The Conscience of a Hacker

==Phrack Inc.==

Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10

 

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The following was written shortly after my arrest...

\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/

by

+++The Mentor+++

Written on January 8, 1986

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     Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...

     Damn kids. They're all alike.

     But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

     I am a hacker, enter my world...

     Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

     I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."

     Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

     I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...

        Or feels threatened by me...

        Or thinks I'm a smart ass...

        Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...

     Damn kid.  All he does is play games.  They're all alike.

     Damn underachiever.  They're all alike.

     And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.

     "This is it... this is where I belong..."

     I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...

     Damn kid.  Tying up the phone line again.  They're all alike...

     You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

     This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.

     You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

     Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

    I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

+++The Mentor+++

What is going on?

we all know what has happened in Mumbai and how our brave soldiers, cops and civilians laid down their lives resisting the terrorist attack. we all stand behind these brave souls and their beraved family in their time of sadness mingled with pride. 

all over the country, citizens have found their own ways of showing solidarity. most of the cities have seen candle light vigils that have been organized to pray for these brave sons and saughters of India.

sadly, this grief has not touched our politicians. even in this time of tragedy, they are hell bent on playing the games of onemanship - trying to pull some political gains out of this tragedy. while the leading party is trying to shift the blame, the opposition parties are trying to show how if they were in power, things would have been different. there seems to be a competition in who announces more reward.... the same leaders who till yesterday were claiming that the ATS was corrupt because they had caught a so called sadhvi in connection with the malegaon blast are now in praise of the same ATS.. and had even anounced a huge monetry compensation for its chief, who sadly laid down his life while fighting for the country.

the CM of kerala rushed to bangalore to the house of the brave major Sandeep Unnikrishnan after he came to know that he was originally from kerala..... and was unceremonously thrown out by the bereaved father, who did not want a political drama to unfold in his house or the condolence of someone who does not even feel the pain of loosing a fellow countryman, let alone a son...... 

and now we have Mr Naqui claiming that the candle light vigils are nothing but following the "Western culture", and has women who have used lipstick and powder..... well Mr Naqui, maybe they were dressed - but atleast they were there to show their solidarity - to assert that we as a country stand united in such troubled times - that we do not care from which state the martyrs belonged or which religion they followed - all we care about is that our motherland has lost a few brave sons while the so called leaders where sitting in their pulsh bunglows - discussing the situation and doing nothing....

if this is the kind of leaders we have then i believe that it is time we take things into our own hands - maybe it is time the citizens of this great country rise above the petty politics, unite - and show these leaders that they exist because of and for us - and not vice versa.

This is an Indian, signing off...

Over and out