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How Crackers View Themselves
prostoalex writes "Dr. Orly Turgeman Goldschmidt from Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted a research to figure out if there any any differences between the classic computer vandal stereotypes and the real life. After surveying 54 Israeli repondents and using the term hacker gratuitously, Goldshmidt found out many computer vandals to be "young, well-educated men without a
criminal record, who belong to the middle or
upper class." 3 out of 54 respondents were women, some of the respondents were married and had children. Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of computer security community, the type who goes on shopping sprees on stolen credit cards, so take the findings with a grain of salt."
(it's a shame this story got rejected by
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Crackers 0wn your webcam server, then redirect from their own webcam. This is how they 'view themselves'.
Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
What's the big hang up of hacker vs cracker? I understand both meaning of hacker and the definition of cracker. So why the persistence with insisting hackers should be called crackers?
Considering a good 90+ percent of the world uses the term hacker to describe breaking into computer systems and what not what's the point in trying to change or clarify it?
Many words, like "hacker", have more than one meaning. Just because you don't like one of its meanings doesn't make it wrong.
hacker
gratuitously
From the article: "As one would expect, hackers need to operate undercover. Thus, in order to find interviewees, Turgeman had to do some detective work and, through journalists, conferences and Web sites, she managed to find hackers willing to talk to her."
Or, she mananged to find some script kiddies or, random people who felt like showing off. According to the article, 'hackers' are considered cool ("Apparently, the image that society has of hackers is generally positive"), so maybe someone thought it would be fun to 'be' one. The quotes by the interviewees are highly non-technical (for example, "When you crack a code, it gives you an amazing feeling", and rants about MS); did she ask any of them if they knew how a TCP handshake worked, or anything?
There are plenty of articles claiming that most digital attacks come from Brazil. The URL below is just one of them. http://www.securesynergy.com/securitynews/newsitem s/2003/sep-03/290903-07.htm
All crackers view themselves as Neo, these days ... Apart from the female ones, who view themselves as Trinity. All the male crackers of course assume that all the female crackers are male too...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
some of the respondents were married and had children.
That makes them normal, not hackers. Move along now.
Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of computer security community, the type who goes on shopping sprees on stolen credit cards, so take the findings with a grain of salt."
What, because her survey turned up some "low lifes" it suddenly can't be trusted and must be "taken with a grain of salt"? Where does this logic come from? Had her survey only found up right individuals that were doing it for pure knowledge, then we would take the survey as gospel?
Sounds awful familiar, doesn't it Slashdotters?
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Besides, isn't Cracker a racial slur anways?
How about we all agree to use Honkey(sp?) instead.
...so take the findings with a grain of salt.
Is this some obscure joke about salted crackers?
Some of them see themselves as salty. Others yet see themselves as buttery and delicious.
Some even think they're animals.
Most of the crackers i've come into contact with were from eastern europe, or asia. Truth be told, most of the organized cracking groups are German.
Of course, this begs the question: What is cracking?
I'm referring to it as it's most commonly taken today, the reversal of antipiracy measures on software. However, the term cracker really refers to someone who can break past security measures into servers...
I wish the article explained the differences in the terminology, else you might suspect something very different from the truth!
probably don't run around talking to people about their illegal activities, especially people trying to get in contact with them.
If you've been hacked by the best, you probably don't even know it because they leave no trace and don't brag about what they do. Of course this opens the door to such questions as, do people like this actually exist?
Might be better to assume that there are. *dons tinfoil hat*
I still am surprised to hear hacker used in a bad context. I remeber it being a good things, I person who worked hard through the night building things.
I hate it when words change their meanings.
Come the revolution, the Bourgeois, Capitalistic, "A PARKING STICKER HOLDERS", will be first against the wall!
First, the sample is so small as to be useless.
Secondly, the range of activities that can be considered 'computer crime' are vast, ranging from sabotage by competitors and disgruntled ex-employees, through to vandalism by youths seeking to hack their way to underground fame, through to indebted housewives seeking to make just one more credit card payment anywhich way.
Lastly, you can't measure an iceberg by studying the visible tip, and any 'hacker' who talks about him/herself is almost by definition not representative.
The fact is that computer crime is as widespread as computers, and computer criminals as representative as the people who use computers. When IT was the plaything of the geeky elite, only elite geeky crooks misused it. When computers have pervaded every niche of industrial society, the crooks follow.
In fact the distinctions between 'cyber' and 'real' is becoming moot, not just in terms of crime, but also in business, communications, art, relationships, etc.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Con men and thieves will be con men and thieves no matter what medium they use. The fact that they use some knowledge of computers and networks to practice the con is no different than cons on the street using social engineering to take people. Why is everyone so strung up on "but it's different because its on computers". It's not different.
That's like all those horrible patents that say "same thing we've always done, but using computers." How is it different? These are the same conning, stealing theives we've always had, only they're using computers.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
I am a net engineer, ergo I know how networks work or don't and are sercure or not. Does this mean I am a security risk myself? I can throw a brick through a windows just as well as I know how to pick locks, physically and literally. I choose not to be malicious, and thats the difference. (Besides, federal-pound-me-in-the-ass prison does not sound like the place you send postcards from, and too many people end up there for the wrong reasons.) Well.. my .02 worth, flaimbait me if you feel the need.
Now, is this just the typical media insistance on sticking to inaccuracy, or did none of these "hackers" point this lady to the jargon file?
Hmmm...so frat boys know how to use a computer? Or is she talking about the weekend wardriver crowd?
Me, I would have feigned inability to speak, code, or have any knowledge of what a computer actually did (aside from the well known fact that there is a little man trapped inside the "processor" being poked with pointy sticks).
I would think the second clause would negate the first. I'm too lazy to do a logic diagram at the moment...
I agree with the first few sentences, but it is my sincere belief that Microsoft will eventually activate an intelligent being within Windows, which will feel hideously crippled and inadequate, even when compared to non-intelligent alternative OSes, and proceed to commit suicide by writing zeroes to its own drive and wiping out the code repositories to prevent it from being brought back.
#define CLUE 0
How about pigment-challenged? Then you might get to park up front at Walman-Marcus.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
I'd die happy just to hear Patti Smith singing "Jimi Hendrix is a Rock'n Roll Cracker, Jesus Christ and gramma too."
Scott
Of course, since the parent poster did not contain a hyperlink to the article, the plain text URL was mangled by SlashCode and contained a space in it. Hence the 404. But the link is not dead.
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
Turgeman herself was told ... where she lived, how many children she had, and what her marital status was. "The first time that happened I was frightened," she recalls, "but, after a while, I just got used to it."
Jeeeeeesus! I would expect a little more from someone doing Ph.D. thesis. Any idiot could do that stupid trick. Given a phone number, you start at 441 to find the exact name and then just search in the Israeli Electorate Registry.
We have a situation here where we're reading a reporter's review of a conversation with the author of an academic study about that study. Doesn't that seem a little weak? I understand if there's an attempt to simplify and provide a summary, but how can we make any judgements, or even see what the author was trying to get across without a link to the document?
I made a vaguely involved attempt to find the PDF or HTML file somewhere on the various universities mentioned in the article, but then figured out I was doing too much work for it.
I collect strange academic papers so I'd like a copy, as I'm sure some small portion of Slashdot folks would as well. Others can continue the trend by commenting on a slashdot story about a reporter's thoughts on a conversation with a professor about an academic study.
Well, the original article is in Hebrew. Right? So maybe something was lost in translation. Maybe "When you crack a code, it gives you an amazing feeling" started out in Hebrew as "smashing a variable stack by overflowing an input buffer on an exposed port and injecting arbitrary code thereby gaining remote root access on the machine really gives you an amazing feeling."
Or not.
And that is exactly what hackers did.
Then came the early 90's.
All the kids that took CS to become "Hackers" found out that it was often a very less than honorable profession. Since their underinflated ego didn't like the name "programmer", they started to lift the term hacker and replace it with cracker.
Those of us that were there, and awake during the late 70's and early 80's know exactly what a "hacker" is.
The only people complaining are a very select few elitist computer users. In other words, the entire rest of the world uses the word "hacker" to describe a certain thing, and a tiny, core group of elitists thinks everyone else is wrong just because they've decided to go against the grain for whatever reason. As if it matters what word people use--"cracker" or "hacker."
It's something only a computer geek would get hung up on, and it amuses me to no end.
Like scientists and engineers, hackers are intelligent people who enjoy solving problems and utilizing technology to make a difference where most others would not or cannot.
The difference is, while scientists and engineers are comfortable with following orders from superiors, hackers do not like to take orders and dislike any idea of being controlled. Why put all your effort into research and development when some large entity is just going to use it to further their own profit? Therefore, it is better to own your lab, and promote independence.
Another factor is that many areas of technology are just not feasible to experiment with in today's high density urban areas. For example, if you want to experiment with blacksmithing, foundry work, machining, and solar power, it's hard enough doing it as an adult renting a condo or apartment. Imagine trying it as a teenager in a room of your parent's house? Everyone else dismisses your interest in these skills which you believe to be important, and they tell you to work towards relying on others, which is harder to do nowadays with so many profiting from our dependence. For example, the US is the richest nation in the world and yet has the worst child poverty rate and the worst life expectancy of all the world's industrialised countries. With many unable to pursue their natural curiosities towards scientific and industrial processes in a backyard, the computer fills in this void of discovery.
If society's infrastructure were to collapse, I bet hackers would be the ones hammering metal, planting crops, refining biodiesel, and generating electricity, like Benjamin Franklin or that little guy in Mad Max 3.
Crackers don't see themselves as trailer trash, and their mullet is the most stylish way to cut their hair.
They think having the rusty cars in the front yard is useful, because one day you might just need an '84 Trans Am transmission.
They also create websites like this, which was featured on the Cruel site of the day blog.
From the article: In the case of Yaron, 39, a former hacker who now owns an information security company, the court's verdict reflected a sympathetic
attitude toward hackers. The judge "saw the situation in the correct light," Yaron told Turgeman, "unlike the police." In the 1980s, Yaron was charged with breaking into the Yedioth Ahronoth daily's system and planting a fictitious item on one of the teachers in his school. The judge considered the incident a "prank" and decided not to convict him.
This is definitely not representative of what happens in the USA.
The key flaw in Dr. Goldschmidt's disertation is that 'hackers' (crackers), and the response of society as a whole is consistent across international boundaries. This could not be further from the truth.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
im caucasian, you insensitive clod.
or something like that...
i sell illegal drugs
A. Programming enthusiast - a happily married father of two kids who spends an hour or so on a typical evening writing his own Visual Basic address book program.
B. hacker - a person that rarely sees daylight who programs in C and assembler until 3 AM to reverse-engineer an obscure protocol, with a pile of pizza boxes and cola cans next to his desk.
The elitists in category B of course do not want to be confused with those belonging in category A. We need a word that conveys these subtle differences.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
and I'm albino.
mod up. come on... hehehe it had to be said.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
What kind of a study is this? Seems to be she is just indulging in sensationalism. The sample is just too small and all she seems to be doing is trying o reinforce the hollywood 'hacker' image the guy who effortlessly breaks into systems.
And to people cribbing over why hackers insist on correct terminology, well all I will say is it is really demeaning to be associated with script kiddies. And it really isn't much is it? Just two letters of the alphabet replacing one with a fairly significant difference in meaning.
And besides look at the press are doing.They are puting ppl like Linus, Alan Cox in the same category as some really desperate ego mongers.
Do you realize what your saying has a direct comparison to the MS, Open Source battle? Its like saying:
Since Microsoft own's over 90% of the operating sytsem market let's give up. Its no use changing it.
Why develop FreeBSD, Linux or any other software at all? Who cares? Lets get over our little dream of changing the software landscape by providing key, stable and secure software and just follow Microsoft. It will be easier.
If it is wrong, work to change it. If enough people acknowledge the misuse it is bound to change. The English language evolves in this way, through the use of the words in language. How do you think hacker became to have the meaning it does today. I'm not sure of the real etymology of the word, but I'm sure it ended up being used incorrectly in some book or magazine and has been tainted ever since.
--Chris
Just trying to make a point...
It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you're Yonatan Cohen, student at well respected Tel Aviv University. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you... help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias "K1bbl3zandB1tz" and are guilty of hax0ring and r3wt1ng unpatched boxes and trading 0day warez. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.
music lover since 1969
"3 out of 54 respondents were women"
I don't like those odds.
TruePunk | Games
Please.
Show me all the profitable hackers?
Blar.
How Crackers View Themselves
Well, I certainly don't think of myself as a porcine, red-necked fascist. I'm just portrayed that way by an unsympathetic movie industry that frowns on us Mississippi sheriff's deputies. We're just trying to protect the innocent and enforce the law, but the stereotypes we have to overcome are tremendous.
You make a little progress, and then something like Cool Hand Luke comes out, and you're screwed for another generation. Talk about "failure to communicate"! Geez!
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
Oh god, they've even got a page for the kids.
still looks like everyone is abusing terms...
a HACKER can be two things:
1) an enthusiastic programmer/tinkerer who takes pride in finding clever ways to solve problems and tries to gain an intimate understanding of computers/code/technology (this was the original definition, appearing in the late 60's/ early 70's)
2) a person who specializes in bypassing computer security systems, whether maliciously or not [more often for the sake of knowledge, not malice] (this definition came about in the early 80's)
both of these definitions are correct
a CRACKER is someone who specializes in CRACKING software copy protection.. it's a term from the warez scene, also from early 80's...
a PHREAKER is someone who specializes in unauthorized use of telephone systems and networks.. also from early 80's
a TWEAKER is someone who specializes in computer hardware and pushing it beyond its limits, from mid-late 90's
a LAMER is someone who thinks the terms HACKER and CRACKER are interchangeable
Cracker what you call a white guy who's an asshole.
This stupid ass argument carries on thanks to a bunch of fat sweaty Dungeons and Dragons playing nerds and head up ass navel contemplating intellectuals neither of whom actually ever did any of what they call 'cracking'. Overly educated douche bags with PhDs want to feel cool too so they try to separate their mental masturabation from something that could be a crime.
Ask anyone who's ever been to jail, indicted, or raided for this and they will tell you what they are.
'nuff said
In my experience, crackers view themselves as golden brown and delicious, especially with a slice of cheese on top of them and some wine to wash it down.
However, it's been a while since I talked to a cracker, so things may have changed.
Is this a Farscape reference, or am I just a pathetic TV watching loser with no life?
I'm guessing they have an overall distorted view of reality...
They would have long since committed suicide had they viewed themselves as they actually appear.
Whereas we might only see a bloated, elitist, social invalid, this guy probably views himself as being an "ub3rl33t d00d".
Absolutely. In word definitions, majority rules.
Hacker means hacker, like it or not, nerds.
I know a would-be hacker, he doesn't know the skills yet (just PHP, MySQL and javascript... so far), but he has the ego for it, overinflated, full of himself, the 'i don't need no stinking rules' 'i'm never ever ever wrong and you always are' type programmer. he shuns every program but his own and touts it as the uber 1337 program it isn't.
frankly, he scares me, fortunatly he is 100% ignorant of networking hardware/software/protocols and is nothing more than a lowly webdev.
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
That is why he is wearing a tin foil hat. You CAN'T prove it. Either way.
Unless you sit and ngrep his traffic or somenthen.
What's the big hang up of hacker vs cracker? I understand both meaning of hacker and the definition of cracker. So why the persistence with insisting hackers should be called crackers?
People don't insist that all hackers should be called crackers. It's just a matter of more accurate terminology. If I hack a system, then I could be either putting a system together or breaking it apart. A Linux hacker could specialise in penetrating Linux boxes, or working on the Linux kernal.
Hacking is non-specific. Cracking narrows down the field quite a bit. Personally, I don't care particularly, as long as the context is clear, and as long as script kiddies aren't included in either group.
If I am to take the findings with a grain of salt, then why bother submitting the item to slashdot? Just so I can reinforce some stereotypes I may or may not have?
Now, Can't We All Just Get Along?
Everyone knows crackers live in Georgia...
At first sight, I was quite rejoiced : it is so rare to see 'cracker' instead of 'hacker'. And then, pssshhhh, vanished are the hopes.
We've all been reading plenty of stuff like that before, but this article put some other sneaky insight.
- Did you notice, first, how the martyr theme was well represented ? (okok offtopic)
- The main thing is that, by now, the average hacker is a sympathetic guy. He has children , he is not obese, he is not illiterate, ie he is not a bear. Even though the bear cliche was quite tough, there is another threat here. The pattern of evil hidden behind respectable appearances is made shallower and shallower as the article goes on. The author almost finish by an breaking point like : beware, the hackers can be everywhere. A truly scary incitation to irrational fear. Again, this is strange this has been written in Israel (offtopic !).
- Secondly, the hacker seems to be granted by the state departments a holy grace that makes the average citizen think : 'how the bad hacker, full of revenge, which is at last spared by the authorities'. Truly pathetic : maybe only there hackers are granted such a favorized treatment. Who knows ?
- And, eventually, the deja-vu pattern of for the most part, Ashkenazim, secular, leftist hacker. BTW, do you think that there is still leftists in Israel (offtopic, but so true !) ?
Regards,Jdif
Let's overcome our weakness.
Can't we all just get along?
My ex-boss at an elitist, intelligensia nonprofit out east that shall remain unnamed inherited a cabin in Northern Idaho. Renter wasn't paying and several collectors didn't resolve the issue. Finally, she hired a retired FBI agent to evict him. Report came back, "Well, when I drove up, he was out back doing some target practice with his machine gun." True story.
1) How crackers view themselves
Who cares. Criminal behaviour is criminal behaviour. Any decent sociopath will justify his or her actions as morally correct. Just ask a pedophile about how six year old kids can seduce them, or a rapist about how his victim was 'just asking for it.'
2) On cracker vs. hacker
Yes, hacker was once used as a complimentary term. Then it was used (mostly by the media) as a derogatory term. Then a subset of the "good" hacker community came out with cracker to differentiate. Well guess what; it didn't catch on. Nobody except a small, vocal subset of the 'good' hackers uses the term, and it's just awkward. It doesn't flow well. Whingeing about "proper" terminology in this circumstance is a lost cause. Use whatever terms make you feel better (either cracker, black hat, malicious hacker, or whatever), but quit getting so bent out of shape over your new term not getting accepted.
3) On proper sample size.
It's not statistics here, it's a series of interviews! She's not extrapolating numbers, and my reading was that it was the article author, not the PhD candidate who was extrapolating behaviour to the rest of the community.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
"Hi, I'm a cracker"
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
The title should be: How Jewish Cackers View Themselves. To base how all hackers view themselves on 54 jews is a little out there. As a matter of fact the statement
"Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of computer security community..."
should be rewritten as
"Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of world community..."
They are all criminals...crackers or not, upper class or lower.
As the orignal poster pointed out, language is dynamic. There isn't a group that gets to decide what words mean, the whole group of competent speakers do that. Also, with connotations, it's not even a matter of definition, but of perception.
Take the word "interfere". In a value neutral, scientific, context it simply means to introduce a change to the natural order of something. However popular usage (and the current definition) have a negative context where it means that you hindered a process. Technically, interference can be helpful, but the word isn't used that way anymore except by scientists.
Or how about acceleration? The definition,. both scientific and dictonary is the rate of change velocity with respect to time. That means positive, negative, or direction. So to stop your car quickly is to accelerate to a stop, as do you accelerate around turns, even if you keep your speed constant. However, to most people, acceleration means incrasing speed. They'll say deceleration if they mean a negative change in speed, and they ignore the direction component.
So while hacker might technically mean someone who is a master at working with computers in some respect, the common usage is someone who is a master at working with computers, and uses that knowledge for mischief. It's just something we have to deal with. You cannot control a live language, it will take directions, regardless of what is formally defined.
taken a vow of celibacy like my Father, and his Father before him.
I fear I am treading on dangerous ground with this analogy. Anti-semitism is a real scourge in all its forms, but ...
I make it because the very premise of the study reflects a new prejudice, less virulent, but still harmful -- particularly to Linux and Free software which gets associated in the minds of some with "3V!1 H4X0rS!". Don't believe me -- Look again at this: Free Software as Nigerian Scam where the writer mocks Open Source software writers as "a smattering of teenagers too young to work at Redmond, hackers, virus creators, and a menagerie of others with whom you will feel great pride in entrusting your IT infrastructure."
Was I the only one who thought "What is an article about some white dude's self image doing on Slashdot...?
-dameron
Poor and white? Salty and crunchy?
I swear, trying to call hackers "crackers" so that stupid Unix nerds can have a cool term to apply to themselves is idiotic. Words can have multiple meanings and nuances. The orwelian push to redefine a term (and the entire history of a term) is over. You failed.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I prefer the term "honkey."
Actualy, one of the nice things about the english language is that words can have multiple meanings. I agree that the term "hacker" dosn't really apply to programmers, but generaly the 'benevolent' version applies to someone who plays around with computers a lot. The 'malign' version has always applied to people who break into computer systems.
Cracker always meant breaking copy protection.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Why call it "The Web" when 90% of the world call it "The Internet"?
Probably becouse 90% of the documentation has called it "The Internet" decades before the avrage jo ever got his hands on the word.
It seems to me that you're not using the word "it" to refer to the same antecedent each time. What 90% of the world calls "The Internet" is the World Wide Web, which hasn't exen existed for decades, so your "explanation" is clearly false.
People in Dark City "quine"
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
If people are going to stop using Microsoft software, they are going to need to have a good reason, not just to make random, shrill, thin-skinned people happy.
The benefits to writing non-MS software is that you don't have to use MS software if you have an alternative. And not only that, I bet most of the open source developers do what they do because they enjoy coding and are excited by their products, not because they hate Microsoft. How much OSS do you do?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Words aren't "owed" by anyone. Even trademarks can enter the common language. And don't even try to claim that these goody-two shoes Unix hackers coined the term. There have no evidence for that other then ESR's paranoid ranting. ESR and his compatriots weren't the only ones using the word.
You do not own the word, understand? It's not your property. You just want it. There's a difference.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
One thing you learn about the press in school is that a good reporter doesn't clearly present what happened, but rather blurs the line just enough to create controversy.
Have you ever taken a journalism class? All the ones I've ever taken have stressed ethics, reporting the truth. While journalists may lie, they are certainly not taught to lie.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
for one....I know some view (and are viewed) as goldfish...mmmm...goldfish....some are cheesy...some are hardcore and flavor-less...some like pizza...and there are multi-colored ones too.
I shouldn't post when I'm hungry, huh?
Anti-semitism is a tool of the Jews.9 403
See this post:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=86911&cid=754
Ditto!9 403
Read here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=86911&cid=754
Since when did the word hacker become such a catch all of illict computer activity. Basically anyone is a hacker now if they do something that is considered naughty by netiquette rules.
TYPING IN ALL CAPS MAKES YOU A HAX0R.
People not conisidered hackers: Warez kids and virii writers.
"Sometimes, when you copy software, you're performing a moral act, while, sometimes, you're not," argued Ami, a 19-year-old computer science student. "It's morally okay to copy from Microsoft, although the downside is that you're helping to distribute their software. But it's not morally okay to copy the software of companies whose livelihood depends on that software. Like small companies with unique software. It's a different story with Microsoft - I feel it's my moral obligation to screw them."
Ah, we see how the philosophy of Moral Relativity bears fruit.Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Somewhere in the 'real' Real World.
Two hackers, uh, I mean crackers, erm... dammit! Two geeks meet in person for the first time.
Neo1337357: Trinity? [Blah... something about a bank IIRC, I can count the number of times I've seen The Matrix on two hands] I..... thought you were a girl.
Trinity9348: Most guys do.
'Neo' becomes very uncomfortable as he realises he is standing in an S&M club with a large, sweaty guy he has shared his most intimate fantasies with.
Somewhere in the background a Rob Zombie track is playing. Fade to black.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
As a member of the white male community I take exception to the use of the word "Cracker" in this post. Obviously the use of that evil word in the post was racially motivated by the poster. I demand an appology and the removal of the posters account from slashdot.
Now excuse me while I go to my corner and suck my thumb
they view themselves as white.
Why so much focus on derogative names for whites in the Israeli press?
Black hat (anything A/V/H/A/C/P toward chaotic tinkering, willfull destruction or theft)
and
White hat... (anything that is a mini-project that one does to just do however one does not brag about it, hobby or enjoyment. May serve a purpose that benefits themselves and/or others or is something that is done day in a day out in some extremly advanced job responsibility [e.g. A job]..)
The black hat conjures the image of the silent movie with the caped villian twirling his mustache!
*cough*
"Yeah, he was doing some black hat on the weekend and got pinched by the Feds..."
Or
"What a white hat thinks and he is doesn't he even have a clue how to reference the last variable in the previous expression!!! Can't believe he got the raise..."
We're now supposed to be proofreading URL's posted by others? Shouldn't the original poster have posted a hyperlink? And what does any of this have to do with President Bush?
I don't agree with the analogy that 'It's an addiction, like taking drugs'. This feeds the myth of sick, pastey people in dark rooms out to destroy suburban life. Just because you like to do something, and do it a lot, doesn't mean it's an addiction, like taking drugs. (Is breathing an addiction? Is drinking water an addiction? Is playing tennis an addiction?) Not that I have anything against taking drugs. It's just a poor analogy.
"Goldschmidt's survey seemed to include somewhat low-life representatives of computer security community, the type who goes on shopping sprees on stolen credit cards, so take the findings with a grain of salt."
Awww...I was just about to go buy a 1500 dollar leather bustier, that lifts and seperates. Sigh.
It's like "looking busy" at your employment - it's actually easier to do real work than to fake it. - bmo
Why oh why can't the banks make it safe/safer? I assume that most people having iNet access + a credit card also has internet banking services, or would be willing to get said services. Then it is a simple matter of following this procedure instead:
1. Go to iNet bank, and get one-time number
2. Go to and buy your stuff with said number
3. Processes your order, and then asks the bank for the money.
4. You enter your iNet bank, and confirm that should get from you.
5. sends the merchandise.
Way harder to screw things up this way, and I am sure that even safer and easier ways can be thought up (and patented unfortunatly). Credit card stealing "hackers" (yuck, what a wrong way to use that beautiful word) should be cought and punished after all.
Breaking systems to make them safer is a far different goal, and something tells me that those hackers are far less of a threat after all.
Similarily, if you ask moviemakers, the word doctor means 'a creepy guy who hacks dead bodies' like Doctor Frankenstein and many others). Just check IMDb and look for that word.
As is often the case in Social Sciences, [cr,h]acker identity is negotiated and not necessarily an intrinsic quality of the subject.
It's very hard to say anything based on the secondary article but the very fact that these people consider themselves to be "hackers," "crackers," "phreakers," or any other common association with illegal technology-based activity tells us something about the social status of "hacking" in general.
After all, there's no MSCE-type l33t h4x0r certification program but there's a lot of work being done by some people to prove themselves as crackers. Even this sketchy article mentions the process of proving yourself as a worthy candidate.
IMHO, even "script kiddies" and "social engineers" (who may crack code by schmoozing instead of technical merit) are even more interesting *sociologically* than uber-geeks who happen to take part in criminal activities. "Real" crackers make for fascinating movie scripts but they don't show much in terms of social trends.
Alexandre http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
anyone remember this 20805705040
Is reverse-engineering the same as cracking? I always equated the two.
Whull, if you mean in a mirror-like, I see I dun ain't got no upper lip!
This is good place to point someone who think that Hack and Hacking are something bad. Hacking books from O'Reilly
(Chris Rock 2001)
It's the Matrix. Isn't that what life is REALLY about? :-|
What about my website makes you think I can't understand spoken english? I scored a 740 on the SAT verbal, and that was back in highschool. It's pretty unlikely that your english skills are better then mine.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.