A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language.
VOA: special.2010.08.01
The inconspicuous lock hacking device is an adaption of one demonstrated at the Black Hat security conference in July by Cody Brocious, a hacker and software developer for Mozilla, who discovered and exploited a vulnerability in Onity locks, a cheap and popular hotel room lock that the company says are used on at least four million hotel rooms worldwide.
SmartThings covers this base with a software development kit and a API that seeks to provide everything a good softwarehacker needs to integrate SmartThings devices into his or her apps.