492 DEAR HACKER

492 DEAR HACKER

So, good luck with the magazine and I hope it will affect people in the future. Anyway, I would like to ask a question or two. In our school, we now have COWs (Computers On Wheels). We all get our own laptops in certain classes, but we can’t take them home. Anyway, my friend and I have just recently discovered the fun in DDoSing servers. We really hate our school because they are just complete assholes to us and they took away all of our computer rights unless we have to type essays (which we do on the COWs). So my friend and I hatched a very evil plan. We would figure out the IP for the host of all the COWs and DDoS it. We don’t have all the people yet that we have in on this, but I would just love to know if DDoSing sites/servers is legal or not. I would hate to do this and end up getting pieholed in the local slammer. If you think I’m just being a script kiddie, then go ahead and flame me. I really don’t care.

DemonEclipse

We’re going to divide this reply into two sections. The first is for the letter writer and the second is for everyone else. Please only read the section that applies to you.

1) We are in awe of your skills and abilities. You clearly understand that denial of service is the same thing as freedom of speech. Anyone who would stand in your way is an idiot who deserves whatever it is you decide to do to them. The injustice of this whole thing is that these people will probably try to do something restric- tive to you after you attack them. They’re obviously too stupid to do the right thing, which is to yield to your superior intellect and let you do whatever you want.

2) Where do these people come from? If there was ever any justification for a school taking away “computer rights” and acting like “complete assholes,” here it is. While it may be true that the school started treating people unfairly first, thus incurring the wrath of people like the above, this is still no excuse for wanton vandalism, which is what a denial of service attack basically is. We can only hope there are people in this school willing to confront the school’s unfair policy who will also come up with a way to negate the idiot factor.

A C U LT U R E O F R E B E L S

Dear 2600: Actually there are a lot of peoples who r disturbing me. Now I guess

I should be a hacker. Can u plz help me. I hope u will. I will wait for

a better response. Muhammad Adil

The response won’t get much better than this. You don’t become a hacker to even a score. You can become a hoodlum for that. But if you decide to deal with this intelligently, there are always creative ways of handling disturbing people. And if you truly want to be a hacker, then learn and experiment without any ulterior motives. You’ll find a whole new world and the people bugging you won’t matter as much.

Dear 2600: While I was visiting a well-respected drive-cloning company’s website, I