Contrast this with the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for Hacker, noun:

  1.  One who hacks; one who hoes with a hack.
  2.  That which hacks; an implement for hacking, chopping
      wood, or breaking up earth; a chopper, cleaver; a hoe,
      mattock.
  3a. A person with an enthusiasm for programming or using
      computers as an end in itself. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
  3b. A person who uses his skill with computers to try to
      gain unauthorized access to computer files or
      networks. colloq.

One of the quotations listed under 3b. is also notable:

     1983 Byte May 298/1 ‘Hacker’ seems to have originated at
     MIT. The original German/Yiddish expression referred to
     someone so inept as to make furniture with an axe, but
     somehow the meaning has been twisted so that it now
     generally connotes someone obsessed with programming and
     computers but possessing a fair degree of skill and
     competence.