91Èȱ¬

Before 1983 it's probably fair to say that most people in the UK had not even heard of the term 'hacking', and that if they had, it was probably in relation to country pursuits and horses galloping down leafy country lanes. By the early 80s though, personal computers such as the ZX Spectrum had made their way into many UK homes allowing some brave pioneers to take their first tentative steps into an exciting online future.

The modems available, such as the , were fairly rudimentary with data travelling back and forth at around 1200 baud (a paltry 1.20 Kbps in modern terms), and the wondrous glories of the World Wide Web were still some years away. But connect you could, via the to the Post Office's Prestel system, a very early online portal.

And then, in 1983, along came Hollywood starlets Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy and changed the world forever. Not a phrase you hear every day admittedly, but the film brought to mass attention the phenomenon of 'hacking'. In an instant the modem was noÌý longer a friendly piece of gadgetry that allowed computer users to connect with others all around the world and discuss the latest Duran Duran single. It was suddenly a sinister instrument of intrigue and subterfuge that, with a few random taps from a geeky teenager at a keyboard, could launch a thousand nuclear missiles towards Russia and ensure the end of the world within a matter of hours.

Thirty years on and hacking is still a dirty word, but what exactly does it now mean? Hacking is essentially the illegal and unsolicited accessing of computers and other devices. Motivations for doing this vary. While profiting from hacking is certainly possible, many groups of hackers such as LulzSec or Anonymous tend to use their nefarious skills to protest and make information public that organisations would rather remain secret.

Hackers seem to make the headlines more than ever these days, and we are now aware that even our own mobile phones can be successfully broken into and 'hacked' for information. But not even the newspapers responsible for hacking are immune from attacks, as a recent story about the Sun's website demonstrated.

So is there such a thing as a 'good hacker'? Well, yes, as in addition to horse-riding, the term 'hacker' is also used to refer to who spend their time modifying and rebuilding various old and redundant technologies in order to make new devices. So if attacking electrical circuits with a soldering iron in the confines of a shed or fiddling with flashing LEDs and resistors is your thing, then don't be surprised if your harmless hobby sees you labelled a hacker too. In a nice way.

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Brett is a Content Producer for 91Èȱ¬ WebWise, and has been creating web content for the 91Èȱ¬ for ten years. He loves fine ale and vintage wine, cathedrals, music of all genres and classic British comedy, and has a huge collection of rare vinyl records, only some of which are terrible.