Download From Hackers to Trainers: Reformed Crackers Advise Corps & Govt. and more Exercises Cryptography and System Security in PDF only on Docsity! Reformed Crackers Reveal Their Secrets To Paying Audiences of Former Victims Christian Valor, a phone freak of no small renown, drags on a Marlboro and explains how for the past two hours he has held Army, Air Force and NASA officials at rapt attention. "Who do you want to learn how to protect your system from?" Valor said. "Some corporate guy, or me -- a guy who's actually" hacked into your computer network? Credit: Jason Grow / SABA for CyberTimes From left: Michael Diamond, Jennifer Granick (a lawyer), Peter Shipley, Christian Valor and Fred Villella. Corporations and governments are spending megabucks these days to learn to guard networks from vandals, terrorists and punks with computer programming skills and too much time on their hands. This week in San Francisco, the authorities learned it first hand: from hackers themselves. The idea of hackers using their expertise to instruct industry is not common, but it is not a new phenomenon either. What this group brings to the table is first-hand insight into the methods of crackers -- hackers who use their skills maliciously to infiltrate government and corporate computer systems. These presenters say docsity.com they have eschewed that life to preach for profit to the government and private sectors. As if hearing about car theft tactics from retired felons, the attendees learned not just the gritty technical details of attacks, but about cultural aspects too -- why crackers use their skills maliciously, which systems they crack, some of the tragically petty reasons they decide to target a company or individual. And ruin their lives. The former members of the hacker underground sought to downplay the "hysteria" they say exists about hackers -- many of whom they say are pretenders -- and to point out that many government and corporate systems can be cracked. Valor told how gangs of crackers warring for bragging rights last year hacked into 363 major Web sites, including ABC News, the Naval Dental Center, Amnesty International and the Army Information Center. A hacker calling himself Michael Diamond -- a 25-year-old who wears bleached blond hair, earrings in both ears, a tongue bar and a tattoo on his left arm -- told the audience of the planning that goes into the attack. Then he launched into a technical description of the programming language of attacks and described what security experts should look for to determine if, and how, they've been hit. The 17 attendees of the workshop on Monday and Tuesday hailed from NASA, the Army, the Department of Energy and the Seattle Police Department, among other groups. Much of the material was old hat to some of the more seasoned security personnel, but at least one said that the presentation -- and others like it -- have an edge over more traditional talks. "True hackers have told us about problems that we never hear about from high- placed consultants in the mainstream," said Seattle Police Detective Greg Roberts. The information exchange owes its existence to Fred Villella, a retired Army colonel who spent several of the Reagan years an executive secretary to the national security adviser. docsity.com
