320 DEAR HACKER

320 DEAR HACKER

Dear 2600:

I really respect what you guys do and the rights of hackers that you stand up for. I do believe that you have a bad view on what a hacker is. I hate to break it to you, but a cracker is a hacker. These recent at- tacks were hackers. I bet you’re shaking your head right now but it is true. Every group of people has its bad people. There are bad priests, doctors, and lawyers so why can’t you guys just agree with that instead of trying to make two separate groups, hackers and crackers? We all do the same thing: mess with computers and the like. If you call Jack Kevorkian a doctor, the other doctors don’t get mad and say “He’s not a doctor, he is a murderer.” Some may say that but the majority still believes that he is a doctor. I do understand that you would like people to stop viewing all hackers as bad, but in the age of morons, that is impossible.

Kevin V Trenton, OH

We don’t know where you got the idea that we want to perpetuate this “cracker” nonsense. We believe the word does a great disservice to hackers everywhere as it criminalizes without explaining the crime and the end result is that the unin- formed get a mostly negative view of the hacker culture. We also don’t know how you’re so certain that these recent attacks were the work of hackers. It’s been widely reported that anyone with the right script could have done this. Is anyone who can type a command to be considered a hacker? We recognize the possibility that it could have been a hacker but it’s really irrelevant as it’s as much an act of hacking as cow tipping.

Dear 2600:

I am terribly sorry about the irrationality of the MPAA. However, I can’t quite figure out why you would print articles dealing with United States government security. I am referring to two articles in the latest issue. I mean, the last thing you need is the federal government on your trail. And there is an ad stating that someone will fax secrets of the White House Communications Agency. Why would you print such

OUR BIGGEST FANS

a thing? And don’t tell me it’s because he’s a subscriber. I am so proud to read your magazine but would hate for you to go down in flames over something so stupid.

cryptofreq We talk about government security because it’s of interest. If we were to self-

censor our material because we were worried about what someone might think, we wouldn’t be able to print much of anything. Concerning the ad, it’s interest- ing that you inserted the word “secrets” into it. The original ad never said that—it simply offered “documents” that are most likely public but not easily found. This is exactly our point—if we followed your advice, we would have turned the reference material into a secret and not printed the ad even though we had no evidence. Our fear would have silenced us long before any action from a third party. We can’t go down that road. Comfort yourself by knowing that anyone foolish enough to trade classified info through our Marketplace will certainly get an unwanted taker very quickly.

Dear 2600:

I thought IRC was for chat, 2600 for learning, but I guess I was wrong there. Repeatedly on IRC, I have been flamed by people saying I wasn’t “cool” or “l33t” because I was using Windows and mIRC (an IRC cli- ent that is considered lame by the “elitists” on #2600). My Windows computer has DSL, and my FreeBSD and Linux computers don’t have Ethernet cards or internal DSL modems. I do not want to go out and buy these because I simply do not have enough money and time to configure them. So I choose to use Windows. (All this to explain to you why I don’t use Linux or FreeBSD with the Internet, just so you don’t think I’m a lamer.) Another thing, I have found it is now trendy to use

a type of UNIX over Windows so you can flame those who don’t. My friend told me he was sitting in #linux one day and he saw someone coming in. The person had a question because he was new to Linux. The question was “how do I set up PPP outside of X Windows on Linux?” He was flamed repeatedly and then when my friend tried to tell him the answer, he was kicked and, I found out afterwards, the person with the question was kicked and banned. That made me