How To Become A Hacker

A talk to engineering students at BSAITM, Faridabad. Inspired by the famous essay by Eric Raymond, with the same title.

Transcript

1. How To Become
   A Hacker
   A talk and an open discussion
   

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2. Hacker?
   • A hacker is not a criminal
   • Not a bad guy
   • Not a nasty loser who will “break into
   emails/cause financial loss”
   • In short...
   • What you know, is WRONG
   

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3. Origins
   • MIT, as always
   • Amazing programmers and system
   architects
   • Real example: Kevin Mitnick
   

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4. From Oxford
   • “a programmer for whom computing is its
   own reward; may enjoy the challenge of
   breaking into other computers but does no
   harm; "true hackers subscribe to a code of
   ethics and look down upon crackers"
   

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5. Ankit Fadia
   • He fails it
   

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6. Ankit Fadia
   • He fails it
   • He fails it
   

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7. Ankit Fadia
   • He fails it
   • He fails it
   • He fails it
   

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8. Ankit Fadia
   • He fails it
   • He fails it
   • He fails it
   • And...
   • HE FAILS IT.
   

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9. But why?
   • Years of computer security research
   • Authentic work
   • He has...
   • MTV What The Hack!
   • Books with documented “hacks”
   • No verified claims
   

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10. Certification courses
    • Waste of time/money
    • Well, not always.
    • Eventually, the question must be asked...
    • Are You Satisfied?
    

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11. Cracking stuff
    • Or cracking Facebook, Orkut, Gmail, Yahoo!
    or most other popular services
    • Do I have your attention?
    • The simple answer is...
    • YOU CAN NOT.
    

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12. Cracking stuff
    • Are you thinking “Oh really now?”
    • What you see is not what it is
    • The answer lies in 3 points...
    • Cryptography
    • Social engineering
    

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13. Cracking stuff
    • Albert Einstein once said...
    • “Two things are infinite: the universe and
    human stupidity; and I'm not sure about
    the the universe.”
    • We know he was right :-)
    

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14. Cracking stuff
    • One way cryptography
    • Algorithms with collisions
    • Salts
    • Sheer smartness
    

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15. Cracking stuff
    • Social engineering means...
    • इसका तो कट गया !
    • Keyloggers, phishing and MIT
    

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16. HTBAH?
    • Learn the hacker attitude
    • The world has too many problems
    • No problem should be solved twice
    • Freedom is good
    • Learn how to ask questions on anything
    and everything
    • Attitude is NOT A SUBSTITUTE for
    competence
    

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17. HTBAH?
    • Learn how to write code. Real code.
    • Read real code. Improve it.
    • Learn how to use Linux/UNIX/BSD
    • Learn how to use the Internet
    • Learn how to write proper English
    

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18. BRAG TIME
    Before we move to questions, it is necessary
    for me to brag about my achievements
    and prove my authenticity...
    

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19. whoami
    • http://pratul.in
    • ex-Google Summer of Code intern
    • Open source contributor
    • Code runs on 4000+ websites
    • And the usual...
    • http://www.google.com/search?q=pratul+kalia
    

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20. Questions!
    • I will not fry you if you ask a stupid one
    • This might be your best chance
    • Now ask.
    

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