Hacking Arena

Hackers and Culture? True Indeed!


Hacker culture has existed for many decades, although the majority of us may have become recently aware thanks to movies like The Matrix. Nevertheless, hacking culture has been out there, and has been constantly influencing our society and the way we view the world. From anime to computer knowledge, hacker culture has, steadily, made its way to our lives. What Is Hacker Culture?

Hacker culture is composed by all those experiences and human manifestations that are related to the exploit of hardware and software. Right now there are three kinds of hackers. The first and most known kind of hacker is the black hat hacker, or the individual who uses his knowledge for obtaining a personal benefit. Usually, it means stealing information that can be sold in the black market.



The most daring black hat hackers are able to crack bank accounts, leaving no trace behind. Fortunately, bank security and worldwide cooperation has been able to place some restrictions and control over these individuals.



On the other side of the balance is the white hack hacker, a computer security expert who works with organizations and helps them with their computer network security problems.



Finally, there are the grey hat hackers. This kind of hackers is composed by people who walk the thin line between white hat hackers and black hat hackers. Usually, their tendency will be influenced by their need of money or their lust for recognition among the hacker community.

Which Are The Origins Of Hacker Culture?

It could be said that hackers have existed since immemorial times. Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary portrays a hacker as a computer expert, in reality, a hacker is any person who looks for weaknesses in the system and tries to exploit them in their own benefit.



Under this definition, Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, was a hacker. How so? He noticed that there were a series of weaknesses in the armies of ancient Greece. In order to exploit them in his favor, he decided to implement a series of improvements to his own army. As history has showed us, these improvements worked in his favor and in favor of his famous son.



The same could be said from Napoleon, who noticed that mobility and artillery could be used in such a way that no army in Europe would be able to withstand him. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to consider that logistics were an important thing to consider when he mobilized hundreds of thousands of men into the Russian Empire.

Know where you belong in the Hacker Culture


However, it wasn't until the advent of the industrial revolution, and the appearance of the phone network, that the first hackers of the modern era appeared. In those days, the operators of this network were men. Unfortunately, many of them had a knack and a desire to exploit this system in their own benefit. Due to this fact, all men operators were fired and new, women operators were contracted (a practice that continued for many decades).



The next revolution in hacker culture came with the appearance of the first computers in the universities around the country. Groups of students at the MIT were paid for developing the operating software of the giant computer mainframes. In order to make their work easier, these young men created hacks, or shortcuts, to determined sensitive areas of their programming.

Are There Any Subcultures?

In computer hacker culture there are two divisions. The first one is known as the Academic hacker subculture, composed by the students, engineers and professionals who had the ability to use the machines provided by universities. These people worked in computer science and had the latest in technology. Many of them were able to use their knowledge and expertise in the second division.



The other hacker subculture is the one which has its origins in hobbyists; people who built computers in their garages (ala Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple) or were quite good with electronics (many of the were subscribed to specialized magazines). This subculture had its first golden age with the advent of personal computers and the first computer games.


Thousands of people across America looked for ways to hack computer game passwords and copy-protection schemes (in those days there was no internet, so the computer game companies weren't able to check online if your copy was an original). However, the true revolution came with the internet.



Now, hackers from around the world could hack, literally, millions of computers thanks to the weaknesses found at Microsoft Windows products and the lack of knowledge of computer users (only a small percentage makes constant software upgrades, and has a firewall, an antivirus and a spyware installed).



Finally, if you wish to learn hacking culture, or embrace it, start with some movies and literature! The Matrix is an excellent place to begin, but there are also excellent science fiction and non-fiction books that can transport you to a world you never imagined. One of the most popular ones is Neuromancer, written by William Gibson.



For many, hacking culture has become their way of life. Bored with the standardized lifestyle of the western civilization, hackers and it millions of new followers have created their own niche among our technological society. Hacker culture, once considered part of the underground, is now part of us.

Hacker's beware: A Crook is Caught One Day or the other


Hackers had broken into the Department of Defense's computers - again. With news like this, combined with the fact that other hackers are constantly seeking to steal people's identity, send out spam from innocent computers, and other computer crimes hacking into unauthorized places, makes it necessary for illegal hackers to be caught. If you are one of those who have suffered from a hack attack, then you may be one of those who say: "I need an IP specialist, to catch a hacker." This article will show you some things that you can do.

How Hackers Are Caught

With the fact that Microsoft and some other software companies have been notified - yes, by hackers, that there are many "holes" in Windows that a hacker can take advantage of. Microsoft has responded by attempting to fix the "holes" each time one is pointed out. Then, it sends out a patch to block hackers from attacking through that "hole." Keeping up with the update's from Microsoft is one way to close down the problems that exist in the Windows software - though it is unknown if all such "holes" will ever be known.



Normally, it is rather hard to notice that a hacker has hacked into your computer. If all he is doing is having a look around, or taking minimum amounts of data - you really cannot be sure that you are being hacked. The are some effects of computer hacking, though, that might tip you off. Here are a couple of ways to detect hackers.

Detecting Hackers

Hackers, by nature are very stealthy. Their ability to gain access to your computer through the Internet can easily be done without your knowledge - and most of them seem to prefer that approach. Before time is spent on being able to detect a hacker, it should be noted that a determined hacker will not be stopped! They will get in - even to the Department of Defenses systems!



Some common things that might tip you off to an intrusion are:

Lights showing hard drive activity being busier than what your own activities call for

Suspicious files left on your computer - often in the Windows Temp directory with a tmp. suffix

Obvious tampering - destroyed files, missing files, etc.

Or, the worst case - someone's taking money out of your bank account or using your credit cards (Please note, though, that this could also be the result of phishing, too - not necessarily hacking)

Your firewall keeps receives multiple packets from a single web address and notifies you.

How to catch a hacker


Once a hacker does gain access to your computer, he will purposefully leave a little file or two, that will give him easy access in the future. These files are usually referred to as "trojans." This is one of the facts about hackers that is not very comforting. Even after you take precautions to prevent further attacks, unless you thoroughly clean off the hacker's little access files - he can still easily access your system. Another not so nice fact is that, unless you really learn (or already know) about computer systems, you probably will not either be able to detect, or stop the hacker. You can, however, get help. This is when you need to say, "I need an IP specialist, to catch a hacker".

Tracing The Hacker's IP Address

A number of software programs are available now - through the Internet, that will enable you to trace a hacker's IP address to a geographical address. Remember, though, that hackers often borrow other computers (usually unknown to the owner), and do their computer crimes hacking from there. So, before you take any action against someone you think it might be, it is better to let the proper authorities handle it.

One free program that you might use in order to learn of the hacker's IP address is Netstat.
This Windows program will enable you to see exactly what the hacker does - tracing everything. It also shows you the status of all of your ports, and other statistics.

Catching Them Red-Handed

Basically once there is a hacker attack, you have two options. The first is to shut your system down, and give your computer to a lab to be able to collect the necessary evidence. Apart from the aforementioned programs, if you do much to the computer yourself - you could be destroying the very evidence you need to track a hacker. Of course, if you have not already backed up your data elsewhere, this option may not be available to you. Remember that a hacker can only be prosecuted using the evidence on other people's computers. A second course of action would be to act as if nothing had taken place, and move your sensitive data to another computer. By leaving it alone, and letting the hacker continue, more evidence can be collected against him until there is a solid case. Knowing this fact about how to catch a hacker is very important.



Besides needing an IP address, you must also learn the ISP from which the attack comes. Port 43 will give you data about the IP and the ISP. Software is available that can tell you these things, and you can also learn about it by going to a whois directory. Then, with this information, you can contact the Webmaster of the ISP, and hopefully, get it stopped.



Each of us needs to take some serious precautions about preventing our own computers from being broken into (as much as possible). With the software and firewalls that are currently available, perhaps you will never need to be one who cries out, "I need a specialist, to catch a hacker". After you get the necessary programs to make your computer safer, be sure to keep it updated, and prevent computer crimes hacking.

Outlaws of Technology! Hacker or Cracker


In order to study the comparison the between the hackers and crackers, it is important to understand the respective definitions. While apparently the words hacking and cracking seems synonymous, yet there exist certain points of distinctions between the two and the meaning of the words will always be heated topics of debate. Since the very dawn of the civilization, man's hunger to attain the unattainable have went on opening new horizons in almost every aspects of life, and the technology is of no exception to this nature of human.

Aims of Hackers and Crackers

The computer hackers actually trespass or circumvent artistically, yet scientifically into the other computer system with a hunger to know the programmable systems, how they perform and their internal structures, while cracking is slight different in sense. Cracking means to break off the computer's security system. This is a subject matter of hard-core science with an aesthetic undertone of artistic skill that has attracted a few millions of teenagers and young adults all over the world.

Who Is A Hacker And What Is His Aim?

Delving deep into the concepts, we can compare the hackers and crackers. A hacker is a person who commits the fraudulent act or the penal offense of exploring into the other computers in order to know the details of the programmable system and how they work. On the other level, a cracker is a person just more secretive as compared to the hacker. The cracker breaks through the system's security and proves to be far more dangerous than the hackers who just quench his or her thirst by simply discovering the workings of a system.



Hence the crackers can potentially be much more perilous as compared to the hackers. While it is often believed that the hacking is simply exploring into the other computer system with an intention to know how the programmable system works, which is not a fraudulent task unless any sort of vandalism and theft is done by this, another huge section stands strictly against the view and look at the act from the view point of a crime.

Who is A Cracker and What Is His Aim?

A cracker is a technical person who has mastered the art of breaking systems, often not for acquiring knowledge, by the dint of few programs and softwares used as tools. They are more interested in the system's security without the need of great deal of knowledge, thereby not benefiting much.



On the other hand, a hacker who cracks and hacks systems is not only interested in breaking the security of the system but also in knowing about the system's details, by which he gains much more than by simply cracking systems. Unlike a cracker, a hacker generally does not have intention destroy data maliciously or to steel things.



A cracker who is often termed to be a cyber burglar brings out significant harm to the network or steels the information like passwords or credit card numbers. A Trojan is capable enough to recognize and record even every single keystroke that you make. Hence even if you do not store any personal or financial records in your system, the hackers can still be able to obtain the information by recognizing the keystrokes.

Prerequisites of Hackers and Crackers


Hacking and cracking are not as easy as they apparently appear to be. These need serious endeavor to the exhaustive studies and thorough understanding of the computer languages. Both the hackers and crackers must be highly dedicated programming experts who must have sound grips of the language C, as this language has the utmost flexibility and is the widely used ported language all over world's hackers' communities.

Other helpful languages are C++, java and pearl. By the dint of such technical know-how the hackers becomes smart enough to compel another computer system or a program or any other piece of hardware to perform such things that they actually were not wanted to do. The crackers tries to gain a hassle free access to a system or a server with the help of certain methodical tools that bypasses the security, giving the crackers immense privileges with the server or the system they have targeted.

The Legal Aspect

Whatever the terminology may be - an act of hacking or cracking, both the ideas have been brought to the severe penal action irrespective of the reasons. Although it seems to be an enjoyable task of exploring out to visit into the other computer systems by breaking off the system's security, yet computer hacking is treated to be a fraudulent and a criminal offense that has been covered under the serious legal section of Title 18:



Crimes and Criminal Procedure: Part 1: Crimes: Chapter 47: Fraud and False Statements: Section 1030: Fraud and related activity in connection with computers. However needless to say that, hacking and cracking are such acts that is illegal in some ways but to view from the certain other platform the act has been found to serve some agencies and departments with certain awfully useful functions - beyond mere pleasure. Though illegal, the hackers and the crackers are sometimes used by the nations' top ranking departments for hacking and cracking networks to get the information that may be required to save the nation from any anticipated danger.

Is Hacking Always Bad?


Although the history of hacking is relatively unknown to most of the public, it's quite interesting to read about it. It doesn't matter if you aren't a computer expert or a system administrator of a big corporation. Computers are as much part of our history as airplanes and cars, and it should be common knowledge to know how they came to be. It's the only way you can understand the effects of computer hacking in our life.

History of Hacking

Hacking is not limited to computers. The real meaning of hacking is to expand the capabilities of any electronic device; to use them beyond the original intentions of the manufacturer. As a matter of fact, the first hackers appeared in the 1960's at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and their first victims were electric trains. They wanted them to perform faster and more efficiently. So, is hacking always bad? Not really. It only depends on how to use it. But it wasn't until a group of these hackers decided to exert their knowledge in the computer mainframes of the MIT.

During the 1970's, a different kind of hacker appeared: the phreaks or phone hackers. They learned ways to hack the telephonic system and make phone calls for free. Within these group of people, a phreaker became famous because a simple discovery. John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, found that he could make long distance calls with a whistle. He built a blue box that could do this and the Esquire magazine published an article on how to build them. Fascinated by this discovery, two kids, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, decided to sell these blue boxes, starting a business friendship which resulted in the founding of Apple.

By the 1980's, phreaks started to migrate to computers, and the first Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) appeared. BBS are like the yahoo groups of today, were people posted messages of any kind of topics. The BBS used by hackers specialized in tips on how to break into computers, how to use stolen credit card numbers and share stolen computer passwords.

It wasn't until 1986 that the US government realized the danger that hackers represented to the national security. As a way to counteract this menace, the Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, making computer breaking a crime across the nation.

During the 1990's, when the use of the internet widespread around the world, hackers multiplied, but it wasn't until the end of the decade that system's security became mainstream among the public.

Today, we are accustomed to hackers, crackers, viruses, Trojans, worms and all of the techniques we need to follow to combat them.


Profiles of Famous Computer Hackers
 
As it was mentioned before, the history of hacking is intermixed with the history of computers. Many of the famous computer hackers of the past are the billionaires of today.


The most known hacker is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. Considered the richest person in the world for more than a decade, he became the most successful entrepreneur of the computer industry. His beginnings go back to the 1970's when he designed computer programs for the computer platforms of that era, and ended with the introduction of Windows in the world of personal computers.

After some time away from the media attention, Steve Jobs came back with the introduction of several new products in Apple. The most known of them is the iPod, which has revolutionized the music industry around the world. Jobs started nearly at the same time that Gates, founding Apple and introducing to the market the first home computer, the Apple II. Rate this Article

Although Linus Torvalds was known among the hacker community as the hero who created Linux, the open source operating system, it hasn't been until recent years that people started to wonder if there was another option apart from using Microsoft's operating system.

Profiles of Bad Hackers

Unfortunately, there are as many bad hackers as productive hackers. One of the most famous black hackers is Kevin Mitnick, who broke into the computers of several organizations, including Fujitsu, Motorola, Sun Microsystems and Nokia. He was imprisoned and even today can't use a computer due to a judicial restriction.

Another famous hacker is Vladimir Levin, a mathematician who led a group of Russian hackers and stole ten million dollars from Citibank. Until this day, no one knows how they did it.

Jonathan James case is a bit more complicated. He was the first juvenile from the teen hackers of the USA to be prosecuted for computer hacking. But that didn't stop him. Later, he was able to access the computer systems of NASA and the US Department of Defense. Finally, he was imprisoned.

Fraud for Sale

Years ago, before the coming of the internet, hackers around the world caused a lot of mayhem in organizations. But now that they have a potential market of hundreds of millions of persons, their options are almost limitless. That's why online fraud is considered one of the cancers of the internet. The only way to protect from it, is becoming an anti hacker ourselves, maintaining up to date with the most basic knowledge: firewall, antivirus, antispam, constant operating system updates and taking care of suspicious websites.



The effects of computer hacking in our history can't be denied. It is here and it won't disappear. But the most interesting thing about the history of hacking is that it was expected to happen. You only need to check old science fiction books to find it.

Hacking Simplified - For Those Who Want to Learn Things From the Scratch

It's quite probable that you have received spam offering a hotmail hacking guide that will give you the basics on how to become a hacker. Although it sounds tempting to have the power to know the private life of other persons, most of these guides and courses are nothing but scams that are looking for new victims. If you really want to become a hacker, you need to go to the places were they gather: a hacking facebook, a hacker's forum, free hacking tutorials or even a mailing list. The information is out there. You only need to go and find it.


Where Can You Get Material on Hacking and Information on Hacking


There are two main sources. The first one is the Internet. You will have to make a basic query in your favorite search engine with the word hacker and start looking each one of the suggested sites. Most of them will only offer you limited tutorials on how to hack (like the Hacker's Black book or the Happy Hacker book, which are outdated). Other's will give you an useful insight on this world. After some time, you will find forums were people from around the world share their experiences.



Do not expect to enter an easy world. The jargon used by a group of hackers can be quite confusing for any beginner. So don't feel that you will never be part of it. Start with the basics and read "How to become a hacker" from Eric S. Rymond. Although the document is five years old, it will give you an introductory crash course on were do you need to start.



The second source is face to face reunions. Get into the internet and search for any hacker's meeting in your vicinity. You will be surprised to find that they meet quite regularly. Of course, do not expect to find a Matrix kind of reunion. This is serious, professional people that pay their rent by hacking. Drop by and make some questions on hacking tutorials.

What Is The Hackers Bible?

The hacker's bible has two possible sources, depending on whom do you ask. For some people, it is none other but the magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. This magazine was created by Emmanuel Goldstein, and it focuses on aspects of different technologies. For example, it covers telecommunication devices as well as computers.



The magazine gives to its readers grey hacker's material. That means that it gives them information on how to augment the capacities of any electronic apparatus, such as a cell phone. This neutral posture is different to white hacking (were a hacker uses his abilities for a good cause, like detecting the vulnerabilities of a network) and black hacking (were a hacker uses his knowledge for selfish purposes, like creating a hotmail hacking guide).



The other Hacker's Bible is the Jargon File. This document is a glossary of hacker slang that has been collected since 1975, from the old days of the Arpanet (the precursor of the Internet).

Nuts and Bolts


To know what is computer hacking, one must know their terms. A list of certain significant ones is described below. Hacking run

essentially, a hacking run is a hacking session that lasts longer than normal working times, i.e. a hacking run that lasts for in excess of eight to ten hours.

White Hat

considered one of nice guys, a white hat hacker is one who hacks and the informs the owner of the hacking

Black Hat

in contrast, the black hat hacker is considered a criminal and uses his/her skills to break the law

Gray Hat

as one would imagine, a gray hat hacker sometimes is good, and sometimes is criminal; a combination of the white and black hat

Script Kiddie

a demeaning term, used for those who hack but do so by following directions and not creating anything of their own

Trojan horse

deceptive programs that pretend they do one thing, only to enter the computer system and do another; however, they need not be bad for the computer

Virus

a self-replicating program that inserts itself into executable codes or documents

Worm

also a self-replicating program, but a worm breeds itself in computer systems.

Software, Hardware, and Internet Hacking

Although the computer languages should solely be used for the legitimate purposes such as learning and other constructive purposes, yet there are lots of ways these languages are used as the means of destructions. The languages such as C, C++, java, Pearl and few more like these are used for hacking. Hackers are the programming experts who have sound grips in the language mentioned above. The language C is the utmost flexible and is the widely accepted one as the ported language in the community of the hackers.



Linux is the strongest hacker-friendly operating system that can be used by the hackers intending to hack another system. The hackers use wide range software to break into the remote systems. Although these programs and software were constructed for some legal purposes, yet they have turned to be the serious hacker tools. A few worth mentioning software and programs are DeCSS 1.2b, Coldlife 4.0, PCHelps Network Tracer, IntelliTamper 2.07 and etc.



Software hacking is best achieved through the use of a virus that is delivered via Internet. When a virus is loaded on the computer its affects varies within a great range -- from a trivial damage that may be negligible to a great loss by altering or wiping off the entire content of the computer hard disk.



However, a worm nests in the hardware and is activated simply by turning on the machine in the affected network. It has the potential to wreak havoc by crashing an entire system. Hardware hacking is a fresh new aspect that has been expanded on a new generation of tinkerers. The process of hard hacking by means of then application specific IC's ASIC is the mentionable issue. The world's business is suffering the menace of bots and the network worms.



Furthermore, hackers can alter content on a website or steal information in encrypted pages by cracking the "code" which programs the site. The website hacking through network hacking system is another alternative. A bot network invasion can be launched to bring serious harm to the remote system. The websites are hacked to satisfy the hacker's hunger of information and other records.



Those who engage in this are also hackers, but they specifically devote time to studying cryptography in computers and putting this into practice. However, this is not all done by the individual. A series of mathematical functions, performed and run through computers, are used to crack the encryption of a system that was usually made to be exceedingly difficult to figure out. All of the above can be done by employing a careful process of reverse engineering (RE), which is simply trying to uncover the functioning principles of an application by "deconstructing" the way it was initially put together. The effect of the computer hacking is going to be more and more horrendous with the emergence more and more advanced technology and tools.



Hacking and cracking has become mainstream language since its beginnings in the late 60s. Today, it stands as one of the foremost concerns in computer safety and as it continues, the measures to combat it are getting increasingly more sophisticated. In this battle, sites on the Internet abound for both hacking tutorials and ways to protect the computer. This battle against the computer hacking has to be waged as long as computers, and the valuable information they store, are part of our lives. As an art of exploitation, hacking and cracking networks is a menace to the world of computer at the moment.

Black hat or White hat! Computer Hacking Explained


A Brief History

One might not suspect that the art, or scourge, of computer hacking was created at one of the havens for technological excellence. True, at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), a group of students developed the technique and borrowed their name from the "hackers" of the late 1800s who found amusement in pranking the emerging telephone companies.Getting their laughs and skills from hacking and cracking into primitive computers and exploiting the Arpanet (predecessor to the internet), they created a novelty that would become the target of federal crackdown in years to come. To define hacking in short, we can say that an artistic criminal offense of breaking into another remote system without the owner's consent for the purpose of stealing information is what is hacking.



However, the act of hacking started out innocently, and was basically a method of trying to figure out how computer systems worked. The 1970s saw the rise in "phreaking," or phone hacking, headed by John Draper. This method allowed the user of a "blue box,", when used with a Captain Crunch whistle of 2600 hertz which accessed the AT&T long distance system, to make free long distance calls. Hackers initiated with accessing the free phone calls through a varied range of sources, thereby managing to circumvent into the nation's radio system and the phoning system resulting in a tremendous phone fraud nationwide.



After the age of "phreaking," computers became not only the target, but also the forum, for a growing hacker population to communicate. The creation of bulletin board systems (BBS) allowed this communication and the technological possibility of more serious government and credit card hacking became possible. At this time in the early 80's, hacking groups such as the Legion of Doom began to emerge in the United States, giving organization, and thus more power to hackers across the country.



Once this happened, breaking into the computers became a legitimate activity, with its own groups and soon its own voice with the 2600 magazine, launched in 1984. The effects of computer hacking were serious. Two years later, inevitably, Congress launched the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that outlawed hacking. Over the years, there was a series of noticeable occurrences as the worst consequential effect of computer hacking on more high profile cases, such as the Morris Worm, responsible for infecting government and university systems, and the Mitnick case in 1995, which captured Kevin Mitnick, steeling as many as 20000 credit card numbers.



In 1999, security software became widely known by the public, and with the release of new Windows programs, which were littered with security weaknesses, they became successful because of necessity. This fraudulent act of computer hacking is perhaps the major problem, confronting the rapidly expanding population of Internet users today, with the systems still trying to battle online hackers.