Slashdot Mirror
Stupid Hacker Tricks - The Folly of Youth
N_burnsy points out an article in Computerworld which "profiles several youthful hackers, some still serving prison time, some free, who have been caught indulging in some fairly serious cybercrime, and looks at their crimes and the lessons they have (or have not yet) learned.
Starting with Farid 'Diab10' Essebar, currently a guest of the Moroccan prison system, who wrote and distributed the Mytob, Rbot, and Zotob botnet Trojans. There's Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov, and Denis Stepanov, all guests of the Russian penal system, sentenced to eight years at hard labor for creating a botnet to engage in DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks to blackmail online gambling sites based in the UK, threatening to take the sites down during major sporting events. Then there's Shawn Nematbakhsh who was a little too eager to prove a point about the electronic balloting system that the University of California employed to hold student council elections, by writing a script that cast 800 votes for a fictitious candidate named American Ninja." Not everyone on the list is exactly youthful, and the range of offenses shows how lumpy this area is both to the law and in public perception.
University student imprisoned for interfering in University council elections as a way to expose how bad the voting system is?
There is no justice in the world. That kid should have been given a fucking medal.
OK, if you're happy and carefree it no longer means you're gay unless you're homosexual, and hackers are now criminals who break into computers. Even the tech press is calling cyberglars* "hackers". Even slashdot, who should have striven to maintain the word that used to be a badge of honor back when nerds were being rediculed, uses "hacker" like the ignorant lusers do.
:(
So what's the new word for someone who writes quick and dirty code that actualy runs, or changes a transistor radio into a guitar fuzzbox?
BTW, if you wrote TFA shame on you! the proper word is "script kiddie", cyberglar, cyber burglar, "computer criminal". Not "hacker" for God's sake. Just because Joe Sixpack thinks a "hacker" is a criminal and RAM is a brand of truck doesn't mean we should share in their ignorance.
"I used to be a gay hacker, now I'm only a happy nerd"
-mcgrew
*Yes, I just coined that word. So sue me.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
If even harmless hacks are illegal and may land you in jail, only serious criminals will take the risk (for serious potential money gains).
I think that is why there are less reports about benevolent hackers pointing out security flaws these days, but lots of reports about botnets for spamming and DDOS activities.
C - the footgun of programming languages
3. You've taken a job away from an honest man and given it to a crook.
4. The other half million blokes in prison still get to rot.
Perhaps it might make more sense to attack the problems in the prison system at a lower level?
"Cracker" is the distinction made only within the tech community. To the general populous, "hacker" is firmly entrenched and carries the same meaning.
If you really want to change that perception, plan to run full page ads in every major newspaper (because the people who misuse the term are less likely, imo, to get their news online) and launch a multi-million dollar TV campaign in every major market for a few years. Even then, you'll still be vexed by people who will use the old term, but having run the campaign, you'll be able to elevate your level of righteous indignation.
Then you might be able to start a new affinity group: Mankind for the Ethical Treatment of Hackers (METH).
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
3 - Perhaps. But you've also taken a job away from someone who may or may not be good enough and given it to someone who definitely is good enough. Two sides to every coin (and since I highly doubt the non-criminal would be getting the same kind of supervision you could argue that the job is brand new, for the criminal, and therefore you're not taking it away from anyone.) You could also use the job as a form of community service, paying them less but allowing them to stay out of jail on good behavior, which would mean no non-criminals had to lose anything.
4 - Indeed they do. Why shouldn't they? There are many people in prison who don't deserve to be in prison, but we're talking about people who do deserve to be in prison (for the most part) being given a chance to put their, unique, skills to use in a good way. If you could come up with a good and simple way to do that for, say, a drug dealer, or a murderer, then I'd support it (though none of that Starcraftian nonsense of 'Put all the murderers and violent criminals in giant suits of armor and make them your expendable army')
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
What honest man has that intimate of knowledge of how check fraud is done? There is no amount of studying that can make up for a complete lack of practice.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
I'm sorry, my post didn't include the word "should". Yes, lots of people should know what to look for to catch check fraud or counterfeit money. My question was who -does- know, and the answer is the criminals for whom getting it right wasn't the difference between passing and failing a test, it was the difference between freedom and prison.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.