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Everyone Is A Hacker In Training

Posted by Zonk on from the commentary-from-the-unique dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Michal Zalewski was recently interviewed by O'Reilly's Onlamp. During the interview, he stated a belief that hacking is a state of mind. From the article: 'I don't think that (good) hackers have any special, hardwired mental abilities or specific personality traits, and I do believe you can easily learn to think like a hacker, even when you come from a different background.'" The interview goes on to discuss the overall need for better security in protocols and communications.

5 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Who Michal Zalewski is... by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because neither the article nor the summary make it clear, Michal Zalewski is a Polish author and hacker who has a book named Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks published by No Starch Press and sold at your favorite bookstores.

    O'Reilly has an online profile of Michal:

    Michal Zalewski is a security researcher who has worked on topics ranging from hardware and OS design principles to networking. He has published research on many security topics and has worked for the past eight years in the InfoSec field for a number of reputable companies, including two major telecommunications firms.
    1. Re:Who Michal Zalewski is... by Ronald+Dumsfeld · · Score: 2, Informative
      ... Michal Zalewski is a Polish author and hacker who has a book named Silence on the Wire ...


      Chapter 5 of his book is online.

      I like the title, Blinkenlights. Now I have to read it to find out if you really can read the lights.
      --
      Where's the Kaboom?
      There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
  2. The Zen of Cracking by Zecritic · · Score: 1, Informative
    Okay, I'm not trying to burst everyone's bubble here, but there is no kung-fu hacking style. I guess the best metaphor I can come up with here is hacking is like martial arts.
    If you replace every instance of "hack" in your post with "crack" I'll agree with you. The media may call them hackers, but that's really not accurate. And it's not "kung-fu" if you're thinking of hacking, it's "kung-foo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo#Nonsense_words
    --
    "Scientists have proof without certainty; Creationists have certainty without proof" -Ashley Montagu
  3. Re:Is Your Son a Computer Hacker? by zhenga · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought I read this story before, so did some googling, and sure enough, its an old ctrl-c,ctrl-v story from 2001: http://www.adequacy.org/public/stories/2001.12.2.4 2056.2147.html

    nevertheless a funny one :)

  4. Re:Is Your Son a Computer Hacker? by Technel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, this is from Adequacy.org (which is now an archive-only website). See http://www.adequacy.org/public/stories/2001.12.2.4 2056.2147.html for the story.

    They have some pretty funny stuff on there. The sad part is that some people actually believed it.