Hacking for many is more than trying to gain illegal access to computers or
download files that we aren't supposed to, it's exploring, tesing, learning, and
having fun. I have yet to meet a hacker that hacked for profit. Hacking involves
a lot of work. To become a hacker you have to read a lot and then read some more
and then test the knowledge you learned. Hackers use a suite of tools, techniques,
and general knowledge to hack into a system. There are two main categories of hacking;
hacking for fun and hacking for vengence.
Hacking for fun involves writing down everything you know about the target,
from port scans, DNS scans, to finding out the kind of system. The first rule to
being a successful hacker is to be humble. IF you start getting cocky you either
get caught or hard core flamed. You listen to what people who have access to the
system say and you find out about the poeple who have access to the system. If you
find that they really love thier dog you can assume that their password has something
to do with canines or particulars about their pet. If you find that they have a
family, you try particulars (and various arragements thereof) of their family. Once
in, you explore. Their are unwritten rules a hacker follows once they have access
to the system.
A good idea that's not always followed is to send the sysop or the user and
anonymous message telling them of their security flaws.
Hacking for vengence is a whole differnent game. You follow the same method
as before to gain access, but you don't follow the same rules. Hacking for vengence
involves changing their stuff and screwing with their head. A good idea not always
followed is to archive their files so that after they wet themselves and start crying,
you can anonymously mail them their stuff with a message like "dont piss me
off again". I recall a hacker who was getting verbally abused by a cocky youngster
in alt.2600 (the hackers newgroup). The hacker, we'll call him/her AA, created a
virus that modified windows95 to pop us a message saying "Dont F*** with AA"
everytime they hit their start button then rebooted the computer. The cocky youngster
replied with:
On Tue, 9 Dec 1997 01:25:29 -0200, "ZeckWild" <zeckwild@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> zaphod@westnet.com (Zaphod Breeblbrox) wrote:
>
>FUCK!
>
>YOU FUCKERS!
>
>THIS ISN'T EVEN MY COMPUTER ITS MY DADS!
>
>WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!
>
> I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU !
>
> FUCK! YOURE ALL DEAD YOU FUCKERS!
Everyone in the newsgroup took turns flaming the lamer and congratulating AA.
The most important thing to remember about hacking for vengence is to make sure
you know what your doing and you know who your dealing with. Often times a lamer
will try to mess with an old-timer Hacker and get his butt whooped.
I think that the best way to sum up "why we hack" is a paper written in
the 80s by "The Mentor". You most likely heard a summerized version of
it if you saw the movie "Hackers":
"Mentor's Last Words" courtesy of the Jolly Roger
The following file is being reprinted in honor and sympathy for the many
phreaks and hackers that have been busted recently by the Secret Service.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - \/\
The Conscience of a Hacker/\
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Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank
Tampering"... Damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-
piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the
eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces
shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the
other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Damn underachiever.
They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to
teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction.
I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in
my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is
cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I
screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by
me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be
here... Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then
it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line
like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out,
a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even
if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them
again... I know you all... Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again.
They're all alike... You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been
spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of
meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless.
We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few
that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are
like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without
paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering
gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us
criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We
exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...
and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you
murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our
own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never
forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop
this individual,but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
+++The Mentor+++
[May the members of the phreak community never forget his words -JR]
-----------Exodus-----------