In addition to the observations of this article, I can say from first hand experience the Dept Homeland Security jumps on the term "hacker" when they are reviewing your visa situation upon arriving (back) into the USA from a foreign visit.

I'm described as "hacker-turned-consultant" in a lot of places (I work with big companies often, they like that), including my own blog now, and they did a quick search for me online and decided to grill me on it.

With Lulzsec, Anonymous, etc I'm even more concerned now...

Face it. Hacker is the old cracker, and cracker now means a crazy white mofo. Origins of the word don't have a lot of meaning once popular usage changes. Old hackers need to do what old hackers used to do; quit clinging to tradition and create a new word to use to describe themselves.

Zuckerberg has several times, in big mainstream media outlets, tried to define this word and explain the difference between the way it is used within the industry and the way it's used in the press - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_features-hacker...

Good article, but I'd like to point out that while Captain Crunch is best known as a cracker, he was also a hacker.