______ _____ ____ _____ _ _ ____ __ ____ ___ ___ _ _ / ____/ / __ \ / __/ / __ \ // // / __/ /\ / / / __|\ \ / / \\ // / /__ / /_/ ) / /_ / / \ \ // // / / / \ / / / / \ \/ / \\ // / ___/ / __/ / __/ ( ( ) \) // // / __/ / \/ / ( ( / / \\// / / / /\ \ / /__ \ \__/ \ \ //____// / /__ / /\ / \ \__ / / || /_/ /__/ \__\ /____/ \_____/\_\ /______/ /____/ /_/ \__/ \____|/__/ || INSIDE THE HACKER MIND VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2 1) Introduction 2) SuperNova Email by: SuperNova 3) Hackers: As 1337 As They Get 4) A Confession of Love 5) What Happened to the BBS? by: Gollum 6) Why We Should Appreciate Newbies, and Why We Never Will 7) Misuse of the Word "Hacker" by: The Predator 8) Question of the Moment 9) Next Issue 10) Crew 11) Contact 1) INTRODUCTION It's a very strange time for the hacker community. With news media making preposterous claims about how hackers are taking over cyberspace, as well as MTV airing television shows dealing with bogus wannabe hackers that couldn't crack a hotmail account, it seems as though the entire hacker community has to take a stand against these injustices. But what kind of stand can be taken? How can we protest when no one wants to listen? Perhaps the answer is as simple as not doing anything wrong, and letting the media see hackers for what they really are, explorers of a new world. But the likelihood of this being successful is slim, considering how much the mainstream already hates us. We have a meeting…and we're disturbing the peace. We chat online, and they claim we're hacking government secrets. We try to understand how the world works, and they claim we're just out to steal whatever we can. As I sit here in bed at 2:40am on a Tuesday morning drinking a beer with my laptop, I can't help but wonder how many hackers are out there right now making the world a better place by alerting some clueless sysadmin about the carelessness as to which his entire system is based. Or about the phreaker who is making a call around the world to learn how the whole system works. And how many others like me are sitting in their rooms trying to understand why people hate us so much, especially when we've done nothing wrong. Yes, I am a hacker…but am I doing something terribly wrong by writing this ezine? Believe it or not, some would say yes. Am I hacking into a computer network? No. Am I stealing government secrets? Certainly not, they don't even interest me. Well then, what am I doing? I'm doing what every other hacker is doing…I'm putting knowledge where it belongs. In the minds of the people…welcome to Frequency. I recently received an email from a person named SuperNova in which he/she states, rather strongly, that they're sick of the way hackers are being portrayed by the media. For that reason, I decided to write up my own editorial comparing some common myths about hackers, as well as the realities. Below you will find the letter I received from SuperNova, and I do believe you will find it short but sweet. While it does borrow heavily from The Mentor's Manifesto, and I in fact have no idea who SuperNova is, I think you'll enjoy it. Although please forgive me for posting what most hackers already know. 2) SUPERNOVA EMAIL by: SuperNova I am tired of this crap in the news "'Hacker' Mafiaboy". No one seams to know what a hacker is anymore! A hacker is NOT someone who breaks into computers for whatever reason. In fact a hacker is not a person at all! Hacker is a state of mind. A hacker is free thinking, righteous, and self reliant. A hacker may have friends but is still always alone. A hacker is alone because they are smarter then the everyday monkey we work or go to school with. A hacker is above them, beyond them, and they will always fear us for it. And this fear that is distilled in people by the press and media is why we are exiled. But don't worry about that, don' worry about them. The strong walk alone. -SuperNova- 3) HACKERS: AS 1337 AS THEY GET Jolt Cola, rollerblades, and clothing that comes with elbow pads are just a few of the things associated with hackers. Of course I'm referring to the film, but since I don't want to sound as though I don't like it I'm not going to spend this entire article blaming it for everything. What I will blame however, is the media in general. Whether it's a newspaper printing an article about the newest cyberterrorist who's defacing websites while simultaneously taking over government computers, or Janet Reno "warning" people about the threat hackers pose. It's the same thing over and over, hackers are simply evil little computer nerds who love to go where they don't belong and wreak havoc upon the populace. Of course this same media almost always seems to forget to mention that they have no evidence whatsoever to back up their claims. Can they prove that it was hackers that destroyed a site, and not just common criminals who downloaded an easy to use program somewhere? Or perhaps a pissed off employee who wanted revenge? Putting all of this aside, let's examine what society defines as a hacker. A hacker is a teenager most likely, who is very anti social and does nothing but sit in his room looking at porn while breaking into banks. Once this is done, he tells his hacker friends what he got into, and how he did it so that they can do the same thing and make a quick buck, or at least destroy whatever they can. Now, let's spend the next paragraph stating what you're "average" hacker really is: A real hacker is a person with a thirst for knowledge and exploration. A person who does most of their work at night, while the rest of the world sleeps, and lives a regular life during the day. A hacker can be a person of any age/race/nationality/or gender. And almost always do what they do to better not only themselves, but the world around them. After all, what's the point of destroying something if what you destroy…is what you love. With this is mind, let's think about why exactly the news media and general public feel the way they do about hackers, and whether or not these feelings are justified. Let me give you a few names, see if they ring a bell: Melissa, Mafiaboy, and ILOVEYOU. Sound somewhat familiar? They should, two of them are email viruses, and the other is the name of a supposed "Canadian hacker." Melissa came around gave Microsoft (and many other computer illiterates) a big kick in the ass. As a virus, it reportedly did a lot of damage to those stupid enough to open it. The same can be said of ILOVEYOU, although what makes this one so sad was the fact that it struck the same way Melissa did, obviously someone forgot to fix something somewhere. The hacker name I mentioned, Mafiaboy, is the name of a kid that did some denial of service attacks and took down a few websites, if my memory serves me correctly. Of course the biggest problem with this statement is that no one in the hacker community has heard of, or seen him in person. (can you say bullshit?) But with things like this, and the common computer fool, it's understandable why people are scared of hackers. The media has shown them the worst, and made it even more terrible by throwing in "suggestions" (something that is shunned upon in all other stories). These reporters will gladly accept a 12 year olds claim of being a "1337 computer h@x0r" at face value and not even question it. That's like getting in someone's car because they claim to a cop. My message to the hackers of the world: Show people we don't mean harm by being responsible. Let people know how their systems are vulnerable, and what they can do to fix them. Without us, they wouldn't survive. Hopefully they'll realize this someday so that hackers and the general public can live in peace. -screamer 4) A CONFESSION OF LOVE For the next few paragraphs, allow me to babble on about a passion of mine. While I do call myself a hacker, at heart I've always felt like a phreaker. Years ago, even before I discovered my love of telephones, I would sneak into places I had no business going (real world hacking if you will). My friends and I would dress in black and sneak around in other people's backyards, and even had a name for a little gang. Yes folks, we called ourselves Sneaks. Clever huh? (and yes, I do love that movie Sneakers…gotta problem?) The fun was in the excitement of seeing how far we could get, and where we could go. What if someone came outside, or what if a light turned on…if someone got caught they were on their own, everyone else would scatter. Eventually I grew out of this, after all what kind of man would I be if I was still sneaking around my neighbor's yards? But what I then discovered where the joys of telephones, and how they allowed me to reach out to not only my neighbors…but the entire world. Now before you think I'm going to start teaching you about boxes and all the ways of making free phone calls, please think again. I decided before hand that I would much rather spend my time explaining why I love phones so much…as opposed to how they work. Let's face it, you probably already know all about the A,B,C and D tones your phone can make when combined with the proper box, and I bet you're sick to death of hearing about the now extinct blue box. (Although they do make for great 2600 tee shirts). No, instead I'm going to explain my (somewhat) strange obsession over telephones, and hopefully others out there will relate to what I have to say. When I was younger and first got a phone in my room, I was excited by the fact that I could now get in touch with my friends anytime I wanted, and in the privacy of my own room. It was a much older phone, but still touch tone. (the rotary was downstairs, where the parents could get at it) After calling my friends I would dial up hotlines in the back of magazines just to hear what they had to say. Now the question is, why did I do this? Was it because I was similar to your average teenager who loves to chat away on the phone? To be honest, no. My fascination went a bit deeper than that. For me, it was the feeling of leaving my room…without physically moving. I could meet up with my friends on a phone line and talk for hours and hours, and then could call up a hotline somewhere in the world and know that I was connected to another land (even though usually it was within US borders) Every time I lifted up the receiver, I listened to the beautiful dial tone and pondered the possibilities. Throughout the years I explored the phone system some more, and did my best to find the lowest ;) possible prices around. Calling cards were good, but many times had hidden fees and/or didn't give you all the time you purchased. But nonetheless, I didn't care. As long as I was able to call out and reach someone, I was happy. This of course, brings me to today. I now own a speaker phone, and I will admit that hitting the speaker button and listening to the dial tone still gets me going. Think about it for a moment, every time you press a few buttons you never know where you'll wind up! Press 0 and talk to your local operator, or maybe you'd rather just try and find which three digit number would ring back your phone. Recently, I found a great 800 number which asked me for a 3 digit passcode. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how happy I was to find that one, because that meant more exploring. But even if you don't get a machine, you may have even more fun with a human! Nothing is more exciting in the phreaker world than talking to someone, and pretending you're somebody totally different. Not exactly social engineering (although in certain cases that may apply) because you're just seeing how much further through the phone lines you can get, and not trying to scam a password out of them. But let's face it, who's going to care if you're shootin the shit with someone in a company somewhere? As long as you stay calm and make yourself believe you are who you say you are, you'll do fine. Remember, people dial wrong numbers all the time. If everything goes awry and you wind up in a situation you can't control, all you do is say "Sorry, wrong number!" and hang up. What are they going to do, trace you? So in conclusion, I hope a few people out there now understand why some hackers are so in love with phones. Telephones are right up there with beer and video games on my favorites list, but are still trailing women. Now I only wish I could get started with short wave radio, which is partially why this ezine is called Frequency. But for now I'm going to stick with what I know, and that is the telephone. I hope you've seen how exciting they can be, and if not…then you must not have that same need to explore that I do. And keep in mind I didn't even touch upon boxes and ways of using loop lines to make calls all over the world. Then there's always teleconferences as well, but there will be other articles too…. -screamer 5) WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BBS? by: Gollum What Happened to the BBS? Every old hacking text I read always has something about a BBS written in it. Even some of the files I receive over the net have some logo at the bottom saying that this file passed through such and such a BBS. The one thing wrong with this is, What ever happened to these BBS's? The problem seems that companies always tend to have Web Pages, which has over time, caused hacking to become more Internet oriented. Before the actual Internet Revolution, major corporations didn't have Web Pages so the only way to find a server was to use a war-dialer and find modems that picked up the line, then you would log into these places and see what you got. There was less security, but everything was done by command line (the way it should be). Sometimes however, you would come across a hacking or maybe warez BBS with other people on it sharing files. This was a great way to share files over the Internet and trade ideas and the occasinal card number and/or password. Not to mention, you would only meet people with at least half a brain and knew something about computers. Now you did get the occasional lamer looking for porn, trojans, and warez so he can "h4ck th3 pl4n37" but hey, he knew how to use a dialer right? Then security jumped up, and they can now trace you if they find you dialing in. Sooner or later the simpler WWW was bound to leap up over the complex BBS's and allow any moron with a keyboard and a mouse to get on the web and download Sub7 so he can be "1337" in front of his friends. AOLers can, with two clicks of a mouse, be on "Master of Disaster's Trojan Hacking Website." These people don't appreciate the "...beauty of the baud..." nor do they care or understand the real reasons behind hacking. These are always the ones that get busted by the FED's because they were too dumb to erase their presence from the computer. They are of course the spokesmen (or spokeswomen) of the hacker underground played out by the media, and the common person will believe anything they hear on TV and go blab it around to the world. "...the smart people were listening to the dumb people, and the dumb people were listening to you..." They just It isn't all bad though...with all the new technology more exploits have come around, and with the ease of some systems, you always can find that lazy admin who "forgot" to close that common hole. However, I would like to see the return of the BBS and meet some real hackers, but with the invention of DSL and the cable modem, I don't see that happening at all. Right now I have found all I need for hackers at UGN, and the people there know a lot and have helped me out very much. please reply w/ suggestions, comments, or anything else -=G Ø L L U M=- 6) WHY WE SHOULD APPRECIATE NEWBIES, AND WHY WE NEVER WILL Unfortunately, hackers are a dying breed. I of course refer to legitimate hackers, the ones that advance technology by exploring it as much as they can. Slowly but surely it would seem as though lamers (or whatever you choose to call them) are taking over the title of "hacker," at least from a media standpoint. What can be done about this you ask? Quite frankly, the only thing that can be done is to welcome newbies into our forums and give them the proper guidance. When a newbie asks how to hack something, or where to obtain information on how to hack, it's important we reply with something like "If you're really interested in hacking, head over to the library and check out every computer book you can," instead of pointing them to text philes written thirteen years ago. This isn't to say that those philes are unimportant, certainly not! We must remind newbies of the hackers that went before them, so that they know the tradition they are meant to carry on. With a little luck, that newbie will go on to become the newest productive member of the hacker community. Yet unfortunately, I would say that only 1 out 10 newbies actually goes on to become a responsible hacker. The other 9 will find studying far too boring and either give up, or resort to sending Trojans and looking at porn. (Not that there's anything wrong with porn! Just making a point) On the other hand, if that 1 that makes it goes on to learn brand new ways of getting around security and helping companies prevent attacks from those that will NOT help them, then our job is done. In a future article, I would like to discuss text philes and how newbies interpret them. But for now, let me take a moment to explain why we never will accept newbies as hackers. Let's say you're hacker who's been in the game for 13 years, and has learned everything he/she knows through hard work and studying. Now suppose you're hanging out in an irc room one day, here's an example of what could happen should a newbie enter (I've seen it, and been through it many times folks). The newbie would probably enter using a handle such as Neo, or Morpheus etc. But for the purpose of this example, I will use to represent the experienced one, and to represent the…surprise, surprise, new guy. *newbie enters the chat* hey hacker, $up \/\/|+ j00? not much, just waiting for a few friends…and you don't have to use that writing style in here aight coo, just makin sure no one's trackin us (doesn't even want to reply, but does anyway to be polite) right so whatcha been hackin man? nothing aha! I hacked my school's computer! Even changed my grade! that's great (obviously uninterested) yeah, hey if you were gonna hack your school's computer, what would you do?? Ya know, so I can compare well first of all, tell me how you got in, and then I'll let you know whether or not that was the best, or smartest way. (doesn't want to answer) yo! I phucked up all their files and shit! doesn't sound to smart, you should have learned how it all worked…I know that's what I'd be interested in (starts to feel aggravated and feels the need to prove himself) yeah well I usually do in everything else I hack well that's good yep…but in your case I didn't…THANKS FOR LETTING ME GO THRU YER FILES ASSHOLE!!! *newbie has left the chat* Now any real hacker would know that this newbie did NOT go through his files, because quite frankly it would be far too difficult to do…and in a chat room? With no files being sent? Probably downright impossible! But nonetheless the hacker is left feeling aggravated by the pathetic newbie that tried to act like he was the coolest thing in the world. What happens next? Well from experience I can tell you that the newbie will go to a message board and complain about how he/she was treated unfairly, and can't understand why hackers won't help him/her. Hopefully by placing this rather blunt example before you a few newbies out there will realize that hackers are not interested in their meaningless ramblings. (It's almost like going up to a doctor and pretending to know more than he does, you'll just look stupid) But at the same time, the term "newbie" need not be considered a derogatory reference. A newbie is someone who is just beginning his journey through the hacker underground, and if he does it respectfully we should treat him with an equal amount of respect. If however, he simply wants to make idle threats that have no basis in reality, then he's most likely just a kid that got a new puter for his birthday, and will never be anything more. To the new guys out there: We've been around for a long time and had to work for what we know, if you wish to be one of us you must do the same. Getting information handed to you is not the way to go, you must go out and acquire it. If you do, with a little luck you too will someday be a genuine hacker. Best of luck to all of you. -screamer 7) MISUSE OF THE WORD "HACKER" by: The Predator MISUSE OF THE WORD HACKER The press and the media (mostly) always make a mistake with the words hacker and cracker. And we hackers don't like it cause they blame hackers for things they don't do. I'm sick of what they call a description for the word hacker: a person who penetrates computer systems and then who likes to destroy any kind of data and hacking is illegal. And this makes us real hackers really angry! That defenition what I just gave Was that of a CRACKER OR SCRIPT KIDDIE but NOT af a HACKER. This is an defenition of my own of hacking: hacking is a game to penetrate computer systems and to not get caught. We only do this do gain knowledge and not for destroying any data. But isn't all what hacking is about. Hacking is having a desire to learn, a desire to be the first to discover something new. A true hacker mentality is something that shouldn't be thought of as a dark, mischievous thing, but perhaps, more that of a scientist. Study, learn, experiment, and share what you've found with others... the predator the__predator@hotmail.com 8) QUESTION OF THE MOMENT Suppose someone entered into a computer through your account so they could explore what was on the system, but in the process they saw all your private files. All your email, all your text files, and all your progs. Assuming you do now, would you still support hacking? Or would this make you realize how violating hacking can feel when you're the one being hacked? Send all replies to screamer666@hotmail.com and a few will be chosen to be posted in the next issue of Frequency. 9) NEXT ISSUE An interview with D4sh, cohost of the online radio show Hackermind as well as my personal webmaster. Have you lost your use of Napster because of Metallica or Dr. Dre? We'll show you a way to get rid of that problem with a simple regedit trick! 10) CREW Editor in Chief - Screamer Chaotix Webmasta - D4sh Contributing Writers - SuperNova, Gollum, The Predator 11) CONTACT Questions, comments, or article submissions: screamer666@hotmail.com Tune into Hackermind Tuesdays and Thursdays with winamp or realplayer at location 166.90.148.114:9474 WWW.HACKERMIND.NET