65 Hacker Quotes About Technological Pirates

These hacker quotes are from some skilled hackers and those security and defense professionals that try and protect us from hackers.

With the rise of technology came a new term: hackers.

What exactly is a hacker though?

Well, a hacker is a person who uses a computer, networking, or other technical skills to overcome a technical problem.

‘Hacker’ was first used in the 1960s to describe a programmer that could use their knowledge to increase the efficiency of computer code.

They would remove, or hack, excess machine code instructions from a program.

However, most people, when they hear the word hacker think of someone who uses their abilities to infiltrate systems or networks for nefarious purposes.

Just like the term itself is diverse, sometimes referring to individuals who exhibit a high degree of skill, and sometimes to individuals who use this skill for illegal or unethical purposes; so are these hacker quotes!

In fact, we have hacker quotes from the founder of anti-virus software McAfee and convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick.

Don’t forget to also check out these technology quotes that will advance your life.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

If you want more motivational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Hacker quotes from John McAfee and Kevin Mitnick

1. “Social engineering has become about 75% of an average hacker’s toolkit, and for the most successful hackers, it reaches 90% or more.” ― John McAfee

2. “Hackers rarely have full knowledge of the technology stack of a target.” ― John McAfee

3. “I think the thing that our government lacks – just about more than anything else – is technological competence. We have some of the greatest white-hat hackers in the world here in the U.S., but the government seems to be technologically illiterate.” ― John McAfee

4. “Hackers are breaking the systems for profit. Before, it was about intellectual curiosity and pursuit of knowledge and thrill, and now hacking is big business.” ― Kevin Mitnick

5. “Should we fear hackers? Intention is at the heart of this discussion.” ― Kevin Mitnick

6. “New security loopholes are constantly popping up because of wireless networking. The cat-and-mouse game between hackers and system administrators is still in full swing.” ― Kevin Mitnick

7. “Hackers are becoming more sophisticated in conjuring up new ways to hijack your system by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or human nature. Don’t become the next victim of unscrupulous cyberspace intruders.” ― Kevin Mitnick

8. “Garbage can provide important details for hackers: names, telephone numbers, a company’s internal jargon.” ― Kevin Mitnick

9. “If hackers, if anyone committing a criminal act, wants to reduce their risk, they obviously don’t involve anybody else. The greater the circle of people that know what you’re doing, the higher the risk.” ― Kevin Mitnick

10. “Are hackers a threat? The degree of threat presented by any conduct, whether legal or illegal, depends on the actions and intent of the individual and the harm they cause.” ― Kevin Mitnick

Hacker quotes from authors and journalists

11. “We fear hackers lifting our digital wallet, a public accounting of our private lives, and we wonder if the shoes that follow us around the Internet will someday, with the click of a distant mouse, look like the jackboots of old.” ― Richard Cohen

12. “Everything about Mark Zuckerberg is pure hacker. Hackers don’t take realities of the world for granted; they seek to break and rebuild what they don’t like. They seek to outsmart the world.” ― Sarah Lacy

13. “When hackers have access to powerful computers that use brute force hacking, they can crack almost any password; even one user with insecure access being successfully hacked can result in a major breach.” ― Toomas Hendrik Ilves

14. “Hackers often describe what they do as playfully creative problem-solving.” ― Heather Brooke

15. “Younger hackers are hard to classify. They’re probably just as diverse as the old hackers are. We’re all over the map.” ― Larry Wall

16. “What fashion has started from hackers? They have bad posture, and they don’t go out. I wish I had a hacker boyfriend – they stay at home up in the bedroom.” ― John Waters

17. “In the aftermath of the oh-so-predictable crash, the Bitcoin fanatics have begun marshaling out excuse after excuse for why this non-investment investment lost so much of its value so fast. One was that hackers attacked some of the exchanges for Bitcoins and crippled it. Really? A hacker can wreck an entire market?” ― Kurt Eichenwald

18. “Virality is not an accident. It is engineered. And that’s why growth hackers beat traditional marketers.” ― Ryan Holiday

19. “It’s no surprise that hackers working for North Korea, Iran’s mullahs, Vladimir V. Putin in Russia, and the People’s Liberation Army of China have all learned that the great advantage of cyberweapons is that they are the opposite of a nuke: hard to detect, easy to deny, and increasingly finely targeted.” ― David E. Sanger

20. “Berkeley hackers liked to see themselves as rebels against soulless corporate empires.” ― Eric S. Raymond

21. “As economic life relies more and more on the Internet, the potential for small bands of hackers to launch devastating attacks on the world economy is growing.” ― Evgeny Morozov

22. “In the epic war over Silicon Valley’s intellectual property, Bill Gates was on the side of licensing copyright and robust protections for intellectual property. He wasn’t on the side of the hackers, and he didn’t want information to be free.” ― Franklin Foer

Hacker quotes from defense and security experts

23. “Computer hackers do not need to know each other’s real names, or even live on the same continent, to steal millions in mere hours.” ― Robert Mueller

24. “They seek our state secrets, our trade secrets, our technology, and our ideas – things of incredible value to all of us. They seek to strike our critical infrastructure and to harm our economy.” ― James Comey

25. “An element of virtually every national security threat and crime problem the FBI faces is cyber-based or facilitated. We face sophisticated cyber threats from state-sponsored hackers, hackers for hire, organized cyber syndicates, and terrorists.” ― James Comey

26. “I’m a hacker, but I’m the good kind of hacker. And I’ve never been a criminal.” ― Mikko Hypponen

27. “While many hackers have the knowledge, skills, and tools to attack computer systems, they generally lack the motivation to cause violence or severe economic or social harm.” ― Dorothy Denning

28. “While the vast majority of hackers may be disinclined towards violence, it would only take a few to turn cyber terrorism into reality.” ― Dorothy Denning

Hacker quotes from professionals, entrepreneurs, and politicians

29. “Very smart people are often tricked by hackers, by phishing. I don’t exclude myself from that. It’s about being smarter than a hacker. Not about being smart.” ― Harper Reed

30. “One of my favorite books about hackers is ‘Masters of Deception’ about this hacking group in the 1990s. Many of them didn’t come from wealthy families. These are kids that are very intelligent; they just happen to be misdirected.” ― Harper Reed

31. “If you wanna know how not secure you are, just take a look around. Nothing’s secure. Nothing’s safe. I don’t hate technology, I don’t hate hackers, because that’s just what comes with it, without those hackers, we wouldn’t solve the problems we need to solve, especially security.” ― Fred Durst

32. “Hackers are seen as shadowy figures with superhuman powers that threaten civilization.” ― Mitch Kapor

33. “See, unlike most hackers, I get little joy out of figuring out how to install the latest toy.” ― Jamie Zawinski

34. “I really didn’t understand why hackers would want to hack into a classroom. Are they going to learn algebra? Maybe calculus?” ― Eric Yuan

35. “The one thing that I know from the personal experiences that I’ve had with hackers and from people in tech who are brilliant at this thing, is there’s a lot of angst.” ― Sam Esmail

36. “The big exchanges that hold customer deposits are a big target for hackers, and unfortunately, most bitcoin exchanges store user funds.” ― Erik Voorhees

37. “If Wikileaks didn’t resolve that question for folks – at the end of the day, there are no secrets. We’re living in a glass neighborhood, in a fishbowl, and technology, white hat hackers, the folks that are doing the right thing with hacking.” ― Gavin Newsom

Hacker quotes from famous hackers

38. “Human Stupidity, that’s why Hackers always win.” ― Med Amine Khelifi

39. “It’s less about technology for me, and more about religion. [on hacking]” ― Adrian Lamo

40. “As a matter of fact, yeah, they were foolproof. The problem is that you don’t have to protect yourself against fools. You have to protect yourself against people like me.” ― Jeffery Deaver

41. “We worried for decades about WMDs – Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now it is time to worry about a new kind of WMDs – Weapons of Mass Disruption.” ― John Mariotti

42. “What hackers do is figure out technology and experiment with it in ways many people never imagined. They also have a strong desire to share this information with others and to explain it to people whose only qualification may be the desire to learn.” ― Emmanuel Goldstein

43. “Most hackers are young because young people tend to be adaptable. As long as you remain adaptable, you can always be a good hacker.” ― Emmanuel Goldstein

44. “There are few sources of energy so powerful as a procrastinating college student.” ― Paul Graham

45. “Never tell everything you know…” ― Roger H. Lincoln

Hacker quotes on what makes them tick

46. “Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor.” – Cory Doctorow

47. “No one messes around with a nerd’s computer and escapes unscathed.” – E.A. Bucchianeri

48. “The key to social engineering is influencing a person to do something that allows the hacker to gain access to information or your network.” – Kevin Mitnick

49. “At the end of the day, my goal was to be the best hacker.” – Kevin Mitnick

50. “A critical factor in its success was that the X developers were willing to give the sources away for free in accordance with the hacker ethic, and able to distribute them over the Internet.” – Eric S. Raymond

51. “Bitcoin is here to stay. There would be a hacker uproar to anyone who attempted to take credit for the patent of cryptocurrency. And I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of hacker fury.” – Adam Draper

52. “I’m a really good hacker, but I’m not a sensible person.” – Richard D. James

53. “I’m still a hacker. I get paid for it now. I never received any monetary gain from the hacking I did before. The main difference in what I do now compared to what I did then is that I now do it with authorization.” – Kevin Mitnick

54. “I was interested in computer programming as a kid. In fact, during my college days, I used to be a hacker.” – Vatsal Sheth

55. “If you’re a juvenile delinquent today, you’re a hacker. You live in your parent’s house; they haven’t seen you for two months. They put food outside your door, and you’re shutting down a government of a foreign country from your computer.” – John Waters

Hacker Quotes About Being Knowledgeable

56. “Being a hacker does not say what side you are on. Being a hacker means you know how things actually work and can manipulate the way things actually work for good or for harm.” — Dan K

57. “Hackers are people, right? They really are; you know they mow lawns! What’s a hacker documentary? It’s a guy doing his laundry.” — Flea

58. “I look like a geek hacker, but I don’t know anything about computers.” — Justin Long

59. “Humiliation is the favorite currency of the hacker.” — Sherlock Holmes

60. “I’m a bit of a hacker fanatic and know a fair bit about that industry and cyber crime and cyber warfare.” — Seth Gordon

61. “My friend’s a computer hacker / But in school everybody said he was a slacker / He writes science fiction novels / He builds whole towns and villages from cola bottles.” — Michael Raphael and James Elliot Bourne

62. “The hacker didn’t succeed through sophistication. Rather he poked at obvious places, trying to enter through unlocked doors. Persistence, not wizardry, let him through.” — Clifford Stoll

63. “As the world becomes more digitized, there are more entry points for hackers.” — Michael Demon Calce

64. “Hackers. We inherently trust no one, including each other. I’ll never be able to tell her there will always be this divide, my walls she can’t look over… and she knows it.” — Elliot Alderson

65. “A hacker does not deliberately destroy data or profit from his activities.” — Kevin Mitnick

What did you learn from these Hacker quotes?

With the rise of the hacker, also came to the organization Annonymous.

The decentralized international activist/hacktivist collective is known for its various cyberattacks.

They leverage these attacks against several governments, institutions, and agencies.

They attack wealthy corporations and even the Church of Scientology.

Their motto is, “We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” 

People either love them or hate them.

Supporters of the group have called them “freedom fighters.”

They have even been referred to as digital Robin Hoods.

Other’s meanwhile see them as criminals, because let’s face it, they commit crimes!

Critics have described them as “a cyber lynch-mob” or “cyber terrorists.”

Do you have a favorite hacker quote or saying you would like to share?

Leave it for us in the comment section below.