Too many great hackers have left this world, while a brilliant new generation is growing up inside a very different hacker culture. Before LinkedIn profiles, job titles, and cybersecurity became an industry, many of us knew each other only by a handle. Mine were pewp and speed_phreak.
We didn't know what someone looked like, where they came from, what religion they followed, or what colour their skin was. But we knew what they had built, broken, discovered, or shared.
We shared common rules, a philosophy, a way of thinking, and above all the need to question the bits and the bytes.
The early hacker community had no real borders. It was global, and it still amazes me that even 30 to 40 years later, some of those hackers are among my closest friends.
Of course we argued, we competed, we challenged each other, and sometimes things got chaotic. But we also taught each other, shared knowledge, and built friendships that crossed countries, cultures, and backgrounds. My career would never have been what it is without hackers in my life.
We were hackers. We will always be hacking.
Not because hacking is about destroying things, but because hacking is about refusing to accept that something cannot be understood, questioned, improved, or changed.
That mindset helped build the security industry we have today. But as cybersecurity becomes ever more corporate, polished, and automated, we cannot forget where we came from. We have to preserve the stories, the culture, the mistakes, the friendships, and the people behind the handles.
Never stop being curious.
Never stop questioning systems.
Never forget where we came from.
We were hackers. We are hackers. We will always be hacking.
