“Hacker” has acquired a less admirable meaning, of course, having acquired the taint of what we used to call “crackers,” as in safe crackers, people not allowed to get at what’s in the safe but who get in anyway. It is a chaotic world involving everyone from cryptocurrency tinkerers to bank thieves; from hackers working for hostile nation states to ones stealing data for espionage and ransom; to those seen as ethical hackers, who want to reveal the wrongdoings of anyone”