CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: SELF-PROCLAIMED HACKERS ARE ABUNDANT ON THE INTERNET (COLUMN 49)

CYBERTIP: Even though we use the word hacker to mean the people that break into computers, it is not the correct term. Hackers are just avid non-degree-holding computer programmers/users. The people that do the breaking into computer systems are called crackers. This always seems to be a big source of confusion. The hackers just don't like being confused with the criminals.

Hmmm, what could have happened here. We seem to have been left alone with the column and nothing to do. Let's go see what kind of trouble we can get into.

www3.l0pht.com/~veggie/

Dennis: Let's start out at the now famous Cult of the Dead Cow. It has appeared on "Dateline NBC" and was even mentioned in the Newsday newspaper. It seems to be THE group on the Internet for hacking information about the convention nicknamed "NewHack City" but actually called "HoHoCon."

Darren: Look it evens has merchandise information like tatoos, stickers and even a watch. Why don't we have tatoos for our site?

Dennis: I don't know -- I guess the powers that be wouldn't like you wandering around with one on your forehead. This is sad. These guys seem to proclaim themselves hackers, but they appear to be selling out to the status quo just like everyone else.

Darren: Cool ASCII art though. Let's go on over to www.2600.com This is the earliest hacker help group that I can find. Just don't take everything they say seriously.

Dennis: Isn't this the site that has all of the sites that have been broken into? You know -- the Air Force, the Justice Department, NASA, and even some moron that hacked the CIA. I just don't understand that one. If you want to get someone upset at you, the last group I'd want banging on my door is the one that takes whole countries down by assassinating their president.

Darren: They have their own magazine that you can subscribe to, but only quarterly issues arrive. Local bookstores even carry it when they remember to. They have information on attending their hacker meetings -- even in St. Louis. That one meets once a month.

Dennis: They say that their biggest threat is the Secret Service. They seem to be the ones most interested in stopping hackers.

Darren: Let's find out who is looking at hackers from the other side. At the FBI's computer crime squad site www.fbi.gov/programs/nccs/compcrim.htm they give a list of the different types of crimes that they investigate including pirated computer software, industrial espionage and even intrusions of the telephone company.

Dennis: Wow, this is pretty cool. They even seem to have a listing of who to contact if you are broken into, what to do when that happens, and even what they will do afterwards to help protect you.

Darren: That's the job I want.

Dennis: What? Catching your friends with their fingers typing on a computer? It hardly seems like it's a crime. But I guess it is according to the law. If we go over to CERT www.cert.org, we can get information about the teams that have been established to help stop and catch hackers. Do you have any idea what CERT stands for?

Darren: I always thought it was those little breath mints.

Dennis: Nope, those are Tic-Tacs.

Darren: You can register to attend their security training courses. I'm sure that would be very exciting. In 1996, they handled 2,573 computer security incidents involving 10,700 different sites.

Dennis: That's pretty impressive. I wonder how many they caught? They have a listing of all of the current security advisories.

Darren: You know there's a cool movie out there about crackers -- it's called Hackers. You can find information on it at www.mgm.com/hackers/.

Dennis: Yeah, I know -- I own the movie already. I have only watched it about 20 times in the last month alone. Unfortunately, it's not true. When was the last time you saw a couch potato out rollerblading?

Darren: It starts out in 1988 when an 11-year-old kid crashes 1,507 computers on Wall Street with a virus and then gets caught by the FBI of course. He's not allowed to use a computer or even a touchtone phone until his 18th birthday where the movie actually starts to pick up.

Dennis: It appears to be a simple case of Generation X against society again, but it is actually a setup by a bad dude that tries to frame them for his own diabolical games. He wants them to take the fall for a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme that they accidentally come upon.

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See you in Cyberspace.

Dennis O'Shields and Darren McGaha are the coolest members of the SEMissourian.com staff.