etali

I subscribe to the old style definitions – ‘hackers’ have a very in depth knowledge of computers, but don’t always crack. Some people who claim to be crackers don’t have all that much knowledge or skill, and just run scripts created by other people.

I do ethical hacking. It’s fun, challenging, and something that I find very motivating.

I don’t think people can be taught how to hack, though. If you want to learn to hack, learn as much as you can about computers – networks and how they work, and also about programming. C/C++ is a good place to start. If you’re interested in web sites, learning PHP and MySQL will help you figure out what’s going on in the background when you’re accessing most web sites.

Think creatively – look at ‘what would happen if I gave the web site some unexpected input’, same for programs – a lot of common exploits involve just confusing a program by sending it something it doesn’t expect.

Sadly enough, a lot of other well known ‘hacks’ were done by confusing the USERS with social engineering, and tricking them into giving out their details.

I’ve met lots of my online friends, some of them I’m now ‘real’ friends with, some of them just weren’t quite what I imagined grin. I go to meets for games, etc regulary – it’s fun – but I’ve ran into a few odd people too – just like ‘real life’ really :)

Been trading a year now, filed our first tax return :) It’s hard work, but well, well worth it!