Hijacking
From Free net encyclopedia
- See also: Aircraft hijacking
Hijacking or highjacking is the forcible robbery from, or seizure of, a vehicle in transit. One who hijacks is known as a hijacker.
Historically the term referred to robbery of trucks or other land motor vehicles (see carjacking) and aircraft skyjacking.
Contemporarily the term is widely associated with high-profile aircraft hijacking for political purposes, notably militant hijackings are often associated with the term terrorism. Other cases have included the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, which could also be considered piracy.
In IT, the term "hijacking" is also used when spyware or a virus alters a computer program so that whenever that program is being used, it performs tasks set by the creator of the virus or spyware in addition to its normal duties.
The word "hijack", respelt and/or re-etymologized, has been used as tradenames, e.g.:-
- Hijaak, an old screen capture add-on feature for PC computers, since enlarged into a general-purpose image processing program: [1].
- Hy-Jak, a make of device to move cars in repair garages: "high" + "jack (mechanical)": [2].
- Lojack, a device to assist in the recovery of stolen cars.