Users of the Signal messaging app got hit by a hacker attack. We analyze what happened and why the attack demonstrates that Signal is reliable.
Users of the Signal messaging app got hit by a hacker attack. We analyze what happened and why the attack demonstrates that Signal is reliable.
Complaining about use of the word hacker is the tech nerd’s equivalent of complaining about clips vs magazines. It doesn’t matter and everyone understands it anyway, there is absolutely no reason to be bent out of shape by it except in situations where being specific and clear instead of generalising actually matters.
Gun nerds deserve being laughed at for getting upset over it and so do tech nerds.
People are allowed to ridicule me for nerding out my passion pompously, or any sort of perceived sincerity, for that matter.
I’ve always held that sincerity alone shouldn’t implicitly justify immunity from ridicule, but the ridicule tends to work better if it’s sincere in its own right.
What’s better is using it as a handy way to temper my own zealotry.
Complaining about people complaining does get old fast, however.
I disagree. The nuance between the words “hacker” and “cybercriminal” is so different that it should not even be contested. If you are a socialist, be critical and consistent. These nuances matter a lot. A hacker is not necessarily a criminal. And a criminal is not necessarily a hacker.
There is nobody reading an article from Kaspersky that does not already know the meaning.
Fair enough.
But probably those who made this attack were hackers, right? So “hit by a hacker attack” does not say that hackers are malicious, it’s just a way of saying that it was an attack made with computers (and not with, say, fighter jets).
I don’t think it’s inaccurate or generalizing (hackers are not necessarily cybercriminals, and cybercriminals are not necessarily hackers, but cybercriminal who attack a computer system with a hack are indeed hackers). It’s just a shortcut for “hit by an attack by cybercriminals who happen to be hackers, and used a skillset commonly attributed to hackers to execute their attack”.
If that makes sense :)