Is hacking legal

Answer 1

It really depends on how you are using the term.

Let me start out by saying that the general public has a tendency to use the term 'hacking' to mean breaking into someone else's computer systems without permission; and in that context than:

Most acts of computer hacking are illegal.

However, not all hacking into someone's computer is illegal - sometimes, companies hire professional security testers to purposely hack into their systems to determine how safe they are. This is known as penetration testing, also called "white-hat hacking" and "ethical hacking." While such activities are technically hacking, they are not illegal because the attackers have permission.

This doesn't mean that any hacking for which permission has been granted is legal, however. If someone gives you permission to hack their system, but they do not own the system or its network resources, it can be illegal.

Now; set aside the 'hacking into someone's computer' version of hacking and realize this: Engineers (programmers) who use the term hacking are often talking about something entirely different.

Hacking originally referred to anyone that added new code to a computer program, you were 'hacking into' what was there and improving it, adding to it, evolving it. Whether you were working as part of a team and hacking on your portion of the project or rewriting your own code and hacking in new ideas; the use of the term 'hacking' originally had nothing to do with any form of illegal activity.

In this context, most computer programmers considered themselves hackers, they all hack in new code and expand on what's there, it is how code is written.

So the reality is that hacking is just the concept of adding new code to something; which in theory is how all new programs are written. The act of hacking in and of itself is therefore not illegal at all.

It is only what you apply the hack to that can become illegal. Asking if hacking is legal or illegal is a bit like asking if a crowbar or a tool is illegal. Well no, a crowbar is not illegal and there are many legal uses for a crowbar. You can pry up boards and do perfectly legal things with a crowbar all day long. The moment you pry open someones door with it and steal from them, now you have a burglars tools and the crowbar is evidence in a crime.

The same thing happens with hacking. Is hacking illegal? not really, its just the process of hacking in new code and expanding a program. Engineering and programming are not illegal. We would have no computers and nothing to do on them if there was no hacking. The moment you use your skills to hack in a piece of code that does something bad to someone else in an illegal way; now you've done something illegal with your hacking tools.

Either way, the tool itself is not what is illegal whether that tools is a crowbar or hacking. It's what you do with it that is legal or illegal.

To the general public untrained in engineering terminology, the term 'hacking' has simply been misunderstood and most people automatically jump to the conclusion that you are talking about 'hacking something without permission'; which is simply an illegal misuse of the tool.

So yes, hacking actually is legal. Just like owning a crowbar is legal. They both have very legal uses. They can also be used to commit crimes, but than most tools or skills can be abused for illegal purposes if you really stop to think about it.