Forwarded From: Virus News <spam@mail-me.com>
Posted to: Virus News 12/01/98
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1998/11/F.RU.981130135827.html
World: A Computer Hacker Explains His Perspective
By Julie Moffett
Washington, 30 November 1998 (RFE/RL) -- His online name is Route and he
is a self-described computer hacker -- as long as you consider hacker in
the positive sense of the word, he says.
Route, who declined to give his real name during an interview with RFE/RL,
says the actual definition of a hacker is someone who enjoys pushing
technology to its limits. He blames the media for the more negative
definition of a hacker, and causing what he called an "artificially
induced hysteria" over people who simply enjoy testing the boundaries of
computer technology.
Route says he has been involved with computers all his life and that
hacking was a natural progression for him. He enjoys the challenge and
excitement of hacking, or what he says is "innovating as opposed to
implementing."
Route is in his mid-twenties and lives in the western U.S. state of
California. By day, he works in the respectable field of computer
security. By night, he is the editor of a popular online hacker magazine
called "Phrack."
Phrack -- whose name is a combination of the words hack and phreak
(meaning phone hacking) -- is the longest online computer security journal
and reportedly has about 8,000 regular subscribers. It came online in
November of 1985 -- ancient history in terms of hacker years.
Route says Phrack caters to whoever wants to read it, but mostly computer
security types in both the amateur and professional community. He says the
journal provides interesting technical tidbits and hacker programs, useful
industry information and articles on computer security.
Phrack itself has an interesting history. It became the object of a U.S.
federal investigation in 1990 when Craig Neidorf -- the editor at the time
-- published a document with certain details about the nation's emergency
telephone system. The case was eventually dropped when Neidorf was able to
prove that the same information had been already published in the phone
company's technical catalog.
Route acknowledges that there are items posted on the site today that
might be considered questionable by some people. But he says he only puts
out materials that can be obtained from other places like the library or
in catalogs.
"I don't publish anything that is illegal, in the sense that it would get
me arrested for publishing it," he says.
Besides, Phrack is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution which deals with freedom of speech, he adds.
But Route admits that classified and protected material sometimes comes
his way. He says he doesn't post it. The items he does decide to post are,
in his words, a "judgment call."
Route explains: "That is the nature of the industry I work in....But I see
it as full disclosure. You have to disseminate the information to
everyone. You basically take the stance that the bad people already have
the information, so you have to get it out to the good people so they can
do something about it."
Route says overall hackers have gotten an unfair reputation from the
media.
He says: "The whole scene of computer security....it is a mirror of
society. You have good people and bad people. It is a lot easier to think
of hackers as bad people. It is easier if there is a single bad entity.
But reality isn't like that."
Route says what the media is largely referring to when discussing hackers
are really what he calls "crackers." He explains that crackers are people
who break into systems with malicious intent or the desire to do serious
damage. Hackers, he insists, are just curious and inquisitive people who
have no intention of causing any harm -- they just want to chart new
territory and look around.
But Daniel Kuehl, Chairman of the Information Operations Department at the
National Defense University in Washington, told RFE/RL that this is a
typical "hacker mentality."
Says Kuehl: "They believe that whatever is out there that they can connect
to -- they should be able to get into as long as they are skillful enough
to do it. If they break into a system, then you didn't protect it well
enough and it is your fault. The analogy to that is that if they break
into my house at night, it is my fault because I didn't have enough locks
on my door."
Route disagrees: "Hacking is a more of a pushing the limits thing. I would
consider the innovation verses the implementation aspect of it rather
gratifying and rewarding. I mean, you go out there and do things that
haven't been done before or haven't been done well."
But perhaps what explains the "hacker mentality" best is the quote which
follows the automatic signature line on Route's electronic mail.
It says: "I live a world of paradox... My willingness to destroy is your
chance for improvement, my hate is your fate -- my failure is your
victory, a victory that won't last."
-o-
Subscribe: mail majordomo@repsec.com with "subscribe isn".
Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
Received on Tue Dec 8 09:01:06 1998