Samurai (hacking)

A samurai is a hacker who hires out for legal cracking jobs, snooping for factions in corporate political fights, lawyers pursuing privacy-rights and First Amendment cases, and other parties with legitimate reasons to need an electronic locksmith.

In 1991, mainstream media reported the existence of a loose-knit culture of samurai that meets electronically on BBS systems, mostly bright teenagers with personal micros; they have modeled themselves explicitly on the historical samurai of Japan and on the “net cowboys” of William Gibson's cyberpunk novels. Those interviewed claim to adhere to a rigid ethic of loyalty to their employers and to disdain the vandalism and theft practiced by criminal crackers as beneath them and contrary to the hacker ethic; some quote Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, a classic of historical samurai doctrine, in support of these principles.

See also

• sneaker
• Stupids
• social engineering
• cracker
• hacker ethic
• dark-side hacker

Reference

• Original text from the on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.4.2, 22 May 2003