Hacking
Imagine this, you are driving along the road
and suddenly you see something
spectacular. Now imagine that you are not
allowed to deviate from your course to
check it out. This is what a so-called
"hacker" faces. Just imagine that you
saw an injured person on the side of
the road. In this analogy you are not
allowed to help the injured person. A
hacker is not allowed to explore like
everyone else in the world. A hacker is
not allowed to help fix potential
security holes. The term hacker can have
many meanings. The most visible to the
public is the person pirating
software, and breaking into corporate networks and
destroying information.
This is the public misconception of a hacker. Back in
the Unix days, a hack
was simply a quick and dirty way of doing something.
Hackers in those
days were basically just computer experts. Nowadays hacker
means the same
thing as a cracker, a person who pirates software, and malicious
hackers. The
media, of course, never prints the good things hackers do. Most
hackers
provide a service to companies, by letting the company know about
security
holes, before a rival exploits it. Most hackers want nothing more than
to
simply learn. A hacker has an extreme thirst for knowledge, but not in
the
traditional subjects. Technology, and anything new interest hackers. In
fact
most security experts start out but learning and "hacking". The bad view
of
hackers is not completely false. There are hackers out there that will do
there
best to harm any system hey can, but most want nothing more than to
find the
beauty in system, or network. To hackers vast networks, and the
inside of a
firewall that was meant to keep them out, are the most beautiful
sights on
Earth. In every aspect of life there are people who exploit
others. Murders,
robbers, or any other criminals come from every walk of
life. Even hackers have
some, but like the general population, it is a small
percentage. Most people
would call the whole Linux community hackers, because
anyone who has the
knowledge to run Unix must be a hacker. This show what
good hackers can do. The
entire Unix GNU community is run by hackers. They
all contribute toward a free
operating system. They all work out the bugs,
and then distribute it for free.
Hackers got tired of paying for an OS
that did not work well. So they all worked
together Today Linux is one of the
fastest growing OS’s on the planet. Many
would say that Linux is buggy simply
because its free, but it’s made by the
same people who can get into any
computer, or write any program to fit their
needs. All Hackers are not good,
but then again, all people are not good. In any
case, the hacker community as
a whole, has done many things for end uses. First
of all they help companies
make they transactions securer. Second they help
develop new code, and help
work the bugs out of old code. And lastly, all
hackers really want to do is
learn. Even if it means "breaking in to" a
computer. Most hackers break in
simply to learn. Very few will touch any data. A
hackers goal is for the
systems administator to never even know that the hacker
was in the system in
the first place. The Hacker’s Manifesto by the Mentor, is
a classic example
of how hackers feel that the rest of the world does not
understand us. It
shows how hackers were once shunned from society and created
their own
underground society. In fact 2600 Magazine has been published since
the early
eighties. Many articles are in this magazine about how hackers are
merely
misunderstood. This is the most famous article: Hackers Manifesto By:
+++The
Mentor+++ 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 incompetence is
sought... A board is found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone here... even if
I've never met him or her, 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.