How About Those l33t d00dz?

by Flaming Cow www.planethack.com

When is the last time that you were just hanging around on IRC when you
encountered a very lame person. You know the type - they talk l1k3 7h1s; they
think that the fact that they just downloaded the newest ICQ flooder
naturally means that they now rule the world.

Most of you would probably have the same reaction that I used to: head
straight for ye olde kick/ban button. Wait. What if that person you are about
to kick could be crypto analyzing AES in six months? What if they were
destined to be the next one added to that large group of people who found
sendmail bugs? Who exactly are you kicking?

I run a hacking website that attracts exactly these types. I can't count the
number of times that I have received "Do you have the latest AOL scroller?"
through the feedback form. My good friend and site sysadmin tells me that
before we got the firewall, he had several users break in and start by trying
to "dir". However, I don't ignore these emails, and I don't send back nasty
"Go Away" notes.

Yes its hard, hell, nearly impossible to imagine, but this is the way that a
hacker today has to start out. These are not the kids who were as lucky as us
to have the BBS scene and accepting "Mentor"s to teach us. Anyone who has the
interest and the drive to learn about computers will be caught by the media
hype and will end up searching Altavista for "hacking".

When they do that, what do they find? Well--the last time I checked--I came
up number 5. I'll admit it: by the standards of sites like this, mine is
seriously lame. People constantly tell me: all these files are for attacking.
This violates any kind of hacker ethics that exist, and they don't teach
anyone anything. And they're right. So why do I keep this page running?
Specifically to attract those Altavista searchers. Confused yet?

I run my site to get people interested. That is my goal. People come here and
they use these programs. I get 2000 hits a day from people who want to nuke
their friend off ICQ. They destroy, they wreak havoc, and they generally
cause a giant, unforgivable mess.

However--maybe once a week--I get an e-mail that asks "Is this all there is?
How can I go farther? I want to learn about computers, UN*X, etc. I want to
stop destroying and start creating knowledge." By sheer math, that is 1 out
of 14000 people, but it is still one person. I can guide that person away
from their little GUI world. That one in fourteen thousand was ready to move
on, and to expand themselves. Those that are weeded out by this
bandwidth-wasteful process have the desire and the ability to learn. They all
expand beyond my limited knowledge very fast. Several have gone on to much
better things. All of them have been well worth my time.

So, you ask yourself, this letter started with some h^c&3r coming into my IRC
channel. I definitely don't have 14000 people doing this to *me* a week, so
why should I care if there are that few real possibilities out there? My
response is: Can we afford to waste even a single questioning mind? The
number of people who would call themselves "hackers" has grown exponentially
on the 'net in the last several years. The number of true hackers that adhere
to ethics and hack only for knowledge and not for publicity or bravado has
dropped drastically. Do those few who are left want their only legacy to be a
bunch of kids running around with WinNuke? If all the *real* hackers out
there don't get off their high horses and start teaching a new generation,
all that will be left eventually will be those "script kiddies."

Even the newest hacker has read Mentor's Last Words. Some of us know them by
heart, and have spent time analyzing how we can apply his writing to our
actions. However, consider his name. He called himself Mentor for a reason:
he taught people. His values still live on in some people, but his idea of
raising the next generation is being lost, and we *must* fight to keep it.