HACKERS RULES AND SECURITY Computer Security is a very hot topic these days. There will be lots of jobs available on both sides of the line. When most people think of a hacker, they see a curious 14 year old, using his computer to spray electronic graffiti on some corporate computer. Well the are also other hackers out there. The criminal hacker has arrived. This new breed of hacker is breaking into computer systems, and cracking code, not out of curiosity, but out of greed! There is a definite need to protect data from unauthorized access. Maybe it is a user wanting to protect his email, or a major corp protecting their corporate secrets, we all need a little privacy sometimes. Some of those who hack do it for fun, and out of curiosity, but others have mischief or worse in mind. Hacking is the art of getting into places where you don't belong, and taking control. If you write software and/or work on a network, this has become a major issue. To be uninformed is to be compromised. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a programmer I am often called upon to provide for secure access to data. Providing my clients with good security is very important to me, therefore code hacking is a serious concern to me. There will be a lot here on how to protect your code from getting hacked! If you want to know how to keep your own stuff safe you have to know how it can be hacked. Thus the better you are at hacking the better you can protect yourself. Remember that all of this is just a primer.. It is intended to get you thinking like a hacker. Hacking is as much an art, a way of thinking, as it is a science. To hack really something serious like a good password routine, then you have to be able to think like the original programmer did. Find the flaw in his logic and use it to break the system. Find that back door, pick lock and you are in. The trick of course is preventing others from doing this to you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will only deal with MS DOS and Windows code here. Hey it's what I know! The basic techniques will be the same but you will need different tools to work under other OS's. The best way to protect your code is to hack it yourself first! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hacker Ethics I am personally very opposed to malicious hacking in any form. But that is me... I look at it as a Good vs. Evil thing. I know that there are malicious hackers out there, I have meet some of them. Some are just old timers like me, that went over to the "Dark Side" and now hack for the corporations. But a lot of them are just young amoral kids, who will trash something just for fun. Most people seem to think that because you are a hacker you have the morals of a snake. I have found this to be far from the truth. The vast majority of hackers are just very intelligent and curious individuals. These were the kid's who kept takeing thier toys apart just to see how it works. The bad image comes from the perception that all hacking is illegal. Well that happens to be true. Almost any form of hacking is illegal! By hacking into a computer system you could go to prison for up to 10 years! The Secret Service and the CCD are real busy these days. You know those silly little license agreements you agree to when you buy or download new software? Well if you actually read them, it turns out that you have now agreed with the following: "You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE PRODUCT" Well this basically means don't hack it! There is an out to all of this however.... There is also normally a line like this too: "except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation" This usually means it is NOT illegal if.... You are not doing the hacking for profit, or to steal their ideas and code, or harm producer of the software. Hey the real good news is... That it is perfectly legal to hack your OWN code! IF you wrote it, then you are allowed to hack it. In fact to really debug your code, you must hack it! This is a great way to learn about how your software REALLY works. Most people who have been writing code for a while do a lot of hacking. They call it debugging... Hacking is basically debugging someone else's code, maybe making a few changes along the way! Therefore if you only purpose is to learn more about all things code then you are probably ok. Please don't take my word for it though, if you have any questions about the legal aspects of hacking ask a lawyer. I'm sure you will get a straight answer. :-) Remember that the penalties for illegally hacking code can be very stiff! Crossing the line into illegal hacking could have very serious consequences. You can spend a long time in prison for illegal hacking.