a cracker is a person who breaks/breaches the security of a system...
this is not confined to computer realm... terms like cracking the code and safe cracker illustrate that this term goes beyond just breaking into computer systems...
in the context of computers, the media has been doing it's best to replace this term with the more generic (and neutral) term hacker, probably to avoid using a word that also happens to be a racial slur (although they could have added a qualifier like the word safe in safe cracker)... as a result most people don't realize that when they say hacker they're really talking about a person such as this...
it could be argued, of course, that crackers are actually a specific type of hacker (one that solves a very particular type of computer related problem, and usually not for the benefit of the computer's owner) but most old-school hackers would find that characterization offensive...
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