[IsaacSchlueter]

"Hacker" is a bit like the term "witch" in the Wizard of Oz.

"Are you a good hacker, or a bad hacker?"

The techniques and thinking styles are the same, either way.

[brlewis]

Decades ago to crack into a computer you needed to be a hacker, since computers were all different. Today we have "script kiddies" who most definitely aren't hackers, but are crackers.

I don't think there's a script-kiddie equivalent for phone systems.

[byrneseyeview]

I thought the original hackers were almost exclusively using AT&T's system.

[blogimus]

Considering that Ma Bell was a monopoly until 1984, I'd agree.

To paraphrase John Draper (aka Captain Crunch), "A system is a system, whether a phone network or a computer."