7331 Haxors

Hacking. One of the least understood skill sets in existence. Based in the world of the interwebs, whose technical side few can claim to fully understand, hacking is a vague, broadly defined word basically meaning any possible combination of doing things you aren't supposed to on the interwebs or on other people's computers.

Here's how a great deal of hacking works: people write programs or scripts that tell a computer to guess password and user name combinations at prompts. A computer can guess a lot faster than an average person can type, up to a few billion guesses every second.

Eventually, the guessing computer will get the password right, if given enough time. Fortunately, complex passwords take a lot of time to guess.

We live in a modern age, where free and easily downloaded firewalls, anti-viruses and anti-spyware programs can render 99% of all hacking attempts obsolete. But somethings, probably considered hacks, are still all too easy to learn and use.

For instance, this article details how to crash interwebs explorer. There, Now you know how to hack. You can't turn me in now, you're in too deep already!

The history of hacking is a wide and varied one, taking place all over the world. Feel free to peruse the map below, showing the locations of some of the biggest hacking events in interwebs history.


View Blog Map in a larger map

And I totally lied about penguin hackers.



Diving Deeper -

http://www.sptimes.com/Hackers/history.hacking.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_hacker_history

http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/misc/hack/index.htm

http://www.crime-research.org/library/crime1.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902643.html?hpid=moreheadlines

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1670

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/02/british.hacker.mckinnon/index.html

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/japanese-hacker-arrests-doubled-in-2007-20081111/

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

Facebook; Creepy or Outright Malicious?

This video was reccomended to me by a friend lately. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.

...man, I forgot how long that video is. Hm... what to do, what to do... oh! Lolcats! Man those little guys are hilarious. I should kill this blog and make a new one devoted entirely to lolcats and loldogs. I wonder if interwebsloldogs.blogspot.com is already taken...

Okay, you've watched it. Pretty creepy at first glance, but a little far fetched. Conspiracy theories abound on the interwebs, and noting that some big name investors have invested in multiple things doesn't necessarily mean that the government is 1984-style creeping on our facebook pages.

But anyone who knows about facebook knows how genuinely stalker style they are. This site explains ten privacy settings that can make it less likely you'll be stalked or creeped by those who wish you harm, but nothing prevents facebook from using your data for their own nefarious ends.

And by nefarious ends, I mean selling data to marketing companies. You see those ads on the side of facebook? Ever notice how wonderfully targeted they are? It's because they can read your status. For instance, change your status to married, and you'll see all sorts of different ads targeted at newlyweds. Change your likes to 'Ice Cream', and you'll probably see some ads for Haagen-Daaz.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? I mean, if this is 1984, it's about the most benevolent form of 1984 imaginable. A big brother that carefully notes what you like, and makes suggestions for your further enjoyment? Doesn't sound too dystopian.

Of course, there has been a lot of complaints about facebook. The whole "invasion of privacy" thing is a big one. There have been many cases where authority figures (colleges, law enforcement, even secret service agents) have supposedly used facebook to track down people making inappropriate posts, threatening remarks or posting pictures of themselves breaking the law. (source)

IMHO, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, there might be a slippery slope leading to a total police state, but now facebook primarily uses their information to help you find cool new items and services you might like. They're making fabulous amounts of money doing it, and if this helps law enforcement track down criminals, so much the better.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

An Interview with an Interwebs Junkie

Dan is my good friend and one of the only people I know who spends more time on the interwebs than I do. This week, he talks about his experiences as an admin, his thoughts on how to behave online, and his strong opinions on net neutrality. Enjoy: