What is hacking, anyway?

9 time out of 10, when exploits hit the wild, the companies products for which this code circumvents not only have knowledge of said malfeasance, but were, in fact duly informed by those same coders.
Such a release is an effort to obtain conformance by those companies who would otherwise ignore such open communication.
Now, if someone uses this code to break a system and cause damage, then yes, that is not appropriate behavior. However, it must be that some systems get broken to effect change. A company like MS will not arbitrarily expend resources to an issue with their source code if it is non-profitable. They, apparently, must be drug, kicking and screaming into compliance. When they start losing money, because business requirements call for secure environments, they comply.

Simply put, if someone throws up a website or a e-commerce site with no thought to protection of resources, they will get burned. I have very little sympathy for those people who refuse to take responsibility for their own technology; even less for the companies that create it.
If the actions of some lamer script kiddies, effects change in the was companies like MS create code, all the better for the rest of us.

Does that mean I condone random hacking, no, not in that sense. I do, however, take responsibility for my networks, knowing full well that people like that exist. If they burn me, it's because they are better at it than I; not because I didn't try.
The software companies should have the edge; they have the resources to craft software that does not contain blatent holes and the capability to draft entire groups of engineers to 'fix problems' as they happen. If they choose to ignore it, then the consequences, unfortunately fall to the consumers of said software.

Sometimes it takes a few "bad guys" to make good things happen.


Cheers.

Well just because your IP rarely changes, does not make it static. In fact, if it has ever changed without you knowing about it, you are DHCP.
If it were static, you would have to alter your network configs manually. So chances are you obtain your IP via DHCP, it's simply that they have a long lease time. Also, once you reconnect, it will attempt to fetch the last known IP within your expires limit.

It would still require a court order to extract that information; a situation, as I said, not very likely to happen in such a case.

I am not entirely certain what you mean by "Global IP" -- perhaps GIA, (Global IP Anycast, which is a routing definition of sorts for anycast) or perhaps Global IP as a term used to describe tier 1 providers.

Anyway, as I said, there's nothing to be concerned with; right-click away to your heart's content.

Cheers.

ive always seen hackers as being bad guys who do bad stuff with their computer to other people/companies etc. its a negative word to me. hackers suck.

Well, Rose -- I can understand your feeling about it, but let's put it this way. If it weren't for people that have the desire to "hack", this forum would not exist in the form that it is right now.

In essense it would look exactly like this:

http://phpbb.com/phpBB/

It's the "hacks" and hard work of quite a lot of programmers that have added all the conveniences and appearances and options you have at your fingertips. Take for example, spellcheck. It wouldn't exist. All the extra mods that make this forum rock are referred to as "hacks". Look at where most of the extras come from"

http://www.phpbbhacks.com

If you haven't had the chance to, you should take a look at the hackers manifesto posted earlier. It essentially helps you understand what the concept is all about. Unfortunately, there are those who abuse it, and they deserve the punishment they get, or eventually will get.

But as others have stated it has been proven to be an "artform" so-to-speak that is necessary for the evolution of the internet and corporate networking (as well as home) environments.

It is a quest for knowledge and understanding. Everyday, as I slowly (sometimes painfully slow) learn more about how computers work, how to program etc, I am in awe of the people that write this stuff that we take for granted. Just MHO.

For me Hacker & Cracker are from two different worlds entirely,
Hackers have always been the "Curious George" figure out anything on a computer type.
Crackers being where i'm from is street slang and I still have to pause for a split second when I hear or read it.

yeah naa i know what you mean ATNO, i think the word has evolved but still in the media and over the net these people are refered to as 'hackers'

What's ironic musik, is that you may be unaware that you are already a "hacker" - after 18 more posts you will be a "master hacker" *lol (It's hard to keep up with this when you have "mod" after your handle:

http://www.ozzu.com/general-discussion/what-ranks-are-there-this-forum-t401.html

XOX

yes............ im a very very bad girl

hmm, i thought it was red hat not grey?

an in-between hacker, I thought was a grey hat. But you may be right

The truly sad thing is, you're not alone in that. Many people think the same way, because that is how the mainstream media tells them to think. No one ever investigates a story themselves, or even attempts to confirm the validity of a report these days.
It's all about sensationalism -- what sells a newspaper, or provides ratings. People love to hear about "nasty little hackers, who destroy countless millions of dollars worth of data or infrastructure, are caught and hanging by their thumbs."

It's simply not like that, but we only hear half the story through the media.

If I could legally do it, I would convert "Freedom Downtime", a documentary done by the folks at 2600.com, to an mpg for you all to view. It really is something the masses should see; I believe it would open people's eyes to the truth. That's not to say, again, that the script kiddie who runs a random exploit so he can deface your website with "i 0wn joo" and " shouts out to 733t hax0rs in the wr3cin krew" is right. In fact, people like that are not hackers at all. They little to no skill, and are all about the fame, outside their own little worlds.

If you have 20 spare bucks, I highly recommend obtaining that video.
http://www.2600.com

As a final note... the whole concept of colored hats is humorous. Half the people I know would say they had "white hats with black trim" and the other half would claim the oppposite. You have to bend the rules a bit to be of any value -- or at least bent them at one time.

Cheers.

I have always wanted to learn the ways of a "Good" hacker, I think its awsome to posses such knowledge and skills.

What people dont realise is its hackers who make the patches for your forums and tell the world about the many many flaws in windows.
Then its up to you (and the vendor) to fix it.

The earliest use of the word hacker was to describe people who were handy with an axe.
If someone came round and had nowhere to sit they would "hack" them a chair out of an old log , want cornflakes and dont have a bowl? they would hack you one.
So like ATNO said, its to describe any person who finds a temporary solution to a problem.

The media have come to describe virii coders and people who break into networks as hackers, when they are actually crackers.

Orriginally a computer hacker was a person who can reverse engineer computer programs and crackers were the ones who broke into computers but somewhere along the line they got switched round.

Even if a hacker is black hat the chances of them hacking you is very slim, they usually spend time testing out exploits on thier friends computers and forums instead of picking on ranom people for no reason.

The whole thing has almost become a parody of its self and most dont take any notice of the lables people give it, they just do what they do and dont worry about what people call it.

That was very interesting. Didnt quite get it but....



always works for me ^^

Yer, i hate the way the media so hastily brands anyone with a little bit of skill a hacker... they dont seem to appreciate that without the real hackers of the world, internet, computers, none of that stuff wud exist.

to me, crackers are the *evil* types, tho the point about it being equally the fault of the sysadmin or software owner is well made.

to be honest, i think old-school crackers were also noble in a way- altho they did some bad stuff, they did good aswell. but the old-school crackers all but died out at the end of the 80's.

now the crackers are just lamers working mostly for advertising companies, and egos.

bring back the 80's!