Is ‘Hacked’ a Dangerous Euphemism?

Are you outraged by the endless stream of digital crimes, or have you become numb to them?  The latest in a long line of global victims being the Jaguar Land Rover breach that has thrown its supply chain into turmoil, threatening small businesses and livelihoods, while at the same time KillSec ransomware has been reported crippled healthcare systems threatening lives in Brazil. When I reflect on what’s really happening, it turns my stomach even more than the food poisoning that wiped out my Saturday night and Sunday. Note to self … never again trust the bargain aisle prawn salad at M&S, however noble the environmental intent … I digress.

We have become numb to the word hacked. It flashes across headlines almost daily, a company was ‘hacked’, a celebrity account was ‘hacked’, a hospital was ‘hacked’. The word has become a convenient shorthand, quick, vague and strangely sterile. The nomenclature of hacker has even cult status with an aura of mystique! In our overuse and blandness, it masks the true horror of what is really happening and creates faux champions instead of unscrupulous criminals.

What we call a hack is rarely a harmless prank. More often, it is theft on a colossal scale, of money, of identities, of intellectual property and distortion of our reality through organised (and disorganised) disinformation. It is vandalism, leaving behind crippled systems, destroyed records and livelyhoods. It is deceit, where trusted digital doors are silently pried open and exploited for months before discovery. In some cases, it has even crosses into deadly territory, ransomware attacks on hospitals have delayed treatments, shut down critical systems and contributed to loss of life, correction KILLED PEOPLE in the very sanctuaries we seek for the life preservation of our loved ones, yes even the hackers, how perverse is that. That is not a ‘hack’. That is manslaughter by keyboard, cold calculated and merciless.

By using the word hacked, we have soften reality. We have turn calculated crime into a quirky, almost glamorous act of cleverness. This deflection serves attackers well. It makes their actions sound like puzzles solved, not crimes committed, where faceless victims leave no moral impact when the truth is there are real people impacted. It leaves victims struggling for sympathy and policymakers slow to act and law enforcment chasing easy targets.

We should call these incidents what they are, cyber-theft, digital sabotage, fraud, espionage, even murder when lives are at stake. Words matter. Just as we do not describe a bank robbery as someone being ‘vault-hacked’, we should stop the trivialisation of digital crime.

The stakes are not theoretical. Every time we use that word, we give criminals cover and dull the urgency of their crimes. They are personal, financial, societal and sometimes mortal. The next time you hear ‘hacked’, pause and ask, was this theft, vandalism, deceit or something worse? Only when we speak with clarity will we confront the full gravity of the threat and start being honest with ourselves and each other.

So stop calling it ‘hacked’.  Call it what it is, theft, sabotage, fraud, even digital manslaughter and demand that governments, businesses and individuals respond with the same seriousness as if it were a bank robbery or physical attack. Changing the language is that force multiplier, it reframes perception, drives accountability and builds the momentum needed to harden our digital world.