Re: [cobalt-users] how do the hackers find your Raq?

["Ryan J. Smith" <rizzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> <snip>
> > > but how do the hackers find your
> > > vunerable Raq?  Do they just scan a whole whack of IPs and hope
some of
> > > them are cobalt machines?
> </snip>

I believe we have our terms a bit confused.  *Hacking* is just
programming, as in "hacking away at this program I'm writing".  A hacker
is a programmer.  *Cracking* is the act of penetrating a system's
security measures, as in "I cracked your box".  A hacker that breaks
into other people's computers is also a cracker, but not since the early
days of computing have most crackers been hackers.  In fact, most
crackers I've known have no idea how to program, and are therefore *not*
hackers, and calling them hackers is an insult to "real hackers"
everywhere.

We (the geek community, among which may include hackers and possibly
crackers lurking about our discussions to find new ways to exploit a
system) call those people "script kiddies", because they are usually
just some punk kid running a script someone else (a real hacker who's
evidently also a cracker) wrote and posted somewhere nefarious (like
l0pht.com or somewhere accessible via astalavista.box.sk) for the
would-be script kiddies to use to *crack* your box.  Unfortunately some
script kiddies are so clueless, they actually do leave messages around
on machines they cracked (by running a script someone else wrote...big
deal) that say "this machine was _hacked_ by [insert silly gang-like
name here]", because they, not knowing thing one about programming, have
no idea that they're misusing a term as ancient as the UNIVAC.

In fact, I've heard the otherwise benevolent term "hacker" extended into
other things, such as the guy that works on your automobile being
referred to as a car hacker.  I think it's like the difference between
nerd and geek.  The common interpretation of the word nerd, as I have
known it is "a person of an above-average intelligence who is socially
inept".  A geek is an expert, possibly a guru at something.  You may be
a computer geek (and not a nerd) as Margaret Thatcher is a geek of
government or Alan Greenspan is a geek of economics.  Professor Frink
(on The Simpsons) would be both nerd and geek, "what with the lab
outfit, and the lack of social graces, and the pain and the hurting and
the claven..." (my sincerest apologies to 20th Century Fox, Gracie
Films, Matt Groening and Hank Azaria for that last bit).

--
Ryan J. Smith ("Rizzo")
rizzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx