The SwampThing

This topic doesn�t go with the latest flow of Iraq War or Bush�s bushisms, but i thought it would be nice a little change.

Today, i heard this incredible piece of tabloid news:
It seems the "Hackers" community has prepared a little contest, to show who�s the best hacker on the web and win a chance to win themselfs a prize of 500 MB of web space and a personnal dominion name of his choice...
Now, this wouldn�t be normally considered news. Infact, i can�t see any moment where this WOULD spell news, unless they defaced some government site, like CIA or the White House...
Well, in this case, the news was that it was a total failure!!
Very few even attended the contest, wich could be partially explained by the poor prize involved.
I doubt anyone with two fingers of forehead and a few grey cells would risk a harsh prison sentence, just because of 500 MB of net space!!
It is safe to assume only the most lunatic of hackers, and the most infantile script kiddies would attend such nonsense...
How can a guy with the brains to enter in someone else�s computer, waste it by drawing a moustache in a Celine Di�n photograph???Or writing "I was here!"???
Why was it a surprise to see that such a contest was a total flop, a real turd in the water??

I am no hacker, nor do i try to be. But i�m pretty shure real hackers don�t go around painting graffiti all over the web. Being a hacker means a desire to learn how things work. It�s about understanding technology, and use it to better themselfs. Shurelly that�s not what this pseudo-contest is about...

My point in saying all this is simple.
Once there was a time when we could transform the web, mold it to our liking in total freedom. But those days are over. The real web defacement is happening thru the hands of our governments. They are inventing new laws every day, new ways to tear apart the little freedom we had left. Pretty soon there will come a time where we simply cannot do anything over the web without being controlled, monitored and spyied upon.
How much time do we have left to enjoy the simple freedom to remain nameless while scolling down a forum?
Pretty soon the use of aliases or "nicks" will be pointless. People will no longer be able to speak freely on forums or newsletters, afraid of getting nailed because of something they said on some chat room...

The Web is changing fast, and not for the better. Governments from around the world are determined rto regulate every aspect of the web�s functions, in order to serve some dark purpose.
The Patriot Act has set the "tempo" for all others.
And if people keep "hacking" into pointless websites, defacing home pages and erasing data for no reason, we will be providing some governments with the constant supply of ammunition with wich they will fight us.
We are giving them the rope with wich to hang ourselfs...
They will answer those "attacks" with stepped up security, harder rules and regulations, and increased costs.
They will take over, eventually...
The web is like a worldwide resource, just like water or oil. We take them for granted untill that moment when we totally loose control. It�s like global warming and the weather: we keep denying that it exists and do nothing to prevent it from going berzerk. We never consider the consequences of our foolish acts...

Contests like this "Defacers Challenge" are issuing governments with "carte blanche" to do what they will with the web.
The fact that it turned out to be a total failure, is encoraging. But not enough. Untill some so-called Hackers start acting more mature, it will never be enough!


Just my 2 cents on the matter.
My biggest 2 cents ever, though...



EDIT: I forgot to mention. Aparentlly the site of the contest has suffered an attack aswell!! Isn�t that poetic justice? I absolutelly loved that one!!!
Here�s the temporary site:
Like i cared...
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Dark Jedi

But have you formed any opinion on the topic?

I utterly despise the H@x0r dudes. Bunch of juvinile script kiddies, the lot of 'em.

What bugs me is the people out there who do write a script or program to see if it can be done. While I can understand the concept, why the hell release it if it works???? All that will happen is the script kiddies will abuse it, and it gets traced back to you.

Shai Hulud

I think it's a philosphy thing. A lot of real (ethical, white hat, whatever) hackers think that releasing all information is the best way to secure systems.
In a way it's related to the open source systems. Everyone can check it, and improve it if they think it's needed.
Besides, a lot of those tools are also used by security experts. Obviously the only way to design a lock that can't be picked is by knowing how you pick locks.

Anyone serious about security shouldn't have too much trouble with script kiddies anyway. If your system is up to date, patched, and properly configured it's getting hard to get in.

Shai-Hulud

Farren

Take, for instance, the hackers that hacked Netscapes transacton servers, then provided Netscape with detailed information about the vulnerability. Netscape actually thanked them publically.

Another consideration is that the term has an entirely different meaning in some quarters - The hacker as the lateral thinking type who likes to re-engineer things from the ground up and find new and ingenious ways of using technology, exemplified in Linus Thorvald's "Hackers Ethic".

Arken

As others have said, the majority of hackers don't believe in doing harm to systems. They enjoy finding exploits in them and then revealing them to the system managers. For many of them, it's really just sort of a big game. Most of the time, hackers who actually cause damage are frowned upon by the rest of the hacker population because those are the people who make all hackers look bad.

BioBeing

Is no-one going to point out (as was to me earlier ) that this is CRACKING, not hacking?

Corwin

Hackers don't mess with this sort of thing. They have better things to do.

Like IPO's.

YHWH666

I never understand why people always insist upon this idiotic label. It�s called hacking, period. I�m really sick of all these self righteous �white hats� (read �script kiddies�) parading about their high and mighty attitude. As though there is something wrong with a Denial of service attack on some fascist corporations e-commerce server.

Arken

Considering it can cost the corporations large amounts of money which results in their deciding to cut costs by cutting jobs, wages, benefits, etc. I'd say that there is something wrong with it.