Practical applicability of the values of the hacker ethic

Analysis of the values of the hacker ethic

Today, there are many hacker gangs or lone hackers who are doing what many cybersecurity model builders think is impossible to do. In this blog post, we will understand what drives hackers and what their values are. 

Let’s start with a passion that is fundamentally one of the hacker’s values. Hackers are so-called cyber geniuses and the latter are, as a rule, always obsessed with their research. They drive by the brain mixed with great enthusiasm and a desire to explore, create and adapt, and this combination is perhaps quite insane, but it is also really effective. Hackers have a huge passion for what they do. For them, their work is far from just a job. 

Moving on to the second hacker’s value - freedom. If a person is limited in something, that is, if boundaries are set and a number of conditions are provided, then the result will also be limited. Personally, I think that freedom is the main value of hackers. They do not have a work schedule assigned to them by strangers, no tasks set in the frame and no time limit. In other words, they are in control of their work.

In terms of hackers' work ethic, there is the concept of “monastery and academy” with which I fully agree. Any rules are a limitation for any person and can suppress his true abilities. This is unacceptable for hackers who need freedom in all its forms, that is, their side is the “academy”.

Hackers do not exactly live one day, quite the contrary, they carefully think over their future and their actions. This also applies to one of their values, to money ethic. They are not just looking for high financial rewards, but rather they are looking to get it in order to get even more financial rewards later. Or is there another side to this value? Geniuses always want to be known in person by as many people as possible, in other words, they need fame. That is why they can sacrifice financial well-being in favour of omnipresence. This also applies to hackers, they can prioritize distribution among people.

The next hacker’s value is network ethics. As mentioned earlier, hackers have no limits, and the same goes for networks. For hackers, there is no concept of censorship and they all promote freedom of speech. Hackers think critically and challenge the status quo.

Let's move on to care, another value of hackers, which is justifiably their value. The hacker is really so “carried away” by his work that every time the concept of ethics is forgotten more and more.

Hackers are creators and the value in the form of creativity among hackers can be considered equivalent to freedom. To be more precise, here I am talking about the freedom of thoughts, and ideas and bringing them into reality. Hackers have no limits when creating their inventions and even if there were, then they would still not follow them.

In the end, after analyzing the hacker values of this century, I can say that these values can be reduced to freedom in choice, actions, expressions, etc., that is, freedom is everything. No rules, no prohibitions, no limits. That's what hackers are guided by today.