CrackerCast Podcast - MrCracker.com - all things hacking » Hacker Psychology

A Tale of Two Hats: 6 of the Best White and Black Hat Hackers of All Time

David — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:01:17 +0000

While the real experience of hacking might not be accurately represented in movies, hackers certainly do become famous for white and black hat —good and bad— deeds. The following are six of the most famous hackers of all time:

White Hat

1. Linus Torvalds
Creator of the famous Unix-based operating system, Linux, Torvalds used his hacking skills to change the fundamental programming on this home computer. This initial foray into the inner workings of a Sinclair QL in inspired Torvalds to create his own system. Thanks to his efforts, the now extremely popular, open source OS was born.

2. Tim Berners-Lee
This inventor of the World Wide Web was caught hacking into Oxford files while he was a student at the university. He was then banned from the university. Eventually, he ended up working at CERN Laboratories, a European nuclear research organization. While there, he figured out a way to send hypertext through a network. At that point, the Internet as we know it was born.

3. Stephen Wozniak
While he is known known for being one of the co-founders of computer giant Apple Computer, Stephen Wozniak once made blue boxes to bypass telephone switching mechanisms. In this way, the user could get free long distance coverage. He was caught when he started selling the blue boxes to classmates.

After dropping out of college, Wozniak collaborated with his friend, Steve Jobs, to build the first Apple personal computers in their garage. The rest, as they say, is history.

Black Hat

1. Kevin Mitnick
Described by the Department of Justice as “the most wanted computer criminal in United States History,” Mitnick hacked into corporate computers, stole designs and product information, hacked the Los Angeles bus punch card system, and scrambled phones. He was eventually captured when he hacked into the computer of fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura. Shimomura then made it his mission to find Mitnick, and soon afterward Mitnick was in custody.

Today, he runs a computer security-consulting firm and has authored several books.

2. Robert Tappan Morris
The Morris Worm was the first such virus to be introduced to the Internet. While studying at Cornell, Morris wrote the code and released it. He claimed that he was only trying to see how large the Internet was. Unfortunately, the worm caused at least 6,000 computers to become unusable.

Three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and $10,500.00 later, Morris had paid his debt to society. He now works as a tenured MIT professor.

3. Jonathan James
At 16 years of age, James was the youngest hacker to ever be sent to prison. The mot notable of his offenses was a back door he installed in a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. This backdoor allowed him to access some e-mail correspondence as well as to isolate the usernames and passwords of key government employees. He also hacked into NASA’s computer system and stole technological information worth $1.7 million. To remove the inserted code, NASA had to shut down their computers. This cost them $41,000.00

James was sentenced to six months of house arrest, but was sent to prison for six months when he violated parole. He hopes to start his own tech company in the future.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is a passionate blogger on the topic of education and free college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

CrackerCast Episode 18 – Black, White, Grey Hat

David — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:22:12 +0000

This Episode of CrackerCast looks at this weeks hacker news and describes the different hacker types… black, white, and grey hats.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)

You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :FeedBurner or iTunes

News stories mentioned:

Wikileaks denies Tor hacker eavesdropping gave site its start

Samsung Wave smartphone ships with malware

Emergency scams have already victimized 625 people this year; $2.1M lost

Hacker Rips Off More Than $640,000 From DOE

New Defcon contest tests hackers’ social-engineering skills

Hacker Website of the Week:

www.Cryptool-Online.org

Unreleased Hacker Documentary Leaked

David — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:41:31 +0000

After collecting cobwebs in a studio vault for the better part of a decade, an unreleased documentary on the 2003 hacking scene leaked onto the Pirate Bay Thursday.

Narrated by actor Kevin Spacey, the 90-minute Hackers Wanted follows the exploits of Adrian Lamo, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to cracking the internal network of The New York Times. The film was produced by Spacey’s Trigger Street production company, and includes interviews with Kevin Rose and Steve Wozniak.

Lamo says the film had been bogged down by conflicts among the producers and crew. “It’s ironic that a film about overcoming barriers, about new technologies, about thinking differently, had to come to the public eye by being hacked out of the hands of people who, after making a film about the free flow of information, tried to lock away that information forever,” says Lamo. “The truth tends to itself.”

Source: www.wired .com

Here’s the description along with a link to the download. Enjoy!

Hackers Wanted (2008)

This film explores the origin of true hackers vs. today’s computer criminals

by following the adventures of Adrian Lamo and other well-intentioned hackers,

who found security holes and pointed them out so they might be fixed, only to

eventually be arrested. Commonly thought of as computer criminals and vandals,

a true hacker is an innovative thinker able to “hack” himself out of a given

problem or situation, whether it be computer related or not. Historically,

hackers have accounted for mankind’s greatest inventions and discoveries and

yet have repeatedly been persecuted for their new ideas by the powerful and

fearful. Experts on cyber-terrorism also examine our societal view of the hacker

and debate as to whether or not we should recruit and utilize the skills of the

helpful hackers to fight future cyber-wars, instead of continuing to punish what

we do not understand.

-Sam Bozzo

Link: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5573874/Hackers_Wanted_(2008)

Have you seen it? What did you think? Comment below.

CrackerCast Episode 15 – Social Engineering

David — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:22:09 +0000

This Episode of CrackerCast looks at this weeks hacker news and introduces you to the world of social engineering.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)

You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :FeedBurner or iTunes

News stories mentioned:

Study: Chinese Hackers Stole Dalai Lama’s Email, Government Secrets

Bank of America Employee Charged With Planting Malware on ATMs

Malware Extorts Cash From BitTorrent Users

Apache project server hacked, passwords compromised

2d hacker in TJX case sentenced to 5 years

9-year-old accused of hacking school computers

Hacker Website of the Week:

Offensive Computing

Other Mentioned:

Social Engineering-story

The Art of Deception

CrackerCast Episode 13 – Hacker Mastermind

David — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:17:39 +0000

This Episode looks at this weeks hacker news and why it’s important to be part of a hacker mastermind.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)
You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :
FeedBurner or iTunes

News stories mentioned:

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

Hacker makes a fortune on the stock exchange

CIA’s Jihadi Chat Room Hacked by Pentagon

Secret Service Paid TJX Hacker $75,000 a Year

Malware Creator behind Bars for DDOS Attacks

Quarter of UK kids have tried hacking, survey finds

SQL Code Hack aims to thwart European Traffic Cameras

Websites Mention:

http://www.astalavista.com/forum/21-meetups/

http://www.meetup.com/find/?keywords=hacking&submitButton=Search&op=search&jsCountry=us

http://www.2600.com/meetings/mtg.html

Hacker Conferences

Hacking website of the week:

Hacker Highschool

Get into your “Hacking Mode” !

David — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:42:16 +0000

All you hackers out there that can actually hack, I got a question for ya! When you sit down, and are about to start hacking away at whatever, what gets you in and keeps you in the “hacking mode”? You know that place you get into where you have full concentration on the task before you and nothing can get in the way of you and the final outcome. Let me give you a personal example. When I sit back at my butt wrenching computer chair and am about to start kickin’ computer ass, I require a few things… here’s my list:

1. A GIANT cup of hot tea. I know when many people picture hackers wacking away at their keyboards, they picture them with piles of soda cans or some other type of sugary bubble filled drink. Not me. Instead of digesting that heart killin’ crap, I stick with the old fashioned cup of freshly steeped tea. Green, White, Black, Oolong… you name it, I digest it.

2. Loud music. Depending on my mood I go with a playlist of techno or rap. I like to mix it up with some softer techno like ATB, some harder heavy beated techno like Benny Benassi and some fast-paced get-out-of-my-chair-and-shake-my-booty techno like…. well theres to many good ones to single out a few. When I’m in the rap mood, I like some older Eminem and related, and some old-school rap like Biggie Smalls. “I love it when you call me Big Poppa!” … but most of the time I stick with the techno. If you hate techno.. i hate you. Not really…

3. A clear desk. I need to have my desk to be everything-free… somehow I relate a clear desk with a clear mind and can think much better. It also bothers me… which is funny because its still always a complete mess, so I guess it doesn’t bother me enough. Hmm…

4. Full stomach. I can’t work on an empty stomach. Sometimes when you start without planning, you forget you are hungry so it’s no big deal. But if I sit down and plan to do some hacking, then I must have a full stomach. The bad part about this is that it doesn’t mix well with the tea part. As many of you may know, tea is a pretty good laxitive, so it doesn’t help me much when it causes me to have to take an immediate shit every thirty minutes… killing my “hacker mojo” a.k.a, concentration.

That’s it for me. What gets you in the mode? Tell us in the comments or I’ll come after you after I’ve eaten a full meal and had a giant cup of tea… you don’t want that. Trust me.

CrackerCast Episode 06 – Female Hackers

David — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:45:35 +0000

This Episode looks at this weeks hacker news and discusses why there aren’t many known female hackers.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)
You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :
FeedBurner or iTunes

News stories mentions:

Attackers Buying Own Data Centers for Botnets, Spam

Cyber Challenge tests nation’s top hackers

China jails 11 members of suspected malware gang over online game hacking

Good Guys Bring Down the Mega-D Botnet

A Scam 155,000 Strong

Twitter’s List Of 370 Banned Passwords

TJX kingpin pleads guilty to Heartland hack

US Cyber Challenge

Article Mentioned:

Female Hackers

Website of the week:

HackerMedia.org

Female Hacker

David — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:49:36 +0000

Who can ever forget Trinity in The Matrix as she attempts to track Neo’s presence in cyberspace using a laptop running with a UNIX operating system in a dark room? While she attempts to make contact, suddenly the door slams and enters three policemen pointing their guns at her. Unaware and unprepared she rushes to subdue the policemen making a daring escape from the Matrix. Very cool from the shades to the boots! Trinity embodies the perfect female hacker because she is smart, intelligent and very clever on top of being good looking.

While it is easy to create fictional hacker characters, the big question is whether there are many female hackers in the real world?

So far, there have been very few reports of notable women hackers that could or have rivaled previous and existing male hackers’ popularity. It is not unlikely that there are good female hackers, but they are rare or unwilling to make themselves known.

One well known female hacker is Susan Headley, aka Susan Thunder, because she went public and showed how hacking could threaten national security. Thunder was a member of the Roscoe gang, named after her hacker boyfriend. According to Katie Hafner’s Cyberpunk book, she was a tall, blonde prostitute in Hollywood who found comfort through the telephone. Thunder became an active phreaker (telephone line hacker) in the 70s because of her association with the Roscoe gang, and became serious in computer hacking in the 80s. She spent most of her bend-over money (prostitution) to buy computer equipment. She also hooked up with Ron and Kevin Mitnick, two social hacking experts, just before they got busted. In other words, they busted a load on her before the cops busted them. Her specialty was breaking on military computer systems, and like Mitnick, was highly noted for her social engineering skills. Social engineering relies on the hacker’s capacity to obtain information through misrepresentations.

Other than Thunder, Carla Schroeder and Allison Randall are also considered good hackers. There have been reports of female hacker groups that emerge every now and then but none were taken seriously by the authorities, media or even their peers.

There are two possible reasons why not many females have figured prominently in hacking. First, in our society women are expected to behave in certain ways. This implies doing only activities that are considered as acceptable. Hacking is considered to be unacceptable, hence, not many women found it interesting. Second, women lack the enthusiasm to do the work. Hacking is not really an exciting job unless you like to code for hours with only carbonated drinks for company. You tend to get isolated by others and women do not enjoy this kind of environment of forced solitude. Women generally like to do things that require being on their feet rather than sitting in front of a computer for hours. Women like to have a life, which is equated to going out rather than staying home facing gadgets.

CrackerCast Episode 05 – Hacker past to future

David — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:02:55 +0000

This Episode looks at this weeks hacker news and discusses the first hackers and how they changed to what they are today, and what the future holds for hackers.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)
You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :
FeedBurner or iTunes
News stories mentions:

Hackers Brew Self-Destruct Code to Counter Police Forensics

RockYou Hack: From Bad To Worse

Scammers exploit Google Doodle to spread malware

Hacker seeks reduced sentence

N.Korea ‘Hacks into S.Korea-U.S. Defense Plans’

Twitter Hacked by ‘Iranian Cyber Army’

TJX Hacker ‘Will Never Commit Any Crime Again’

Teen charged with hacking into school network

Website of the week:

Suck-O.com

CrackerCast Episode 04 – Why do hackers hack?

David — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:11:08 +0000

In this episode of CrackerCast we look at this weeks hacker news and discuss the question, “Why do hackers hack?”.

Download .mp3 (right-click -> save link as…)
You can subscribe to the podcast feed via one of the two feeds below (might take a day for itunes to update it) :

FeedBurner or iTunes

News stories mentions:

Ethical Hacker starts WPA cloud

Hacker Exposes Unfixed Security Flaws In Pentagon Website

Hacker charges $43,000 in calls to Buffalo Grove firm’s phone

Modern Warfare 2 PS3 leaderboards hacked to crap

Computer of alleged Sarah Palin hacker had spyware

FBI warns about the scareware threat

This Year’s Most Hacked Software

Article discussed:

Why do hackers hack?

Websites mentioned:

http://www.wpacracker.com/gate/select