Showing posts with label art of hacking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art of hacking. Show all posts

Friday, November 13, 2015

HACKER MENTALITY

HACKER MENTALITY

Hackers are thinkers. They visualize what others can't. They see the world differently. They are super curious. They tinker with things in order to understand them.  They hunger for knowledge that interest them. Einstein was a tinkerer, a preoccupied thinker, so much so that his teachers said that he won't amount to anything. Yet, we all know what his intellectual contribution was to the global society. He saw the world differently and he could have been absolutely wealthy but his interests weren't monetary.  Likewise Tesla a was a tinkerer totally preoccupied by his interests having time for nothing else because he saw the world differently. He could have been stinking rich but be chose the art of tinkering over money. They wanted to empower the masses and create a better future for all. They were eccentric men, yet there are loads of people today that are wired like Einstein and Tesla, even share their eccentricity, though they may not be as intelligent or perhaps even more so.


Albert Einstein, tinkerer, hacker, scientist.
 The masses call these people hackers and nerds. Yep, Nerds...  a derogatory term used by the masses to talk down on them as if they are inferior. But quite the contrary. These hackers and nerds are the ones who brought them the bicycle, the internal combustion engine, electricity, the telephone system, the computer, the internet, the smartphone, satellite TV, and so much more. Without the nerds where would the masses be technologically?  Professor Tim Berners-Lee conceptualize URIs, HTTP and HTML the invented the World Wide Web. James Gosling developer of  the Java Programming language. Linus Torvalds  is the creator of the Linux kernel and its principal developer, and the list goes on. Realistically is was never about the money for them  but rather the sharing of knowledge to empower others.


Nicola Tesla ... whose ideas were usurped by Edison, much like
Zuckerberg usurped Jarkko Oikarinen's IRC and turned it into Facebook.

Admittedly some of these master minds opted for the money. Wasniak didn't but his partner Jobbs did. Tim Paterson the inventor and originator of MSDOS didn't but Bill did, making him one of the riches men in the world. IRC was an amazing app designed by Jarkko Oikarinen which since the days of inception  was free, gratis and verniet. A sucker like Zuckerberg copied IRC added some bells and whistles called it Facebook and became stinking rich in the process. These are the sellouts. Money motivated them above the art of hacking  and sharing,  not desiring equality but disparities in wealth, to the point that the world's wealthiest 5%  is sitting with 95% of the global wealth and the remaining  95% of the masses share in the 5%. Disgraceful! Many of them having made their fortunes on the backs of child labour (Apple, Microsoft & Samsung) in their supply chains, adding to the already enormous Third World Debt Crisis.

The above passage gives the impression that hackers and nerds are all male, but this is certainly not the case. I have encountered that "chica" who could show me a thing or two when it comes to high-tech. As a whole, hackers are rebellious by nature, non conformists, often loners preferring the company of computers over people. They prefer  to do their own thing, and not be bogged down by a 9 to 5. They cannot see themselves as obedient Zombies who conform to the system by subjecting their income to the trinkets of society. You know... that prestigious car that gives others the impression that you are "all that", though they are knee deep in arse mousse because of debt. That pretentious house  with the swimming pool and entertainment area with which to lure friends to impress. Those life, car and household insurances that were all grudge purchase anyway, which they endure under great strain because the Jones' have them. That expensive lifetime gym membership that's costing them an arm and a leg which they hardly use, except as a conversation piece.  Not forgetting the maxed out credit cards that they constantly juggle not to embarress the arse mousse out of your families. Slave to the system with debt as the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Dept up to their freaking eyeballs.

That's what gets these obedient slave,  Zombies jumping out of bed at an unruly hour of the morning, braving the traffic to get to work on time to earn that measly salary that they are unhappy with to pay for the trinkets that they don't really need which they were enticed into by the system even though it's not what they really wanted   in the first place. They are spokes in the  system and getting out is most difficult hence its best not to get into the system in the first place. That's why hackers keep it real and therefore don't deserve the negative connotations attached to the term. Admittedly there are angry hackers who tend to be anarchists,  evil enough to destroy the establishments, but you have those types in all walks of society. Then their are wannabe hackers ... the script kiddies (crackers) who gave hackers the bad name by hacking into networks haphazardly because they lack real hacker knowledge. This hacker stigma has led to the White hat, Black hat, blah, blah blah by those who wants to label everything.  The cybersecurity problem of today doesn't lie with the hackers but falls squarely the shoulders of operating system manufacturers who couldn't design  a secure system in the first place. And secondly on the heads of the dumb asses corporates employ to guard their networks who don't know enough to hack their way out of a wet paper bag.


Thursday, October 15, 2015

HACKING THE NET

HACKING THE NET


Curiosity and inquisitiveness are two characteristics deeply ingrained in nature and is a very natural part of all life forms. Curiosity killed the cat but inquisitiveness has sent many a hacker to jail for 'cybercrime' though over zealous inquisitiveness is normally their only crime. Anyone with sufficient interest in the 'art of hacking' can become quite accomplish in just a few short months  but mastering it takes substantially longer.  The learning curve of hacking is fairly steep, the subject is extremely interesting and the knowledge totally beyond awesome. Hence you hear names like, DigigodCybergod “Solo”, “C0mrade”, “Dark Dante” and   Byteking”, etc, etc, because analytical thought,  mental brilliance or a high IQ and  does tend give some people a complex of superiority. Which in some cases borders on arrogance then stupidity. 

When one gets the hang of computers, ports, software and programming, understand communications protocols, have a familiarity with networks and routing tables and can visualize how they seamlessly integrate, curiosity can get the better of you. Knowing when to stop  is the difference between a hacker and a cracker. Crackers are those individuals or teams intent on stealing sensitive or classified information, credit card details and other forms of identity theft for financial gain. Whereas hackers are those individuals who respect personal and corporate boundaries and do what they do for personal pleasure and advancement of knowledge. Most hackers today are employed as network security consultants or security analysts and the best example of such a hacker is Kevin Mitnick. He served time for his inquisitiveness and now works  as a network security professional. People with hacking skills are in big demand and normally command above decent salaries.  There is an old saying that says, "it takes a thief to catch a thief" well likewise "it takes a hacker (“White Hat”) to catch a cracker" ( “Black Hats” ).  One of the hackers were even referred to as  the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime.”



Kevin Mitnick hacker supreme

Hacking is a serious offence and as recent as 28th August,  'smilex' the administrator of the botnet “Bugat” aka Dridex got nabbed in Cypress by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In a joint venture of U.K and US disrupted his botnet which infected more than 125 000 computers in one year. Smilex is innocent until proven guilty but has already been labeled as a cyber criminal. He is being held for releasing a sophisticated malware package designed to steal banking and other credentials from infected computers that amounts to millions of USD. Smilex's real name is Andrey Ghinkul  or Andrei Ghincul and he is from Moldova.  It is alleged that he and  his co-conspirators used the Dridex P2P malware to initiate fraudulent electronic funds transfers  from the victims’ bank accounts into the accounts of their money mules, who then transferred the stolen funds to other members of the conspiracy. 
Black hat hacker
The first offence was a transfer of $999,000 from the Sharon, Pennsylvania, City School District’s account at First National Bank to an account in Kiev, Ukraine.  The second offence was a transfer of  $2,158,600 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Krasnodar, Russia.  The third offence was a transfer of   $1,350,000 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Minsk, Belarus.  The fourth was a attempt to transfer $76,520 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Philadelphia. But the FBI estimates that peer-to-peer malware and the Bugat botnet is responsible for at  least $10 million domestically. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), have released a Technical Alert (TA15-286A)  for all Microsoft Windows Affected Systems  about the Dridex botnet. 

Because Smilex targeted American businesses, the USA is seeking for his extradition so that he can be tried in America. He will be charged with criminal conspiracy, unauthorized computer access with intent to defraud, damaging a computer, wire fraud and bank fraud.   But don't let this put you off from learning hacking, because the key to becoming a successful hacker  is to know where to draw the line.

If you've been infected, the following anti-virus software could help to alleviate your problems.

F-Secure
https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/online-scanner/

McAfee
http://www.mcafee.com/uk/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx/

Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx/ 
       
Sophos
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool.aspx/

Trend Micro
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/