OK. First let me say that the art of Hacking (and I believe it is truly an art form) interests me. I read as many online and print publications on the subject that I can get my hands on. The Ed Skoudis book "Counter Hack" is an excellent resource for someone who wants to learn how to attack a network.
With that being said I also believe that there is a time and a place for this to be done. I recently went to the Dayton 2600 meeting. 2600 is a printed publication that deals with hacking, phone phreaking, lock picking and just about any other topic under the sun. It can be purchased at Barnes and Nobles for around $5 dollars. There are local chapters of 2600 groups in almost every major city in the US. They meet once a month and "discuss" hacker issues (mostly they just drink beer, and geek out).
The meeting place in Dayton is the Marion's pizza by the Dayton Mall. When I arrived, I found very few people where there. When the group did arrive, I found that I was surrounded by teenage kids and a few middle age misfits (including myself). There was no formal topics discussed and talks ranged from new game systems, to digital cable boxes. The one thing I found is that the group was very disorganized and lacked leadership.
This is actually a good thing for the Dayton community. I mean, hear we have the core of the Dayton hacking underground and most of them have no real direction in life. If they had someone to step in and take control and provide direction and order, this group could do great things. By that I mean that they could help each other by sharing there knowledge, teaching each other vital skills that will be needed in the work force and also providing a social outlet for these people.
You can also turn the tables and say that if someone stepped in and turned them out against companies in the area, infosec people could be in trouble. Fortunately for local companies, these people lacked real direction and motivation to even try to hack into companies. It also appears that, in the event that they did attack someone, they would go after the "low hanging fruit" (i.e. unsecured wireless networks).
I brought up my training ground idea and did get positive feedback from the group. But, again the lack of leadership and motivation stiffled this group. Also, there was talk of setting up Daycon and having 2 or 3 days of hacking competitions like capture the flag, wireless hacking and infosec presentations. The idea needs someone to run with it and turn it into a reality. Stay tuned for more info on Daycon.
So, to rate this group I would rate them a 5 out of 10. This was a first impression and I will go to a few more meetings to gather more data on this group. I will post all my findings here, so stay tuned.
Dagobah training grounds
I have been building a lab in my basement that I want to use to test my hacking skills. I recently setup a Windows NT 4.0 server. This baby is a PDC and will be running DHCP, DNS and any other services that I feel most people turn on by default. I also have a Redhat Linux web server, a Redhat laptop, a Knoppix 3.3 station that will be attacker #1, a Windows 98 client. I plan on deploying a Windows 2000 server and a Citrix metaframe box, a Solaris SPARC 5 workstation that will run Solaris 9 and a wireless AP (vendor unknown but something cheap).
Hacking is not a sin people. However, hacking into a company that does not authorize you to do so is a crime! If you do not have permission to hack, then DON'T DO IT! This is where most hackers go wrong and end up in jail. Even gathering data through an open wireless connection is an illegal wiretap and can get you thrown in jail.
If you want to learn how to hack, buy some cheap @ss hardware and setup a lab. Most of the gear I am using is old P2 systems with 64 megs of ram. These machines are going very cheap on EBay. If you are local, TJC computers usually carries cheap systems that are low cost. They also have SPARC gear if you are interested in Unix.
So, please go out there and hack your lab. Blow it up till Windows spews forth many blue screens of death. Ignite the flames of your imagination and write many papers on your findings and share them with the infosec community. But be warned, blackhat hacking is like the Dark side of the force. Once you go down this road, there is no going back, and the Jedi council WILL find you.
May the force be with you.
Wri-Ti woann
Try this site out to build your Jedi name.
http://www.wilcoxusa.net/saber/swname.htm
