Should the study of hacking be encouraged or promoted generally?

Question

So many people consider hacking as a very bad practice and so don't encourage anyone to learn it at all or for it to even be taught.

Others say that it can be used constructively and so encourage the learning and teaching of it.

What's your personal take on the issue?

Answer 1

It really is just a big opinion as both sides do have arguments to give. Personally I think that, like other things, there are limits to how much people should know about it. Also, I don't think people who promote learning this would really say that an advantage you can help others learn it, rather I'd say that it's not all bad because we do have things such as "ethical hackers" for a reason.

Answer 2

Yes, nobody should be discouraged from learning anything just because a subset of people do bad things with it.