Introduction
Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
This book won’t turn you into a hacker any more than reading a military manual will turn you into a soldier. You won’t find step-by-step instructions explaining how to break into a computer, nor will you find technical discussions of all the flaws inherent to any particular type of operating system. This isn’t a technical book about computer hacking. This is a philosophy book about the implications of hacking. Hacking isn’t just about breaking into computers. Hacking is about exploring, extending boundaries, and searching for knowledge for its own sake.
So if you’re looking for detailed information about writing C code to create buffer overflows in an Apache server, or you want to find out how to configure a SonicWALL firewall to protect a corporate network from attack, look somewhere else. But if you want a book that explores both the technical and social implications of the hidden, darker side of the Internet that most people never see, read about, or hear about, keep reading. The world of hackers, virus writers, political activists, phone phreakers, censorship, and disguised propaganda awaits you.
Not surprisingly, some people will find the information in this book distasteful, disturbing, and downright dangerous. Some will see this same information as an excuse to cause havoc and make trouble for others. Neither of these is correct.
The purpose of this book isn’t to teach you how to be a hacker, but rather to teach you to think like one. That means challenging your preconceived notions about right and wrong and looking beyond the limitations of your culture’s way of thinking. Computers and the Internet can open your mind to new worlds that you’ve never dreamed of—or turn off your mind and funnel your thinking down the narrow confines of a fantasy world that only you choose to see. The choice is yours.
If you want to use your computer as a tool to expand your awareness rather than as a substitute for it, this book is for you. We need you in this world more than ever before.
Your Own Revolution
Don’t get me wrong. This book isn’t advocating the overthrow of your government or the development of a radically different one. Instead, this book advocates a more personal form of revolution—a revolution within your own thinking. Instead of blindly blaming national governments, international corporations, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, multicultural organizations, ideological beliefs, religious institutions, or political parties for all the world’s problems, this book suggests that:
If you change the way you think, you’ll change the way you act.
If you change the way you act, you’ll be able to change the way others act and think.
If you change the way others act and think, you can help change the world—one person at a time.
But it all begins with you.
None of us can be correct 100 percent of the time, and the first step toward true change is admitting that neither you nor I—nor your parents, your boss, your spouse, your family, your government, or your church—know everything.
There’s no shame in not knowing everything, but there is shame in pretending we know everything when we don’t. We can and must learn from each other, regardless of what we look like, where we live, what we believe in, or which flag we salute. Open, honest communication is the only way we can change this world for the better, and that’s where this book and your computer come into play.
Communication’s the thing
Although computers are still notoriously difficult, confusing, and downright frustrating to use, they represent a quantum leap in communication similar to the inventions of the alphabet and the printing press. With personal computers and the Internet, people can send and receive email, research information through the World Wide Web, and exchange ideas with people all over the world.
But don’t be fooled by the marketing hype designed to suck you into the computer revolution. The world of computers and the Internet is fraught with hidden dangers that the computer marketing departments don’t mention, such as Trojan horses, electronic espionage, remote computer monitoring, hate groups, con artists, pedophiles, pornography, and terrorism—all just a mouse click away.
This book not only reveals these dangers, but also helps you understand how people create them in the first place. The more you know about something, the better you can avoid or fight it. Besides exploring the underground nature of the Internet that television and magazine ads conveniently ignore, this book exposes the darker side of the computer industry itself.
Truth is nothing but a point of view
This book doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive resource for every possible legal and illegal activity you might run across on the Internet, but the information it contains can help or hurt others. Fundamentally, the information itself is neutral. Crash your government’s computer network and you may be labeled a terrorist. Do the same thing to an enemy’s computer network, and your government may proclaim you a hero. Good and evil depend solely on your point of view.
So, welcome to the side of computers that the computer industry doesn’t want you to know about, a world where slickly printed tutorials and training classes don’t exist.
This is the underground of the real computer revolution, where everyone is encouraged to question, explore, and criticize, but most importantly, to learn how to think for himself or herself.
And to many governments, corporations, and religions, people who know how to think for themselves can be the most dangerous threats in the world.
What’s in This Book
Hacking isn’t restricted to computers. Hacking, the essence of which is being curious and not letting obstacles get in your way, can encompass activities as diverse as lockpicking and exploring abandoned buildings. What you’ll find in this book are discussions of hacking covering a wide range of topics that happen to include computers.
The first part of the book demonstrates how hacking techniques were applied long before the invention of the computer. These early hacking techniques involved the telephone system, and, not surprisingly, these old telephone hacking techniques are gaining new life in the world of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), which allows people to place calls over the Internet.
Telephone hackers (also known by their more colorful nickname, phone phreakers) also pioneered the art of human hacking known as social engineering. Social engineering means nothing more than smooth talking a victim into revealing valuable information such as passwords, ID numbers, or even names of certain people. Although it has its roots in phone phreakers trying to glean bits of information about the telephone system from reluctant telephone operators and technicians, social engineering has made a prominent return to the headlines in the form of phishing and identity theft, in which hackers use the Internet to social engineer victims out of their passwords, credit card data, and Social Security numbers. What’s old is new again, and by understanding the hacking techniques of the past, you can better predict the hacking threats of the future.
The second part of the book focuses on the early personal computer hackers, who specialized in cracking copy-protection software, writing viruses and Trojan horses, and mingling with like-minded individuals on electronic bulletin boards before eventually migrating to the Internet. Despite their initial battles, the software industry still hasn’t found a way to eradicate these early hacker threats, and the problem has only continued to grow.
The third part of the book discusses the shift hackers made to the Internet and traces their history from the early denial of service attacks to the more sophisticated infiltration hacking techniques. You’ll see how the Internet has expanded both the reach and the power of hackers.
The fourth part of the book shows how hackers have adapted their techniques for profit with the blessing of some supportive businesspeople who have a financial interest in their success. You’ll learn about how businesses can manipulate search engines to promote their websites over their competitors', how programmers have adopted adware and spyware in order to make a profit whether anyone uses their programs or not, and how hackers are inundating the Internet with spam.
The fifth part of the book predicts what the future holds for hacking—money! This section discusses all the latest and upcoming concerns, from adware and spyware to identity theft to banner ads, pop-up ads, and search engine spamming.
The sixth and final part of the book describes how you can protect yourself from the various threats on the Internet, from the oldest hacker tactics, including scams and phone phreaking, to the newest variations, such as phishing and identity theft.
The hacking threat is real. The problem is that the danger from hacking isn’t just coming from malicious individuals; it’s coming from so-called trusted organizations as well, and that’s more frightening than any digital terrorist scenario that anyone can make up.