: The Most Famous Hacker.” Webster University. Webster. Web.7 December 2011."The 10 most famous hackers of all time: IT security." IT Security: The Industry's Web Resource. Cyber ​​security. Network. 9 December. 2011.