How to pretend to be a Hacker

[Icarus]

Step 1. Invent a cool handle. Something enigmatic. Try non-English word. Do not use obvious names. Also do not use names of characters from games or Matrix.

You need to pretend like you have been around for a long time. So make sure your handle is not bound by popular-culture references.

So now that you have a cool handle. Time to get cooler.

Step 2. Now you need to build a myth about yourself. Remember you are not known, partly because you have been so good that nobody ever caught you. But now you wish to slowly "disclose" yourself in an attempt to cash in when the society worships the techno-geeks.

Step 3. Write a couple of cracking and hacking tutorials. They might be old and would never work with current technology but write them anyway. Use LINUX, or even better, use UNIX.

Step 4. Stick to IRC and try to just be aloof while still disclosing your "exploits" to anyone willing to listen. You will always find "students" who wish to learn from you. (the ones who shall msg you with Give them the tutorials that have no use any longer but to show that you know something.

Step 5. Start a blog. And roam around forums throwing your handle once in a while as a reference.

Your handle needs to come on a google search.

Step 6. Step back. Don't try too hard. Its important to not overdo it.
Join all the free-software campaigns. And fight against IP. And for P2P. And against Microsoft. If you are a programmer, make sure you pretend to have a past you don't want to talk about even as you throw in references of your handle once in a while. (in the middle of your code. in the middle of conversations. anywhere.)

Step 7. This is the most you can do without being an actual hacker.

Anything I left out?

[alexander]

Step 3. Write a couple of cracking and hacking tutorials. They might be old and would never work with current technology but write them anyway. Use LINUX, or even better, use UNIX.

exactly how would a tutorial written for linux or unix, both operating systems that have an update cycle many times faster then M$, be old technology, of for that matter would never work with today's technology? what do you live in, a windows/mac world or something?

disclosing your "exploits" to anyone willing to listen.

last year's La Times reporter at defcon only proves that hackers very rarely disclose any exploit, especially that they found.

Join all the free-software campaigns

lol they almost never join any campaigns, unless it deals with gov-t sniffing their traffic

And fight against IP

hackers thrive on the information protocol

And for P2P

since they mostly use open OSes, they don't fight for p2p, you are confusing them with crackers

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by alexander

exactly how would a tutorial written for linux or unix, both operating systems that have an update cycle many times faster then M$, be old technology, of for that matter would never work with today's technology? what do you live in, a windows/mac world or something?

Hmm. The sentences were independent of each other. Write tutorials. And do not use Windows/Mac. Use LINUX or UNIX.

last year's La Times reporter at defcon only proves that hackers very rarely disclose any exploit, especially that they found.

Yeah. That is true. But that is not the point here. Its not the truth that matters. Like all those Pseudo-hacker movies.

lol they almost never join any campaigns, unless it deals with gov-t sniffing their traffic

hackers thrive on the information protocol

since they mostly use open OSes, they don't fight for p2p, you are confusing them with crackers

Oh. You just need to get famous , with an enigmatic past. And these small little fights are just the in-thing at the moment.

Anyway, all this might be a little factually wrong. But this is not how to become a hacker but only how to become a pretend-hacker that the ordinary populace can find cool.

And I agree, I shall keep cleaning it up and make it as factual as I can. [Moments of boredom and bad hacker representations in media force me to write this. with what i have said, popular media will identify you as a hacker. but again, i might be wrong]

[alexander]

lol all you need is a /. black hat, a defcon t-shirt, and don't take a shower for a couple of days, drink lots of caffinated beverages, and you look like a cracker...

you need to know what you are talking about if you ever talk to crackers, if not, they will laugh you over, so learn about the protocols, read all the articles you can find on the web on kernels, and you are on your way to not be stood up by the people you want to look like. You don't need a known name to be perceived as someone who's done some major stuff. Also read about major break-in cases, preferably from the hackers/crackers/whit hat's perspectives.

[RCP/CRT/RRT]

You forgot to "leetspeak!"

1 4m l33t <u2 1 H4><0|2 `/0\/ ! !

[RCP/CRT/RRT]

/\|_|_ `/0\/|2 70`/$ |2 b3|_0|\|6 2 |v|3 ! !

[Boerseun]

Dudes... dudes!

You forgot the most important bit:

You have to live in your mother's basement.

[alexander]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Dudes... dudes!

You forgot the most important bit:

You have to live in your mother's basement.

Well, duuh, ofcourse, that goes without saying... and also be able to barely lift a keyboard

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

or....if not your mother's (some of us are severely deprived) your best friends basement.....and of course you must also munch all their vittles....and tie up their internet connection with downloads requiring hours to complete ( back in the day their phone as well....good ol dial-up) etc.etc.