Hacker/Cracker are alive and well in South Africa.: 03/01/2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Reynhardt van Blommenstein is a hacker in south africa

Hacker bending but not breaking laws - what is the diffs???????????

Reynhardt van Blommenstein - Great Brakriver - Garden Route South Africa

Email: reynhardtvb.photography@yahoo.com

Contact Number: Fax: +27 44 696 6364 Tel: +27 82 798 6268

Hacker challenge sites, A list of hacker challenge sites

Hackthissite - http://www.hackthissite.org
A nice site (even though it has been having problems recently) including basic web challenges, "realistic" missions, basic cracking and encryption challenges.

ngsec - http://www.ngsec.com
A great website, with some tough final challenges. Including SQL Injection and some Buffer overflow challenges.

Try2Hack - - http://www.try2hack.nl
One of the most well known hacking challenge sites, its levels are basic and ideal for those new to security.

Hackerslab - http://www.hackerslab.org
A great site with levels based around unix security, you'll either want to use linux or have a copy of putty to complete any of these challenges.

SlyFX - http://www.slyfx.com
A great challenge site, starts off with some basic maths and moves onto solving application problems (starts with some basic debugging and moves onto solving stuff)

Mod-X - http://www.mod-x.co.uk
Never completed this site, got a little bored with it. But on the whole rather good, if you've played the game uplink it's that sort of story (i think, as I said, never really played it I got bored at lvl3 )

HackMe @ Elderson - http://hackme.elderson.net
Only a few challenges, but they are interesting ones.

Hope that this wil help our hacking curious members . Also the site admins.

5 Hacking Sites for a budding Hacker

Well well well..As I already told you,most of people ask me how to become a hacker,and my usual reply is that I cant make you a hacker,but I can tell you how to be one,and its your interest,your passion,your mindset which will drive you to be one.A hacker evolves from many stages,from the lower level script kiddie to the elite level Guru,one needs to be in constant research to develop their soft and hard skills.I m myself learning a lot,and I would like to share 5 Hacking sites,which you must visit,if you want to be an expert in security.

Phrack

Phrack is the granddaddy of all the hacking sites out there,and is the world's oldest hacker ezine,by hackers,for hacker. Described by Gordon Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine" covers deep articles on Hacking and Cracking.A heaven for willing learners,Its articles are worth in gold.

Hacki9

Hakin9 offers an in-depth look at both attack and defense techniques and concentrates on difficult technical issues.Hakin9's target readers are those responsible for IT system security, programmers, security specialists, professional administrators, as well as people taking up security issues in their free time.

Milw0rm

When it comes to getting exploits,few sites are as comprehensive and updated as Milw0rm.Milw0rm provides a one stop platform for almost all security experts along the world to publish their new found exploits on the web so that other can study them for good or worse.

Hack this Site

Wanna test your hacking skills ? Hack This Site puts your skills to an ultimate test as it throws you real life challenges of almost every type,Trust me,If you have it in you,visit and complete its missions and nothing can beat you.

2600

A great collection of articles and podcasts on security,one has to visit 2600 to get a feel what hacking is.

I believe you will get better and learn something..

Keep Learning

Cain & Abel

Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort. It covers some security aspects/weakness present in protocol's standards, authentication methods and caching mechanisms; its main purpose is the simplified recovery of passwords and credentials from various sources, however it also ships some "non standard" utilities for Microsoft Windows users.

Cain & Abel has been developed in the hope that it will be useful for network administrators, teachers, security consultants/professionals, forensic staff, security software vendors, professional penetration tester and everyone else that plans to use it for ethical reasons. The author will not help or support any illegal activity done with this program. Be warned that there is the possibility that you will cause damages and/or loss of data using this software and that in no events shall the author be liable for such damages or loss of data. Please carefully read the License Agreement included in the program before using it.

The latest version is faster and contains a lot of new features like APR (Arp Poison Routing) which enables sniffing on switched LANs and Man-in-the-Middle attacks. The sniffer in this version can also analyze encrypted protocols such as SSH-1 and HTTPS, and contains filters to capture credentials from a wide range of authentication mechanisms. The new version also ships routing protocols authentication monitors and routes extractors, dictionary and brute-force crackers for all common hashing algorithms and for several specific authentications, password/hash calculators, cryptanalysis attacks, password decoders and some not so common utilities related to network and system security.

Advanced Process Termination

Advanced Process Termination (APT) is a tiny but powerful utility that provides 18 unique process attacks: - 2 kernel-mode termination techniques - 12 user-mode process termination techniques - 2 suspension techniques - 2 fatal crash techniques This arsenal makes APT ideal for testing the resistance of software to termination attacks, testing the configuration of your own security programs, as well as allowing you to terminate stubborn software that simply refuses to die. APT also has internal anti-hook capabilities which transparently enables it to bypass most user-mode hooks which may otherwise try to interfere with termination techniques.

Hacking a website

First of all,why you want to hack a webpage?Is it a certain webpage or any site at all? There are many reasons to hack a website, or a webmaster.Maybe you want to take a revenge or maybe you want to have fun or just learn how to do it ! You can deface the website which means replace the original index with a new one or you can gain access to the member area of the site which might be easier.

Defacing
You can deface the site through telnet or your browser by running remote commands on an old or misconfigured server, the hard thing to do is find an old server , maybe a network of a school or university would do,get a CGI BUG searcher.This program will scan ranges of IPs for web-servers and will scan them for known bugs in their cgis or other bugs and holes.You can learn how to exploite a certain hole by adding in yahoo the name of the bug/hole and the word exploit,search for " cmd.exe exploit".There are more than 700 holes that many servers might have! You can also deface a website by finding the ftp password and just browse through the sites ftp and replace the index.htm.You do that with the :

Brute force
To do that you need a brute forcer or brute force attacker and some word lists,the brute forcer sends multiple user/pass requests of words that picks up from namelists and tries to hack the account untill it does! So lets say imagine a porn site that asks for a password , you go there you copy their address , you add the address in a program called brute forcer and then from the brute forcer you choose a text file with names to be used as usernames and a text with names to be used as passwords,the brute forcer will try untill it finds a correct user/pass.

This should be easier for the newbies than exploiting cgi bugs , many of the newbies havent even heard of it i hope i didnt confuse you with this tutorial there might be more tuts about web hacking and cgi bugs and such.Till then try to find the way to cgi bugs yourself with the cgi scanners in the Web Hacks section or download a brute forcer to crack accounts.

Hacker breaks into gov. sites

U.S. House spokesman Jeff Ventura in the chief administrative office said hackers attacked 49 sites that are managed by a third-party vendor on Wednesday night. Here is the story.

Ventura did not say if authorities had identified any suspects or who the third-party vendor was. But this is not the first time government sites' are attacked.

Chinese hackers have been suspected of penetrating White House sites several times, the Financial Times has reported. North Korean hackers have been suspected of hacking U.S. military secrets via a Chinese IP location, the Associated Press has reported.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/crime_scene/2010/01/hacker-breaks-into-49-government-sites-insults-obama.html

How Hackers Avoid Getting Caught

One of the first things that someone would learn about hacking tutorials when studying to be a hacker is how to cover their tracks. Of course, some are better than others. A young hacker is less likely to know all the little things that an expert hacker might know. Besides, the young hacker may be trying to impress others - and get a little careless about covering his tracks. This is why younger hackers are often caught.

An older hacker, on the other hand, will rarely leave any tracks. They know how to use their victim's computers as a tool for a launching place to get into another computer - leaving a phony IP address.

The truth is, and it is a good thing, that computer programmers are getting better software, and hardware (firewalls) that are constantly doing a better job - both in keeping hackers out, and in recording IP addresses better for tracking purposes.

There will always be hackers, and there will always be hackers in prison. The legislation is definitely turning against the hacker - with some hacking crimes becoming equal to terrorism, these days. Kevin Mitnick, a well-known hacker, had the Federal prosecutors accuse him of having caused $291 million in damages to corporate computers. A serious crime, and he remains in jail because of it - unable to touch anymore computers.

Even by learning some of the wrong type of hacking basics through hacking tutorials, a young person could start down a wrong path. Hacking computers, though often glorified on TV, is still criminal.

http://www.hackingalert.com/hacking-articles/hacker-websites.php

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Hacker/Cracker are alive and well in South Africa.

hacker bending but not breaking laws - what is the diffs???????????

Reynhardt van Blommenstein - Great Brakriver - Garden Route South
Africa

Email: reynhardtvb.photography@yahoo.com

Contact Number: Fax: +27 44 696 6364 Tel: +27 82 798 6268

This author made many complaints with no response.

White Hat Hackers

Hackers that use their skills for good are classified as "white
hat." These white hats often work as certified "Ethical Hackers,"
hired by companies to test the integrity of their systems. Others,
operate without company permission by bending but not breaking laws
and in the process have created some really cool stuff. In this
section we profile five white hat hackers and the technologies they
have developed.

Black Hat Crackers

The Internet abounds with hackers, known as crackers or "black
hats," who work to exploit computer systems. They are the ones
you've seen on the news being hauled away for cybercrimes. Some of
them do it for fun and curiosity, while others are looking for
personal gain. In this section we profile five of the most famous
and interesting "black hat" hackers.

Fraud for Sale - Hacker in South Africa

Law firm in George South Africa make use of his service.

What is the diffs between a white hat hacker and a black hat
hacker?

Reynhardt van Blommenstein - Great Brakriver - Garden Route
South Africa

Email: reynhardtvb.photography@yahoo.com

Contact Number: Fax: +27 44 696 6364 Tel: +27 82 798 6268

This author made many complaints with no response.

Profiles of Famous Computer Hackers

As it was mentioned before, the history of hacking is intermixed
with the history of computers. Many
of the famous computer hackers of the past are the billionaires of
today.

The most known hacker is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.
Considered the richest person in the world for more than a decade,
he became the most successful entrepreneur of the computer
industry. His beginnings go back to the 1970's when he designed
computer programs for the computer platforms of that era, and ended
with the introduction of Windows in the world of personal
computers.

After some time away from the media attention, Steve Jobs came back
with the introduction of several new products in Apple. The most
known of them is the iPod, which has revolutionized the music
industry around the world. Jobs started nearly at the same time
that Gates, founding Apple.

Although Linus Torvalds was known among the hacker community as the
hero who created Linux, the open source operating system, it hasn't
been until recent years that people started to wonder if there was
another option apart from using Microsoft's operating system.
Profiles of Bad Hackers
Unfortunately, there are as many bad hackers as productive hackers.
One of the most famous black hackers is Kevin Mitnick, who broke
into the computers of several organizations, including Fujitsu,
Motorola, Sun Microsystems and Nokia. He was imprisoned and even
today can't use a computer due to a judicial restriction.

Another famous hacker is Vladimir Levin, a mathematician who led a
group of Russian hackers and stole ten million dollars from
Citibank. Until this day, no one knows how they did it.

Jonathan James case is a bit more complicated. He was the first
juvenile from the teen hackers of the USA to be prosecuted for
computer hacking. But that didn't stop him. Later, he was able to
access the computer systems of NASA and the US Department of
Defense. Finally, he was imprisoned.

Fraud for Sale
Years ago, before the coming of the internet, hackers around the
world caused a lot of mayhem in organizations. But now that they
have a potential market of hundreds of millions of persons, their
options are almost limitless. That's why online fraud is considered
one of the cancers of the internet. The only way to protect from
it, is becoming an anti hacker ourselves, maintaining up to date
with the most basic knowledge: firewall, antivirus, antispam,
constant operating system updates and taking care of suspicious
websites.

The effects of computer hacking in our history can't be denied. It
is here and it won't disappear. But the most interesting thing
about the history of hacking is that it was expected to happen. You
only need to check old science fiction books to find it.

http://www.hackingalert.com/hacking-articles/famous-computer-
hackers.php

Top 10 most famous hackers

We present the ten most famous hackers.

Kevin Mitnick

Probably the most famous hacker of his generation, Mitnick has been
described by the US Department of Justice as "the most wanted
computer criminal in United States history." The self-styled
'hacker poster boy' allegedly hacked into the computer systems of
some of the world's top technology and telecommunications companies
including Nokia, Fujitsu and Motorola. After a highly publicised
pursuit by the FBI, Mitnick was arrested in 1995 and after
confessing to several charges as part of a plea bargain agreement,
he served a five year prison sentence. He was released on parole in
2000 and today runs a computer security consultancy. He didn't
refer to his hacking activities as 'hacking' and instead called
them 'social engineering'.

Kevin Poulson

Poulson first gained notoriety by hacking into the phone lines of
Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, ensuring he would be the 102nd
caller and thus the winner of a competition the station was running
in which the prize was a Porsche. Under the hacker alias Dark
Dante, he also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers
for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual escort agency. The
authorities began pursuing Poulson in earnest after he hacked into
a federal investigation database. Poulson even appeared on the US
television Unsolved Mysteries as a fugitive - although all the 1-
800 phone lines for the program mysteriously crashed. Since his
release from prison, Poulson has reinvented himself as a
journalist.

Adrian Lamo

Adrian Lamo was named 'the homeless hacker' for his pechant for
using coffee shops, libraries and internet cafes as his bases for
hacking. Most of his illicit activities involved breaking into
computer networks and then reporting on their vulnerabilities to
the companies that owned them. Lamo's biggest claim to fame came
when he broke into the intranet of the New York Times and added his
name to their database of experts. He also used the paper's
LexisNexis account to gain access to the confidential details of
high-profile subjects. Lamo currently works as a journalist.Stephen
Wozniak

Famous for being the co-counder of Apple, Stephen "Woz" Wozniak
began his 'white-hat' hacking career with 'phone phreaking' - slang
for bypassing the phone system. While studying at the University of
California he made devices for his friends called 'blue boxes' that
allowed them to make free long distance phone calls. Wozniak
allegedly used one such device to call the Pope. He later dropped
out of university after he began work on an idea for a computer. He
formed Apple Computer with his friend Steve Jobs and the rest, as
they say, is history.

Loyd Blankenship

Also known as The Mentor, Blankenship was a member of a couple of
hacker elite groups in the 1980s - notably the Legion Of Doom, who
battled for supremacy online against the Masters Of Deception.
However, his biggest claim to fame is that he is the author of the
Hacker Manifesto (The Conscience of a Hacker), which he wrote after
he was arrested in 1986. The Manifesto states that a hacker's only
crime is curiosity and is looked at as not only a moral guide by
hackers up to today, but also a cornerstone of hacker philisophy.
It was reprinted Phrack magazine and even made its way into the
1995 film Hackers, which starred Angelina Jolie.

Michael Calce

Calce gained notoriety when he was just 15 years old by hacking
into some of the largest commercial websites in the world. On
Valentine's Day in 2000, using the hacker alias MafiaBoy, Calce
launched a series of denial-of-service attacks across 75 computers
in 52 networks, which affected sites such as eBay, Amazon and
Yahoo. He was arrested after he was noticed boasting about his hack
in online chatrooms. He was received a sentence of eight months of
"open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the
internet, and a small fine.

Robert Tappan Morris

In November of 1988 a computer virus, which was later traced
Cornell University, infected around 6,000 major Unix machines,
slowing them down to the point of being unusable an causing
millions of dollars in damage. Whether this virus was the first of
its type is debatable. What is public record, however, is that its
creator, Robert Tappan Morris, became the first person to be
convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris said his
'worm' virus wasn't intended to damage anything and was instead
released to gauge the size of the internet. This assertion didn't
help him, however, and he was sentenced to three years probation,
4000 hours of community service and a hefty fine. A computer disc
containing the souce code for the Morris Worm remains on display at
the Boston Museum of Science to this day.

The Masters Of Deception

The Masters Of Deception (MoD) were a New York-based group of elite
hackers who targetted US phone systems in the mid to late 80s. A
splinter group from the Legion Of Doom (LoD), the became a target
for the authorities after they broke into AT&T's computer system.
The group was eventually brought to heel in 1992 with many of its
members receiving jail or suspended sentences.

David L. Smith

Smith is the author of the notorious Melissa worm virus, which was
the first successful email-aware virus distributed in the Usenet
discussion group alt.sex. The virus original form was sent via
email. Smith was arrsted and later sentenced to jail for causing
over $80 million worth of damage.

Sven Jaschan

Jaschan was found guilty of writing the Netsky and Sasser worms in
2004 while he was still a teenager. The viruses were found to be
responsible for 70 per cent of all the malware seen spreading over
the internet at the time. Jaschan recieved a suspended sentence and
three years probation for his crimes. He was also hired by a
security company.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Top+10+most+famo
us+hackers&artid=wXHtWBxroto=&SectionID=OZOHptMGSLk=&MainSectionID=n
35v%7C01wo4w=&SectionName=HYJdRP75zZg=&SEO

Top 10 Most Famous Hackers of All Time

The portrayal of hackers in the media has ranged from the high-tech
super-spy, as in Mission Impossible where Ethan Hunt repels from
the ceiling to hack the CIA computer system and steal the "NOC
list," to the lonely anti-social teen who is simply looking for
entertainment.

The reality, however, is that hackers are a very diverse bunch, a
group simultaneously blamed with causing billions of dollars in
damages as well as credited with the development of the World Wide
Web and the founding of major tech companies. In this article, we
test the theory that truth is better than fiction by introducing
you to ten of the most famous hackers, both nefarious and heroic,
to let you decide for yourself.

Black Hat Crackers

Jonathan James: James gained notoriety when he became the first
juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16
years old. In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just
looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge
to see what I could pull off."

James's major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He
installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server.
The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with
reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear,
biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The
backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive emails and
capture employee usernames and passwords.

James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth
approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice,
"The software supported the International Space Station's physical
environment, including control of the temperature and humidity
within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer
systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that
he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming,
but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not
worth $1.7 million like they claimed."

Given the extent of his intrusions, if James, also known as
"c0mrade," had been an adult he likely would have served at least
10 years. Instead, he was banned from recreational computer use and
was slated to serve a six-month sentence under house arrest with
probation. However, he served six months in prison for violation of
parole. Today, James asserts that he's learned his lesson and might
start a computer security company.

Adrian Lamo: Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major
organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the
"homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee
shops and libraries to do his intrusions. In a profile article, "He
Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in
Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the
term multi-jurisdictional."

Lamo's intrusions consisted mainly of penetration testing, in which
he found flaws in security, exploited them and then informed
companies of their shortcomings. His hits include Yahoo!, Bank of
America, Citigroup and Cingular. When white hat hackers are hired
by companies to do penetration testing, it's legal. What Lamo did
is not.

When he broke into The New York Times' intranet, things got
serious. He added himself to a list of experts and viewed personal
information on contributors, including Social Security numbers.
Lamo also hacked into The Times' LexisNexis account to research
high-profile subject matter.

For his intrusion at The New York Times, Lamo was ordered to pay
approximately $65,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to six
months of home confinement and two years of probation, which
expired January 16, 2007. Lamo is currently working as an award-
winning journalist and public speaker.

Kevin Mitnick: A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went
through a highly publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief
was hyped by the media but his actual offenses may be less notable
than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice describes
him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States
history." His exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom
Downtime and Takedown.

Mitnick had a bit of hacking experience before committing the
offenses that made him famous. He started out exploiting the Los
Angeles bus punch card system to get free rides. Then, like Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak, dabbled in phone phreaking. Although
there were numerous offenses, Mitnick was ultimately convicted for
breaking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network
and stealing software.

Mitnick's mischief got serious when he went on a two and a half
year "coast-to-coast hacking spree." The CNN article, "Legendary
computer hacker released from prison," explains that "he hacked
into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks
and broke into the national defense warning system." He then hacked
into computer expert and fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home
computer, which led to his undoing.

Today, Mitnick has been able to move past his role as a black hat
hacker and become a productive member of society. He served five
years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement, and is now a
computer security consultant, author and speaker.

Kevin Poulsen: Also known as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained recognition
for his hack of LA radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a
brand new Porsche, among other items. Law enforcement dubbed him
"the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime."

Authorities began to pursue Poulsen after he hacked into a federal
investigation database. During this pursuit, he further drew the
ire of the FBI by hacking into federal computers for wiretap
information.

His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones.
Poulsen's most famous hack, KIIS-FM, was accomplished by taking
over all of the station's phone lines. In a related feat, Poulsen
also "reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an
acquaintance who then ran a virtual escort agency." Later, when his
photo came up on the show Unsolved Mysteries, 1-800 phone lines for
the program crashed. Ultimately, Poulsen was captured in a
supermarket and served a sentence of five years.

Since serving time, Poulsen has worked as a journalist. He is now a
senior editor for Wired News. His most prominent article details
his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles.

Robert Tappan Morris: Morris, son of former National Security
Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the
Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the
Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person
prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at
Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the
Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively,
slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is
not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but
experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to
three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined
$10,500.

Morris is currently working as a tenured professor at the MIT
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He
principally researches computer network architectures including
distributed hash tables such as Chord and wireless mesh networks
such as Roofnet.

White Hat Hackers

Stephen Wozniak: "Woz" is famous for being the "other Steve" of
Apple. Wozniak, along with current Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founded
Apple Computer. He has been awarded with the National Medal of
Technology as well as honorary doctorates from Kettering University
and Nova Southeastern University. Additionally, Woz was inducted
into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000.

Woz got his start in hacking making blue boxes, devices that bypass
telephone-switching mechanisms to make free long-distance calls.
After reading an article about phone phreaking in Esquire, Wozniak
called up his buddy Jobs. The pair did research on frequencies,
then built and sold blue boxes to their classmates in college.
Wozniak even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to
be Henry Kissinger.

Wozniak dropped out of college and came up with the computer that
eventually made him famous. Jobs had the bright idea to sell the
computer as a fully assembled PC board. The Steves sold Wozniak's
cherished scientific calculator and Jobs' VW van for capital and
got to work assembling prototypes in Jobs' garage. Wozniak designed
the hardware and most of the software. In the Letters section of
Woz.org, he recalls doing "what Ed Roberts and Bill Gates and Paul
Allen did and tons more, with no help." Wozniak and Jobs sold the
first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each.

Woz no longer works full time for Apple, focusing primarily on
philanthropy instead. Most notable is his function as fairy
godfather to the Los Gatos, Calif. School District. "Wozniak
'adopted' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and
teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art
technology equipment."

Tim Berners-Lee: Berners-Lee is famed as the inventor of the World
Wide Web, the system that we use to access sites, documents and
files on the Internet. He has received numerous recognitions, most
notably the Millennium Technology Prize.

While a student at Oxford University, Berners-Lee was caught
hacking access with a friend and subsequently banned from
University computers. w3.org reports, "Whilst [at Oxford], he built
his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800
processor and an old television." Technological innovation seems to
have run in his genes, as Berners-Lee's parents were mathematicians
who worked on the Manchester Mark1, one of the earliest electronic
computers.

While working with CERN, a European nuclear research organization,
Berners-Lee created a hypertext prototype system that helped
researchers share and update information easily. He later realized
that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee
recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the
hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da!
– the World Wide Web."

Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the
World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an
international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time
staff and the public work together to develop Web standards."
Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the
W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due.

Linus Torvalds: Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-
based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has
said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun
making the best damn operating system I can."

Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-
bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia
reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its
operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an
assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games."

Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991, using the Minix
operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in
Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out
a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently,
only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by
Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to
contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent
examples of free/open source software.

Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating
the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He
has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary
doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He
was also featured in Time Magazine's "60 Years of Heroes."

Richard Stallman: Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project,
which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's
known as the father of free software. His "Serious Bio" asserts,
"Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to
share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is
essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom."

Stallman, who prefers to be called rms, got his start hacking at
MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others.
He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a
password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting
passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them
of the removal of the password system.

Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the
MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on
printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a
new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify.
It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts
presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was
"convinced…of the ethical need to require free software."

With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an
essay, "The GNU Project," in which he recalls choosing to work on
an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial
software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of
the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds. GNU
is distributed under "copyleft," a method that employs copyright
law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the
software.

Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free
software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management
(or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through
organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for
Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his
work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates.

Tsutomu Shimomura: Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner:
he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick. Following this personal attack, he
made it his cause to help the FBI capture him.

Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not
without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls: "He pulls
out this AT&T cellphone, pulls it out of the shrinkwrap, finger-
hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down
Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder,
listening to him."

Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after
finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work
finding Mitnick. Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near
Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, "SDSC Computer
Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist" recounts how Shimomura
pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the
phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-
finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an
apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter.
Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident
with journalist John Markoff, which was later turned into a movie.

http://www.focus.com/fyi/it-security/top-10-most-famous-hackers-all-
time/

easy prey for cyber attacker - '17-year-old' could cripple economy, consultant warns

Canada is woefully unprepared for a massive cyber-attack that is
within the capabilities of any run-of-the-mill hacker, and which
could cripple the business of the nation, warns a leading security
expert.

Dragos Ruiu, an Edmonton-based computer security consultant, says
it's time for the government to protect complex computer networks
that can now be hijacked with the simplest of tools.

"There has got to be a lot more thought and a lot more talk and a
lot more brains applied to the situation," said Ruiu. "The cyber-
warfare world is the only place a 17-year-old kid can take on a
nation-state and win."

Ruiu, a key organizer of the CanSecWest Applied Security Conference
that opens in Vancouver today, said that when it comes to computer
security, even the popular pocket-sized smartphones are open to
attack. He said this year's conference will play host to a hacking
contest to see which cellphone is the most secure.

"We expect the first platform to be hacked will be the iPhone," he
said. "Phone platforms are not necessarily more secure than
laptops."

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Canada+easy+prey+cyber+attac
ker+expert/2718886/story.html

Fighting Back Against Email Spammers, Internet Hackers, and other Web Thieves

The following article resulted from my experience in dealing with
spammers, hackers, and other web thieves; during my tenure as
webmaster of InfoHQ.com for the last 10 years.

When I first started InfoHQ.com in 1998, the Internet was a safer,
kinder place. There were very few email viruses and most people
never heard of the word "firewall" unless they were running a
server. Most Internet users had only one email address and they
were not afraid to share it with others.

Five years later, the Internet is a completely different
environment. Not a day goes by that I don't receive 4 or more email
viruses, 10-20 email spams, and hacker attacks on my DSL firewall.
What happened??

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/Spam/fight-internet-hackers-email-
spammers.htm

Hack Wireless Internet Connections

Have a laptop, or a wireless internet card in your PC? Have you
ever been in the position that where you lost your WEP / WPA key,
and you interested on retrieving it back? Well with Aircrack you
can.

http://www.aeonity.com/david/how-hack-wireless-internet-connections

Internet hacker hits bank account

Eleven Rotorua people are accused of hacking into online bank
accounts and stealing thousands of dollars in an elaborate internet
scam.

One of the accused has admitted her role in the widespread fraud
ring that targeted the National Bank.

Nine others have been remanded without plea after appearing in
Rotorua District Court yesterday, and one is wanted by police after
failing to show up.

The Daily Post can today reveal details of the scam which involved
people using the bank's secure website to access accounts and
transfer money from one account to another, creating credits in
their own or a nominated bank account.

The woman who pleaded guilty yesterday was Rotorua's Lauren Sainty,
an unemployed 25-year-old.

http://www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz/local/news/internet-hacker-hits-
bank-account/3800248/

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Millers Attorneys make use of known hacker Reynhardt van Blommenstein

Attorneys in South Africa work with known hackers.

Millers Attorneys (George)
Phone Number: +27 (0)44 874 1140
Fax: +27 (0)44 873 4848
Email Address: info@millers.co.za
Website: www.millers.co.za

Reynhardt van Blommenstein - Klein Brakriver - Garden Route South
Africa

sms south african hacker

Reynhardt van Blommenstein - 082 798 6268

google offices south africa

http://www.bandwidthblog.com/2009/02/19/google-south-africa/

Hacking > Organizations

http://dir.yahoo.com/computers_and_internet/security_and_encryption/
hacking/Organizations/

true hackers

The last of the true hackers:
Richard Stallman

Some well known crackers:
John Draper
Mark Abene
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Poulsen
Vladimir Levin

Internet Hackers, Crackers, Hacking

http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ia_hackers.htm

Internet Hackers, Crackers, Hacking
The IAB strongly endorses the view of the Division Advisory Panel
of the National Science Foundation Division of Network,
Communications Research and Infrastructure which, in paraphrase,
characterized as unethical and unacceptable any activity which
purposely:

(a) seeks to gain unauthorized access to the resources of the
Internet,
(b) disrupts the intended use of the Internet,
(c) wastes resources (people, capacity, computer) through such
actions,
(d) destroys the integrity of computer-based information, and/or
(e) compromises the privacy of users.
Internet Activities Board, Ethics and the Internet, RFC 1087,
January 1989.