The Hackers World – Are You A Victim
Posted on October 10, 2010A hacker is often considered a very dangerous fellow, one who is malicious and wants to exploit every electronic system that he can for either financial or personal gain. There is a flipside to this coin though…
A hacker is an artist who wants others to appreciate his work, whether it be through unscrupulous methods of creating worms, backdoors and SQL injections or through less disruptive measures like emailing you a descriptive memo on how to improve your unsecure network.
It is early on a saturday morning, your role is that of journalist – you have just had your third cup of coffee after having had stayed up all through the night. You have been working on a story for publication to the local newspaper, which you need to send in for proof reading to your editor. The thing is that somehow everytime you print your document there appears a picture of a skull and cross bones – you scan your computer for a virus yet again, which calmly tells you that there isn’t one? So what is your next step, you need to get this to the editor’s desk as soon as possible so that you can get your slice of free-lance pocket money that you desperately need to pay the bills… Who do you call at this hour, it is three in the morning? You end up googling for your answer only to be met with a whole page full of skull and crossbones… and then on your screen a dialog box opens up and the words “You have been owned!” wirng through your ears and the fear that there is nothing you can so about it. Then while you are thinking through your next courses of action, your 16 year old son comes down the stairs to fetch something to eat. Seeing your predicament, he calmly walks up to your machine – pulls out the network cable, opens a command prompt, fingers fly across the keyboard, closes everything -plugs back in the network cable and says good morning to you…
Your 16 year old just saved you… or was he the one who was messing around with you in the first place? Either way you are greatful and are determined to hire your son as your personal anti-hacker and are willing to let your son teach you better security on your computer.
Needless to say – there are hackers out there, not all are bad – however most aren’t on your side… get a few on your side and you may not fall victim as easily
Some will ask, this is all very well said – but what did the 16 year old son do to get the hacker off the system? In short he re-configured my firewall by closing unecessary ports, made my admin password more secure and then re-configured my IPsec to be much more secure… every process now requires an access token to be verified which can only be initiated by you “the journalist”
Categories: Hacking
RT @screamatthepc: The Hackers World – Are You A Victim # http://is.gd/fLPP4
05.10.2010 11:11
I’d come to accede with you here. Which is not something I typically do! I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to speak my mind!
31.10.2010 10:03
considerable weblog you pick up
31.10.2010 21:04
this is the way a blog should be! thanks!
01.11.2010 16:52
i can’t tell if i’m having problems with my net connection, or my internet browser on your webpage, or what, although the top area of the web page is offset to the right
05.11.2010 05:31
Once in a blue moon
06.11.2010 03:05
try using opera mini with your blackberry, it should work better.
09.11.2010 16:31
Good website! I actually love how it is easy on my eyes as well as the details are well composed. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which really should do the trick! Have a nice day!
09.01.2011 08:49
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I really do not know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Wonderful blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
19.01.2011 09:30
You may have not intended to do so, but I think you have managed to express the state of mind that quite a lot of people are in. The sense of wanting to assist, but not knowing how or exactly where, is one thing quite a lot of us are going through.
21.01.2011 08:55
RT @screamatthepc: The Hackers World – Are You A Victim # http://is.gd/fLPP4
23.01.2011 10:22
Hi Chantal
When I was writing this article, I wanted to express the state of mind that someone is in – I never imagined it would aplly to so many people.
Thank you for your pointing of this out.
Rob
23.01.2011 12:06
That is many inspirational stuff. Certainly not knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for all of the enthusiasm to provide you with such helpful information here.
25.01.2011 11:03
Yes Carl, it is amazing how opinions are varied…
26.01.2011 11:37
Dude.. I am not much into reading, but somehow I got to read a lot of articles on your blog. Its amazing how interesting it is for me to stop by you pretty often.
28.01.2011 06:41