Hacking by Solis Tech: How to Hack Computers, Basic Security and Penetration Testing (2014)

Chapter 15: Hacking as a Community and Collaborative Effort

Becoming a hacker means becoming a member of a community. It entails collaborating with other people, either to share or to obtain information and ideas. Each hacker generation had communities, mainly based on geography, which enabled them to share and collaborate. For instance, hackers at MIT developed a community within their labs, where they spent most of their time working on computers. The second-generation hackers (who were more on hacking hardware) and the third generation hackers (who were more into hacking games) were able to develop their own communities in the famous Silicon Valley. This was also home to the popular Homebrew Computer Club and People’s Computer Company, which produced big names in the technological world such as Bill Gates. There were also the labs like Bell, the one at MIT, UC Berkley, and LCS labs. These communities provided avenues where budding hackers were able to join networks, collaborate with others to improve their ideas, and eventually to get started on their own projects. This was where they found others that can help them improve or create certain portions of their projects that they find challenging to do on their own.

The numerous tech companies and software developers that changed the world mostly came from these communities. They were the movers and shakers of past decades that have set up many of the technological advances that the world enjoys today. Some of these are the more accessible and widely available Internet, hardware and software innovations such as smartphones, faster and more efficient gadgets, groundbreaking software that made life so much convenient and others.

Today, hackers still have a community and continue to collaborate. The difference is that these are no longer geographically limited. Before, hackers had to meet personally, such as in Silicon Valley. Today, anyone from anywhere in the world can work with others, even from thousands of miles away. Collaborations are mainly through communicating over the Internet.

Before, Internet access was limited to large universities, some governments and a few large corporations. This made collaborating cheaper and more sustainable by actually meeting in person, sharing and collaborating within a limited geographical location. With the advent of affordable Internet access, more and more people are able to join the community. The coverage of the hacking community has extended widely and has included more people from all walks of life, from all over the world.