What word describes someone who breaks into computers? Old style software wizards are proud to be called hackers, and resent the scofflaws who have appropriated the word. On the networks, wizards refer to these hoodlums of our electronic age as “crackers” or “cyberpunks.” In the Netherlands, there’s the term “computervredebreuk”—literally, computer peace disturbance. Me? The idea of a vandal breaking into my computer makes me think of words like “varmint,” “reprobate,” and “swine.”