| Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box is a unique book in the fiction department. It combines stories that are fictional with technology that is real.While none of these specific events have happened, there is no reason why they could not.You could argue it provides a roadmap for criminal hackers, but I say it does something else: It provides a glimpse into the creative minds of some of today’s best hackers, and even the best hackers will tell you that the game is a mental one.The phrase “Root is a state of mind,” coined by K0resh and printed on shirts from DEF CON, sums this up nicely.While you may have the skills, if you lack the mental fortitude, you will never reach the top.This is what separates the truly elite hackers from the wannabe hackers.
When I say hackers, I don’t mean criminals.There has been a lot of confusion surrounding this terminology, ever since the mass media started reporting computer break-ins. Originally, it was a compliment applied to technically adept computer programmers and system administrators. If you had a problem with your system and you needed it fixed quickly, you got your best hacker on the job.They might “hack up” the source code to fix things, because they knew the big picture.While other people may know how different parts of the system work, hackers have the big picture in mind while working on the smallest details.This perspective gives them great flexibility when approaching a problem, because they don’t expect the first thing that they try to work. |