This comment breaks the site guidelines. They ask: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."
They also ask: "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."
This is part of a larger ethos of curiosity about how things work and building, modifying and demystifying tools used everyday; e.g hacker culture. I don’t think it is particularly fair to reduce skills like this, or frankly exploration of skills like this on private property, to one negative and narrow usecase.
My family recently moved and, during the move, our file cabinet was accidentally locked. The key was lost years ago. Being able to pick the lock came in handy. Not all skills that CAN be used for illegal purposes WILL be used for illegal purposes.
I was a cracker in my early to mid teens. Never malicious, just exploratory. Owned my HS network and college networks. Had a moment when I realized how much I was in for if I was caught, and then just walked away, cold Turkey. Do financial software engineering now. Only crack myself now.
just to add to what others pointed out. it's only criminal in its unlawful usesses. locksmith and pen testing are things. in these activities there is usually a understanding and knowledge of how the thing works.
They also ask: "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."
Please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow those rules when posting here, so we can all avoid boring flamewars.