Comment by Barrin92

>while computer hacker is more about cyberpunk "if I could do it, then it's allowed".

This was always a media caricature. If you go back to some of the cultural cornerstones especially when you're talking about technical work it's not that different, see Eric S. Raymond's What is a Hacker? http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

"If you want to be a cracker, go read the alt.2600 newsgroup and get ready to do five to ten in the slammer after finding out you aren't as smart as you think you are"

I blame Mitnick or random script kiddies for this image, when in fact your average hacker is a guy named Bob with an .edu address submitting kernel patches and emacs fixes