hackint

(HAK.int)

n.

Secret information, especially of a military or political nature, obtained by breaking into a computer system.

Example Citation:

Hackint

Hacking Intelligence — information that has been obtained by hacking into a computer system and used for military purposes.

— "Web speak," The Daily Telegraph, October 25, 2001

Earliest Citation:

According to a US presidential commission, the global population with the computer skills required for Hackint operations and other forms of cyber-attack against important Western targets has grown from a few thousand 20 years ago to about 19 million today.

— Christopher Andrew, "Counsel of war," The Times of London, October 4, 2001

Notes:

Today's word combines hacking, "accessing a computer system or network without authorization," and intelligence, "secret information about the capabilities, plans, or activities of a government, military force, or business." This is a twenty-first century variation on old espionage INT terms (which usually appear in all-uppercase) such as HUMINT, "human intelligence" (read: "spies"), COMINT, "communications intelligence" (wiretaps, interception of radio transmissions, etc.), and IMINT, "image intelligence" (infrared images, spy plane and satellite images, etc.). And then there's my favorite — ASKINT:

"With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we can now walk into the Kremlin and ask President Yeltsin's aides if they lost any warheads today. The answer one gets is mockingly called ASKINT within the intelligence community."

— "The Ints and Outs of Intelligence," Government Executive, July 1996

Related Words:

a-geographic

asymmetric warfare

bioterrorist

fourth-generation warfare

hacktivist

patriot hacker

rumint

Categories:

Hacking and Hackers

Privacy and Security

Espionage