Tony’s White Hat
If you’re not entirely clueless…you already know I am a computer & electronics security hobbyist. On the side, I help people clean up their messy machines, and when they pay the bill on time, they also enjoy a ton of extra information in the way of best practices.
Usually before the end of their first session with me, they are either already convinced I’m some sort of hacker, or suspect it on some level, and because I like to keep my options open and would very much prefer not to have Big Brother’s Hot Poker waving in my direction, I would very much like to clarify.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I was exposed to the Hacker movement. Not the silliness that involved bragging rights on who got unlimited ratios on the best BBS’. The real stuff. I learned about both sides of the coin and by the time “The Hacker Crackdown” was written, everything in that book was sort of common knowledge in these circles. At the time, the tools of the trade were quite dependent on a level of trust whereby people weren’t publishing technical manuals or social engineering mechanisms for fame or money, it was only done to expose the rift in security…not to cause harm. It was like a game. The digital underground strikes a server and leaves a glaring banner on it usually claiming credit for exposing illegal or amoral activities on part of the company involved.
The technical side never really appealed to me, as I saw how harmful sitting in front of a computer all the time was to getting some relationships, but I loved the social engineering end. In addition, I loved all the jazzy words that were almost a secret code because they were used properly only by people with a clue, those words are now more or less the foundation catch phrases for a media sorely lacking in the fundamental knowledge some of us older geeks would consider necessary to even consider credibility in the Author. Anyhow, this is my hat. Please…by all means…pick one up for yourself.
So here it is. My favorite White Hat. I know…funny eh?
Like I said…if you like it, please buy one. Half the proceeds will go to hookers and donuts me, and the other half will go to some good cause I haven’t honestly decided on yet. (Probably a local outreach/employment program).
Thanks for the Bandwidth! …and yes. One of my favorite movies is Sneakers 😉
-Tony
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