Letters: autonomous consciousness

Reading and Writing

Dear 2600: I am pleased to announce the publication a book that I feel might appeal to the 2600 reader.  Raiding The Wireless Empire, a Berdeaux and Nichols book, is now available on amazon.com $13.37.  It is a collection of short stories depicting real world events within a fictional framework, mainly attacks on networks via wireless exploitation.  As the central actor learns and expands his skill sets, his obsession grows, from mischievous pranks and vendettas to, eventually, a router-born virus that spreads worldwide uncontrollably.  Our authorship is a result of a partnership between the owners of weaknetlabs.com and haxradio.com. We hope you enjoy it.  And we look forward to publishing more.       B Nichols It's always nice to see these kinds of projects come to fruition.  Even the price is a creative statement.  Congrats

Dear 2600: what happened to the meeting at penn hotel (lmao i almost wrote hostel).  i remember the save penn initiative about 3-4 years ago.  what meets in and around s.e.n.y.?  thanks for any info       pete We truly hate what Twitter and SMS have done to the writing style of our society.  We so long for those letters that have such elements as paragraphs, punctuation, and lengths of more than one or two hundred characters.  Even though letters like that are often devoted to telling us how much we suck, they're still a breath of fresh air compared to all of the abbreviated thoughts, links, and literal one-liners we constantly get. We should apologize for mercilessly picking on your letter, but this has been building up for some time.  To address your question, we don't have "meetings" at the hotel, but we do have conferences there every two years.  Our 2600 meetings take place further uptown in the Citigroup lobby on the first Friday of every month starting at around 5 pm. Our "save the hotel" campaign is over - the hotel has been saved, thanks to the reconsideration of its owners.  We don't know if any of us truly had an effect on the outcome, but it certainly didn't hurt to express ourselves, and hopefully that's a lesson people can carry with them.  The plan now is to renovate the place, preferably not to the point where we can't afford to have HOPE conferences there.  But either way, the city is better off with it than without it.

Dear 2600: I'm inquiring on how to get a book reviewed in your magazine.  It's a novel where "the geeks" take over the world (no bad thing) using software that controls the World Wide Web in the form of gaming/hacking attacks.  There is a massive play on hacking (for the good of the world, of course).  It's much more than that, obviously (love story, politics , world hunger, religion, abuse, etc.). It's called iNation and can be found on Kindle.  As Jay Carpenter says, "The geek shall inherit the Earth."         Jim Sometimes we do reviews of books that are sent to us.  Most often, book reviews come from readers who are inspired to write something about a book they've read.  We prefer those kind, as we like to avoid the world of PR phoniness as much as possible.  Of course, our letters page is always open for people to mention such projects of theirs.  Nothing compares to the thrill of seeing such things coming from the community much like we're thrilled every time we see a good article come in.

Dear 2600: Hello fellow hackers! One of the questions we see a lot is "how can I become a hacker?" and the normal answer is "just be curious abut everything and learn as much as you can."  The problem here, as you might know, is that the computer/technology field is very vast and, for a beginner, it can be hard to find his path.  That's why I wrote a French book called Le Petit Livre du Hacker, which could be translated into "The Little Hacker Book" (the book being little, not the hacker).  You can buy the printed book or grab it for free in PDF format.  Inside it, I talk about the hardware, the operating system, the Internet, the different protocols/applications, and some more topics like cryptography, file systems, etc.  This is the book I would have wanted when I was ten and searching for ezines to consume.  More on lpldh.pgon.ca.         Provirus It really seems to be book writing season in the hacker world.  There's no way that can be a bad thing.

Pitching In

Dear 2600: I want to contribute an article on telecom security.  Can you please highlight the essential points that one can contribute?         Nitin We can't tell you how to write your article.  If you want to focus on a particular subject, then share the info you know about and do as much teaching and sharing of experiences as you can.  It should all come from the hacker perspective, which means experimentation, creative bending of the rules, open disclosure of methods and results, and a good dose of mischief.  We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Dear 2600: Just picked up 29:4 and was checking out the payphones and realized 2600 pals might like my Four Wheel Phone Booth video at youtu.be/w4103rlmcTM.  I mean , it's got payphones, at least.  And Moon Melancon on slide, so there's that, too.  Thanks always for the ever fascinating perspectives.         Louie Ludwig Thanks for the song and video.  Yet more creativity to share.

Dear 2600: I am not much of a hacker, but this subject interests me a lot.  While satisfying my curiosity I have come across various topics and have lots of articles waiting.  I thought that your magazine is quite popular, so I would love to start writing for you.  But in return, I would like to have the t-shirt instead of the subscription.  So can you tell me will it be possible?         AP It's certainly possible, but this is a classic case of putting the cart squarely in front of the horse.  Write the article for the sake of writing the article, not solely based on what you'll get in exchange.  Even if you decide not to send it to us, having written it is always better than not having written it.  And, for the record, all article writers are entitled to a year's subscription, a year of back issues, or a t-shirt of their choice.

Dear 2600: I have a couple of ideas for articles that I wanted to float and see if there's interest 1. I'm building a new open-source parameter injection tool.  It's a Chrome extension designed to address some vulnerabilities in NoSQL databases and other types of injection flaws (in addition to the traditional SQL injection pathways). 2. I could do an article about simple email spoofing, types of spoofs, evasion , and what mail providers check/don't seem to check.  I could talk about how 93 percent of all online banks in the U.S. don't have simple SPF policies to prevent spoofing.  I'd provide some sample code. 3. I could do an article that in more general terms talked about some good open-source tools/apps, but I'm not sure if you already have coverage on that topic. Let me know if any of that sounds interesting.  If not, I have some more ideas, too.         Eric It all sounds extremely interesting to us, and we hope to see submissions on all of these, plus other topics.  We stress to all potential writers that the best thing to do is simply write your article and send it in to articles@2600.com.  If you read even a single issue of our magazine, you should have a decent sense of our general tone and what comprises a decent article for the hacker community.  We wish you luck and hope to see you pursue all of your ideas.

Dear 2600: I recently wrote a three part series on sniffing the Vine API and abusing the Objective-C runtime to extract their AWS keys and post just about any video I like.  Here are the links.  Is this something you'd be interested in publishing?         gabe Unfortunately, as soon as you put this article online and it became findable in search engines it became ineligible to be printed here.  Writers are welcome to do whatever they want with their articles after they're printed in the magazine, but in order to be printed in the first place, they must not be available in other places, including other printed publications or publicly online in any form. This is necessary so that our readers are guaranteed new material, not stuff that can already be found elsewhere.  We do make occasional exceptions for articles that have only appeared elsewhere in a foreign language, but on everything else we have to be pretty strict on this.  We hope this doesn't dissuade you from sending in future articles, which should be posted to articles@2600.com.

Dear 2600: I am interested in recording 2600 articles as a sort of audiobook/podcast to be released shortly after the zine.  I believe that this can be published on Amazon, Audible, and through your website.  I think that you could charge about 150 percent of a normal magazine subscription for this audio subscription for the convenience and additional effort.  I'm curious to hear what you or the community think about this.         Tim We think it's a great idea and would like to see if it's doable.  What winds up being charged is secondary to whether or not it can be done in a timely and efficient manner.  This is the kind of idea we need more of.

Dear 2600: Gentlemen, I see where you are listing no pictures of phones from Iraq on your website, but you published mine back in your Spring 2008 edition.  Did you lose the goodness I sent you?         Conan We haven't lost anything, but we have fallen way behind in updating our website, both with published and non-published payphone submissions.  Suffice to say, we have a ton of them.  Our new 2014 calendar represents the first steps in actually doing something with them.

Help Wanted

Dear 2600: I'm not a hacker and I came across your information while Googling the whois information and trying to determine if a website is operating a scam.  After coming to the conclusion that if it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, and walks like a duck... it's a duck, I began to think of the many Americans who are being scammed by that website.  I was wondering if you could put me in touch with a Patriotic American cyber-vigilante who'd like to take a look at their operation and possibly toss them some website disabling code in good faith.  I've done quite a bit of credentializing on that site and will share what I've discovered with a hero.  I actually repair iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Android Smartphones.  I regularly go online in search of suppliers of cell phone repair parts, and most are in Asia.  I was solicited by them via email.  I'm not sure where they got my email address.  I hope that you can offer me some advice.  If not, take care and be well.         S W We don't know what all this talk of cybervigilantes, patriots, and Americans has to do with anything.  If something's a scam, you let the world know.  That's one of the greatest powers the Internet - the ability to share information and experiences, good and bad.  Next time you get a call from some telemarketer, try typing the number that called you into Google (assuming it isn't masked) and odds are you'll find several sites where people are exchanging info on whatever scam is involved.  Education is the best method of stopping such things, or at least making it a whole lot more difficult for them to operate.  If the website you refer to is truly a scam, it's a fair bet that others know this too and have helped spread the word a bit.  But be prepared to share actual evidence, not simply suspicions because of where they are or that they sent you an email.  And keep the nationalism out of it - the Net community is global and people everywhere are victims of scam artists.

Dear 2600: Maestro, I know it is politically incorrect, but I am in desperate need of the photo of the Brotherhood of Webmasters.  I speak the truth when I say I was the NASA webmaster after it was struck by MOD in 1997.  I am looking everywhere for this thing.  While a photo of the noob would be a nice substitute, we should not fear the wrath of the Brotherhood.  If you choose not to respond to this email, I understand completely.         Reggie You really need to lay off the italics.  We need them for the replies.  Shockingly enough, you may be able to find what you're looking for in the hacked website section of our own website.  We're as surprised as anyone that we got through that letter without saying anything even more sarcastic.  Really.

Dear 2600: My daughter has been missing since Sunday and I was wondering if there was a way to track her cell phone even if it is off?         Anonymous We need to stress in the strongest terms that our email addresses aren't always checked on a daily basis, so please don't send us truly urgent stuff like this that requires immediate attention. Fortunately, we happened to see this relatively soon after it was sent and were able to elicit some help from members of the community.  To answer the question, once a cell phone is physically turned off, it can't be tracked.  But when and where it was turned off can often provide valuable clues as to the person's location, and if it gets turned on again, even for a second, that information can also be added into the equation.  Legally, the only way to get ahold of this information is through law enforcement.  But clearly, anyone with access to phone company records would also be able to provide answers, albeit not without risk.

Inquiring Minds

Dear 2600: Why hasn't the FBI or other organization raided your premises, confiscated your computers, and thereby obtained your list of subscribers?         muh2 muh2 You seem to be under the impression that they would have the right to do such a thing.  Let us assure you that they don't, at least not without having some evidence that this action would be justified.  As we move closer to a society where these things become easier, and such cornerstones as warrants, rights, and due process get stepped on, such a scenario becomes more likely, not just for us but for writers, journalists, and free thinkers all over. As we go to print, we're hearing reports of the Associated Press having their phone records analyzed in the interests of national security and reporters being investigated by the feds simply for writing stories.  So nothing is impossible.  Of course, our subscriber list isn't kept in an unencrypted form on any of our computers, so raiding us wouldn't do them very much good on that front, nor would it have any impact on the majority of print readers who get us in stores.  And as for the digital editions, we regularly are in the top ten of all Kindle magazines which is an awful lot of people even if they were somehow able to get that info out of Amazon, which would be major news in itself.  Most importantly, our reader base would likely increase tenfold in the face of such a threat.  It's exactly that kind of spirit that keeps us going.

Dear 2600: Under library/application support/apple, there's a folder called WLKBFU with a UNIX exec called BFU and a config.hex. What is that?         nov1l2011 Our confusion easily eclipses yours.  Something somewhere told you that we would be the people to ask such a wildly specific question of.  We'd really like to know what led you to us.  While we might be the first choice when looking for a sarcastic answer, there must be thousands of existing websites and forums that would have the actual information you need.  We only hope it's not too late.

Dear 2600: I was a very early fan and reader of 2600 for many years but, except for a few areas, I am hopelessly behind in software skills.  I have focused myself on material fabrication in metals and composites.  I have large, secluded, reasonably well-equipped workspaces.  And I am starting to think about counter-drone technology, just as an intellectual exercise.  I am sure that we, as law abiding, tax paying citizens will never need to fear that our every move will be watched and evaluated by small-minded bureaucrats who hold the power of life or death over us.  If there is already a group I should join, I would love to hear from you.         Toad There are many groups to join, online and off, but what's most important is to stay awake as an individual while talking and listening to other like-minded and different-minded people.  Definitely check out a local meeting because you'll certainly have some good conversations there.  We have some really interesting and potentially scary times ahead, and we're going to need a whole bunch of intelligent people to steer us in the right direction.

Dear 2600: I'm a new subscriber to the 2600 magazine, and my first issues arrived last week         Gabriel Awesome to hear, but it's not necessary to let us know this.  We always assume that stuff we send out will eventually arrive.

Dear 2600: Sorry to bug you, but can you recommend a good chat room?  I am trying to trace someone and it's proving to be a bitch.  Sent me multiple pictures and no way that I know of to track IP or MAC address.  He's testing me as a game, but kicking my a** all over the place.  Need to ask others who are reliable for info.  Any suggestions?         dave We're actually more interested in the fact that you can say bitch but you can't say ass.  But as for your actual question, it's way too vague for us to be helpful.  We have no idea how these pictures are being sent to you (email, AIM, IRC, etc.), and that's quite important in figuring out how to find the source.  Are you looking for a chat room to escape this or to help figure it out?  As every case is different, specifics are really important. With what you've given us, about the only thing we can suggest with certainty is using some social engineering tactics to discover more about this person.  You seem to know something about them already, so work with that.  People always let details slip about their location, profession age, sex, etc.  This is how you build up a little dossier which, eventually, will point you in the right direction.  But this approach requires a lot of patience and diligence, which most people are in short supply of.

Dear 2600: Oops, sorry... the message was incomplete. As I was saying, I'm a new 2600 subscriber.  I live in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and I was wondering about going to this month's meeting. But I'm not really sure about the location.  I have an idea (I think it is in my university's campus).  Maybe it was on purpose, but the description of the location is a little bit fuzzy. Is it possible to put me in touch with the main organizer/coordinator of Belo Horizonte's meeting, or confirm my guess about the location? Thank you in advance.         Gabriel Not a problem.  But we don't give out contact info for anyone associated with the meetings.  You're best off just showing up where you think it is, and letting us know if that didn't work out.  Not being familiar with the area, that's the best we can offer.

Dear 2600: I'm looking for a hacker and because you are a very important magazine, I want to ask you if you know any ethical hackers.         Phil If we ever find the person who coined the term "ethical hacker," we'd like to have a dialogue with them.  It implies that hackers are, by default, unethical, which is why they need to be modified with this description.  As we have been saying for the past three decades, hackers are as ethical, if not more so, than most people.  There are many fields we can point to as having a significant share of dishonest people in their f old, yet we don't feel the need to use this word to constantly denote the "good ones."  It would get a little crazy if we had to constantly say "ethical politician," "ethical policeman," or "ethical plumber."  (And those are only the P's.)  So let's not do this for hackers, as it's both offensive and inaccurate.  So to finally answer your question, yes, yes we do.

Dear 2600: Nevermind, I think I was able to figure out the location. I was even wondering if the meeting here was still happening, since the location description is not searchable on the web and is the same that's been published for years, so maybe the bar closed and you weren't notified about the meeting ending or something like that.  But, as I read on the meetings page, you request to be notified about all the meetings, so if it's published in an issue, it is probably still happening, right? Well, I will drop by there tomorrow and see what's up.         Gabriel While this is what we request, it doesn't always happen, so meetings do occasionally cease operations without our knowledge.  We depend on readers like you to let us know if/when that happens.  We don't see another letter from you with an update (and we were getting used to them), so we will assume for now that all is well.

Dear 2600: Just wondering if any of your many experts at 2600 have any ideas about Bitcoin, the decentralized digital currency?  Many ideas are floating around about this kind of thing.  I was wondering if 2600 had any insights.  If you ever have a blurb about this in one of your issues, it'd be a pleasure to read.         Seth         Enjoying 2600 since 1998! We hope to have articles on this historic phenomena as well as the ability to actually use it ourselves in the near future.  Stay tuned.

Dear 2600: I apologize if this is the wrong email address, but I could not find the merchandise email address on the website.  If there is another person who should be reading this, I would appreciate if you could forward this on to them. I am in search of Cap'n Crunch Bosun whistles.  From what I understand, they were at one time advertised in the Marketplace section of your magazine. Any information you can give me regarding this advertisement would be greatly appreciated.         Cortland We know there have been some ads for these in the past.  As they are fairly limited in quantity, it's entirely possible the supply was depleted.  We do suggest checking that section in future issues as it's also entirely possible that more may be out there.

Dear 2600: Anyone else having problems streaming Windows 7 and Netflix?  I keep on getting "Windows has stopped working" when I try to run Netflix.  I am running Windows 7 with AVG enabled.  I am tired of this crap.  If I tum off my computer for a minute, it goes away for a while.         616boomer Yes, turn off your computer.  That solves your problem and it also will keep us from getting these questions that have nothing to do with the hacker world.

Dear 2600: I've recently watched Freedom Downtime along with a multitude of other incredible documentaries on hacking (Freedom Downtime was the best, by far!).  Anyway, I remember reading a while back that there was another film project called Speakers' World in the works.  I was curious if you could give an answer as to whether you guys are still working on it or, if it's done, when you expect it to be released, etc.  Just really looking forward to it! You're big inspirations and are simply greater than a pocket full of awesome.         Grant Thanks for the accolades.  That project, unfortunately, fell victim to our being overextended and underfunded.  We do have a lot of footage that was gathered and maybe we can do something with it someday.  The good news is that we're working on other projects that should be even better.  Continue to pay attention and you won't regret it.

Dear 2600: I am interested in books or manuscripts and early history pertaining to these brilliant young teenagers.  True American know-how, hurrah!         SS Might we suggest some early back issues?  If you want to stay up on the current brilliance, however, you'll need to subscribe for all of the new ones yet to come.  But keep in mind that the know-how transcends any borders, national or otherwise.

Service Declined

Dear 2600: Howdy fedsarewatchinganydissidentusingsmmrootkit.  Thank you for signing up with WordPress.com.  Use this URL to activate your account:         [redacted] We're not biting.

Dear 2600: You've got a file called 2600.zip, (66.1 MB) waiting to be downloaded at sendspace.com.  Description: I thought you would enjoy some payphones from the UAE.  Enjoy.  Stephanie You can use the following link to retrieve your file: [redacted] The file may be available for a limited time only.         sendspace.com This is why we require that payphone photos be emailed directly to us, just like articles and letters.  Links to outside sites tend to expire or be really insecure.  Our email servers can handle it, so don't be shy: payphones@2600.com.

Call to Action

Dear 2600: I was a hacker when openfast and win3 was around.  I now have brain damage and cannot do anything anymore.  I have lost my ability to do math and my memory is messed up.  In today's world, I look around and see all of these supposed hackers where the concept of "information freedom" has been wiped away.  Some sites out there that require you to have a photo or 50 friends on Facebook are just plain dumb.  Like you can't get pics on the Net, or spend a day adding friends to your Facebook.  I think that the concept of socialization skills have completely gone out the window.  I am ashamed to have ever been involved in the hacking community.  If I was able to and did not have ethics and morals, I would be scaring the crap out of the gov and corps.  The limited intelligence of the corp is dumfounding.  I mean, here we have people who have made the Internet what it is today, the makers, the "elite," and yet the gov and corp think they can stop them.  Well yeah, if you all keep thinking like them.  I think a reality check is in order.  We need to show the gov and corp that we mean biz.  Just taking one site down temporarily is not good.  We need to take all the info, remove it from them, and then delete them.  There is no option here.  If we do not act now, there will not be a second chance.  They will eventually find you.  Every one of us needs to make one place that is untouchable to them.  Hash things out and wipe them out.  They are the gods that have enslaved us, and it is time to rebel.  Screw the ethics and morals.  We can't wait for them to make another SOPA and pass it under our noses. Thank you, live long.         v There's a lot to digest here.  What it comes down to, though, is that simply striking out at governments and corporations without something really specific to rally around is going to do very little to strengthen whatever cause you're acting on behalf of.  These entities are already scared shitless by hackers, without anyone even doing anything.  The wrong actions can go a long way towards making these institutions right in the public's eye, which is exactly the opposite of what you want, we presume.  We've found over the years that destruction and vandalism accomplish far less than actually exposing the corruption underneath the surface.  Decisive victories are a rare thing, and steady progress can be so subtle that we miss it.  Patience and consistent pressure are tactics that really do payoff.  And as for the next SOPA, we strongly doubt we'll have to wait very long.  It'll be here in no time.  Let's not miss the opportunity to destroy it when Call to Action it shows up.

Dear 2600: This is my computer, there are many like it, but this one is mine.  My computer is my best friend, it is my life.  I must master it as I master my life.  My computer, without me, is useless.  Without my computer, I am useless.  I must root my computer true.  I must hack better than my enemy who is trying to root me.  I must root him before he roots me.  I will...  My computer and I know what counts in this war is not the packets we forge, the media coverage, or the logs we erased.  We know it is the 0days that count.  We will 0day...  My computer is human, even as I, because it is my life.  Thus, I will learn it as my brother.  I will learn its vulns, its hardenings, its parts, its accessories, its shells, and its ports.  I will keep it clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready.  We will become part of each other.  We will...  Before God I swear this creed.  My computer and I are the defenders of my country.  We are the masters of our enemy.  We are the saviors of my security.  So be it. Thank you for using Picture and Video Messaging by U.S. Cellular.  See www.uscellular.comfor info.         Anonymous The lesson here is that if you're going to pen "The Hacker s Creed," it's probably best to do it from your own mail server rather than one that piggybacks its own corporate identity onto your words.  But, in a strange way, that bit of irony emphasizes why the message is important.

Dear 2600: Welcome to Orwell's future from 1984: Big Brother is no longer a paranoid fantasy.  It's reality.  Add up Patriot Act, NDAA, Defense Preparedness Executive Order of March 16, 2012, and now CISPA, and you have 90 percent of martial law.  The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is the latest bill before our puppet Congress that intends to strip us of our online privacy.  According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the bill gives Internet companies the right "to monitor user actions and share data - including potentially sensitive user data - with the government without a warrant" and also "overrides existing privacy law, and grants broad immunities to participating companies."  CISPA has just passed in the House of Representatives as I write this. CISPA will allow the government to read and store all of our Internet activities: email, IM, Skype, social media, searches, and the like without a warrant - all in the name of "safety."  Does the federal government really need another law that lets it spy on the free people of the U.S. in violation of the U.S. Constitution?  CISPA isn't about a party base or national security.  It's about idiots trying to control us regardless of their party.  This great nation of ours will truly become "Land of the Free, Home of the Slave" unless we put a stop to this.  Stop CISPA!  Stand up, people of America, and let our representatives know that we refused to have one more right taken away without due process. To any and all Geheime Staatspolizei types who are reading this, I know what you are thinking: put this guy in the FBI Subversive Files.  You're too late - I'm already in them.         Brainwaste As of press time, it appears that this bill won't be voted on by the Senate and the White House has also expressed its opposition.  This only means that there will be another one down the road somewhere.  Let's all keep our eyes open for it.

More Meeting Mania

Dear 2600: Do you have the contact details for the person who organizes the Ewloe, Wales 2600 meeting?  Looking to start going from this month.         Liam Meetings are generally not organized by anyone person.  Once you show up, it's as much your meeting as it is anyone else's.  We also don't give out email addresses of anyone else who's involved for privacy reasons.  However, if your particular meeting has a website attached to it (yours unfortunately doesn't), then you might be able to glean such information from there, should they choose to display it.  Of course, as someone who attends the meetings, you'd also be able to put up a website and have it listed on our site, if you wanted to get involved on that level.

Dear 2600: So I finally decided to attend a 2600 meeting in San Francisco.  Your listing says it's at "4 Embarcadero Center (inside)."  I went there and it's a 45-story office building.  So I went "inside" and knocked on doors asking "2600?"  This brute-force attack yielded no results after seven floors, but then I had an a-ha! moment and took the elevator straight to suite 2600 on the 26th floor.  But that's a real estate office and they told me to get lost, even after I winked and nodded knowingly. So where is "inside" exactly?         farangbaa Wow.  We don't think anyone has ever tried so hard and gone so far off course.  This particular meeting has a website and the location as described is a bit more descriptive than our listing in the magazine.  So add "near street level fountains" to your quest and please leave the people in suite 2600 alone.

Dear 2600: Our client Dice, a tech recruiting company, is doing a six month bus tour of tech events.  We are in the Seattle area off and on the next six months and will be in town for one of your 2600 Seattle meetings.  We wondered if you would be open to having Dice sponsor in some way.  We are looking to have the bus parked near your venue with the hope that some attendees would visit the bus, experience the quick and fun engagements, and enter to win some amazing prizes.  I'd love to chat with you about our ideas and see if you think this would be a good fit.         Janelle This is really not our thing.  Meetings aren't "sponsored" by any outside organization, but serve as a means for people to get together and converse.  Anyone is welcome to take part in this and pass out literature or share information.  While attendees may be somewhat suspicious of strangers trying to entice them to visit a bus or down the block, you're certainly welcome to give it a shot and make yourselves known.  But we're not for sale.

Dear 2600: The Helsinki meeting is now in its tenth year and still going strong, with a core group of attendees who come to almost every meeting.  That said, we rarely get new attendees except when one of us convinces a friend or coworker to come along.  It occurred to me that some people might be worried about a language barrier.  Don't be: several of the regular attendees are native speak vigorers of English.  Most of us also speak Finnish and some of us speak other languages as well.  So, if you find yourself in Helsinki on the first Friday of the month, please feel welcome to join us.         Jax We hope that language or any other sort of barriers don't ever dissuade people from attending a meeting if they happen to be in town for one.  Our language is universal.

Dear 2600: Hi, I am a longtime fan of 2600.  I've always been interested in going to meetings, but a combination of paranoia and laziness has always prevented me.  I'm at a point where I think I need to get involved with the community for the sake of my soul, but there is one big problem.  I am a single father and, like most single fathers, I am severely limited in when I get to see my daughter.  The standard visitation order for just about every single dad in the U.S. is first, third, and fifth weekends.  I got extra screwed, so I only get first and third.  At any rate, this of course presents me with the choice of attending a 2600 meeting or seeing my kid (who lives in another city).  I suppose I could bring her with me, but I just thought I would point that out.  There may not be a ton of people facing this choice right now, but with a 50 percent divorce rate in this country, it will probably become an issue someday.         Ian We have to admit, this is one scenario we hadn't considered at all when we started the meetings.  Unless the terms of your visitation specifically forbid bringing your child to one of our meetings (and nothing would surprise us anymore) and assuming it's O.K. with her, by all means bring the kid.  They're great conversation starters and often turn into really good lockpickers.

Responding

Dear 2600: In 29:4, Steve states, "After I got out of prison...  I was convinced to open a Facebook account.  Two days later, my probation officer nabbed me for violation of her restraining order...  All I did was innocently join Facebook...  I could have been a level three sex offender trolling for kids." Steve, what are you after, Facebook being held to account, yet not you?  Are you sure you'd rather be right than be free?  Maintaining your position will predictably result in a life sentence with increments of 90 day violations.  Country living under the illusion of freedom, be advised: While one has orders of protection, it is impossible to responsibly participate in social networking sites.  Take heed: Anything less then a vigorous concerted effort to remain free will result in your re-incarceration. 2600 responds to Steve, "But for such a thing to be the sole reason for convicting you of a probation violation seems incredible."  How so, since only one charge is required to sustain a violation?  "A decent attorney could get you some satisfaction."  Attorney and satisfaction in the same sentence?  Bernie S., throw me a bone here.  Ever notice how little actually happens in a courtroom and how long it takes?  Court systems are controlled by the bar, of which the judge , prosecutors, revocation specialists, and defense attorneys are all members.  They feign the system as being for justification of why the system is always backed up, but this is simply a mask on the real business model of courts, the Somalian Pirate Business Model - pass through here and pay a toll. There seems to be a fundamental misnomer about the manner in which law enforcement operates.  The system has no interest in this supposed "justice" theory, nor right or wrong, and most certainly not efficiency.  The commodity of value it thrives upon is obedience. Permit me to illustrate.  Let's say one day at a probation/parole office near you, a supervisor walks in on two officers.  One (let's call him PO Nice Guy that everybody loves) is picking himself off the floor after obviously just having been decked.  Standing over him as the obvious and clear perpetrator is PO PTSD who everybody hates and likely has swastika tattoos under his shirt.  The supervisor writes up the incident and forwards it via the chain of command to the state capital who responds by a) suspending PO Nice Guy; b) suspending PO PTSD; or c) all of the above.  If you picked c) all of the above, you get it.  You can now hack the system. 2600 readers, make peace with the aforementioned, and plan accordingly. Please do not post my email address.  Much thanks for the best rage ever.         Myq Morer "Best rage ever" or "best rag ever?"  We'll accept either one.  We stand by the statement that sending someone to prison for a perceived Facebook friend request is the height of absurdity and injustice .  Or at least one of the many heights we've seen lately.

Dear 2600: Long time reader, first time writer.  In reference to the Arabic lettering on the cover of Volume 30, Number 1...  I think you might have gotten it backwards.  Arabic is written/read right to left (and joined up differently).  Kind of the same thing that happened in the 2009 movie Gamer when Kable's name was supposed to have appeared in Arabic projected near the pyramids... but it really said "Lebaak" instead. Or maybe I'm missing something?         V/R         UserNotFound404 We could blame Photoshop and say that for some inexplicable reason, Arabic letters are placed in reverse order after being pasted.  Or we could say that reversal is part of our overall cover theme this year.  Either excuse will do the job.

Dear 2600: Just reading the letters section (30:1) and came across IT Simpson's predicament.  It occurred to me that whoever is doing this is probably using an automated dialer to cold call people.  If that's the case, the numbers it's calling are probably sequential, so your reader might be able to predict which number it will call next by logging the numbers of the people "returning" the call.  He or she could then call a few people ahead of the auto dialer, explain the situation, and ask the person to report what they hear when the spoofer phones. Just a thought!         Nojlot

Dear 2600: Thank you for publishing "my perspective" in the Spring 2013 issue of 2600. I do hope that, despite my age (now 54), it didn't sound juvenile nor boring.  I suspect some, steeped in hacking electro-digital differential analyzers, to be less enthused about physically making a half mile walkie-talkie pull in a ham radio operator over a mile away or in listening to Nevada on a radio because of a reconstructed AM receiver signal booster, etc. The sad thing though is that it is the maker-hackers that will keep our economy recovering, if it is going to recover.  The computer hackers will continue to safeguard against weaknesses, both in software and in the government, but this is really more of a defensive position.  We have to make sure, if nothing else, to get our children interested in science and in technology, but in both the software and the hardware.  So again, thank you for considering my humble ramblings to be of some use to your readers         GoodHart

Dear 2600: Your magazine's treatment by Barnes & Noble seems to be a recent, recurring theme, so I figured I'd throw in my experience in the hopes that a) it's useful in some way and b) it isn't yet beating a dead horse. I went to a Barnes & Noble by my house on Friday morning, the day that the Spring 2013 issue was released, about 90 minutes after opening.  They didn't have it on the shelf, and I had to get going to work, so I figured they just hadn't gotten it put out yet and went on my way.  A busy weekend passed, and I didn't get to check again until Monday, when I stopped by a different Barnes & Noble on my way home from work.  This one still didn't have it out.  I flagged down an outright frazzled-looking employee, who - despite clearly having too many irons and not enough fire - was courteous and helpful.  Yes, they had it; it was in the back.  He went to get me a copy and returned, mentioning that they had just gotten them in that day. So, evidently, sometimes it's just late to the stores.  Maybe there's a kink in the distribution chain somewhere?  I do live on the complete opposite coast of the States, so maybe that's a factor?  All the same, happy ending!  I've got it. Now, to devour it wholeheartedly, understand at most a third of it, and learn at least one completely new thing, as usual.  I look forward to the experience.         jlbesq Yes, there are many kinks in the distribution chain and geography can often factor into that.  It's quite impossible to guarantee that the issue will go on sale on the same day everywhere, but we do try and make sure that it's close.  Subscribers usually get it a little before the stores do, but even that can be open to the whims of the various postal services.  It sounds like the stores by you are doing as good a job as they can in getting it out there.  We can only hope that others do the same.

Dear 2600: In issue 30:1, Kevin Morris wrote the article "Guest Networks: Protection Less Than WEP?"  It was about the guest network feature provided by his Linksys router.  By default, the guest network used a hotel-style captive gateway with a password, but he was able to find the very short wordlists that the setup software used to generate default guest passwords.  Awesome job on discovering this and publishing a simple brute-force script. However, he ended with: "...unless you want to provide free Internet access to your neighbors or anybody else willing to do a little work, I would suggest only enabling the guest network feature when you need it and promptly disabling it afterwards." I think much better advice would be to provide free Internet access to your neighbors and everybody else without forcing them to do any extra work.  No one should go without Internet access.  It's crazy and inefficient that in any given city block, there are dozens of separate password-protected access points stomping all over the 2.4 GHz spectrum, yet some neighbors still take the bus to the library just to check their email.  Not to mention everyone is paying way too much money to the same near-monopoly warrantless-wiretapping spying-on-everyone collaborator corporation like AT&T or Comcast. Guest networks are awesome because, as Kevin pointed out in his article, you can have your own private network on a separate VLAN than your guest network, which lets you freely share access to this amazing resource without worrying about your guests spying on you or hacking the computers at your house.  Some consumer router firmware and most free software firmware that you can flash onto your router (like DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato, etc.) offer Quality of Service (QoS) settings that will even let you throttle the guest network to prevent it from using all of your bandwidth when you want it. So please , open up your Wi-Fi, share access to the Internet with all who want it, and join the Open Wireless Movement.  While you're at it, check out openwireless.org.  If you're worried about the legal consequences of strangers using your network to pirate stuff or otherwise commit crimes, consider setting your guest network's ESSID to openwireless.org to get some legal protection from the excellent "Considerate Use Guidelines" written by lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.         Micah Lee These are all great points and well worth considering, even though it may force many of us to think differently.  While small content providers and creative individuals struggle to make the Net work for them, those huge companies, some of whom predate the Internet itself, seem to have no problem getting almost everyone to pay them, whether it be for overpriced phones, expensive data plans, or basic access that suits their needs more than it does ours.  It doesn't have to be this way.

Dear 2600: In 29:4, Dragorn writes about the "Tragedy of SSL" brought about by the X.509 certificate model of absolute trust in certificate authorities.  While certificate pinning as he described is certainly a good idea to keep the chaos at bay, us hackers should be looking for and embracing new authentication strategies.  It seems fundamentally wrong to put trust in companies we know little about to authenticate our online communications. PGP has provided us with a decentralized fine-grained Web Of Trust for some time now, primarily used for authenticating the identity of persons.  The same system can be used for identifying servers, or services in general.  A server can publish their public key to the Web Of Trust and, as long as a chain of trust exists between you and the signer (usually the administrator) of the server's key, you can trust that you really are communicating with the proper server.  You choose who to trust. Monkeysphere is an open-source project for *NIX systems (web.monkeysphere.info) that makes it relatively easy to leverage the Web Of Trust for SSL and OpenSSH.  For SSL, the system consists of a validation daemon and a browser plug-in.  When you visit a site that cannot be authenticated with the browser's built-in X.509 authentication, Monkeysphere will attempt to validate it through your Web Of Trust.  This provides a decentralized, highly personalized, and free alternative to the tyranny and chaos of the X.509 system. The same project can be used for authenticating OpenSSH connections, preventing the inevitable blind answer of "yes" when you are asked if the server's fingerprint is correct on your first connection.  You can also attach an SSH key to your personal public key, and use it for logging in, instead of manually maintaining your SSH key on the various servers you administrate.  When you revoke or update your key and publish it to the Web Of Trust, all the servers it pertains to will automatically be updated. For the system to be more widely useful, it needs more users!  PGP is the way to manage trust in the 21st century, in my opinion.  Spread the love!         Michael

Dear 2600: After reading W.D.Woods' "Hypercapitalism and Its Discontents" in 30:1, I felt compelled to write to say, "I'd like to shake this motherf*cker's hand."  That is all. (Feel free to edit that if need be.)         D351 No edit could do your words justice.

Dear 2600: "Mu Dee," yes, you are dumps... and yes, "angelsbrothelsgrandmalives" has inspired me to write (30:1 letters column).  I hope to bring something worthy of publication.  Moving on. The article on guest networks was a good read and touches on a related side project I worked on a "while ago" with a friend of mine.  Since I am currently behind locked doors, I am unfortunately unable to provide you and the 2600 readers with a direct link to the project, but here are the basics to getting started.  We've all seen the "one touch" or "push button" setups on consumer wireless devices that offer an easy setup to enable higher strength encryption during a brief window of time.  Now, this is, of course, to tailor to the average person who is unwilling to type in a longer passphrase, who in theory wants "strong" encryption. Problem is there are ways to exploit this "ease of use" feature by using Reaper (available at Google Code if memory serves - may also be available from BackTrack repositories) that essentially brute forces the alpha (hex) numeric 8-10 digit entry needed to gain access to the network regardless of encryption strength.  Scary. What I discovered next was I was able to run my attack against my routers without pushing the one touch setup button on the device.  Scarier.  O.K., time to administratively disable this feature through the router's web interface.  Done, reboot router, login, verify changes took, check!  Run attack again... network access granted.  Yikes! We tested this on multiple vendors ranging from Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc. with the latest, greatest firmware, all of which were successful in 22 hours or less.  Face palmplant.  I would hope the vendors have since corrected this vulnerability - just wanted to share this after reading the guest network article. I'm also curious to know if a successful result could be achieved when running a third-party solution such as DD-WRT.  If anything, I hope this sparks a constructive conversation in finding the safest solution for your network's safety and security and, above all, preventing this from happening to you.         Tech Deprived Incarcerate         RIP Aaron Swartz

Dear 2600: Regarding the article in the latest issue of your magazine, "The Usage of the Assumption Technique in Social Engineering," I thought that you might be interested in the following bit of trivia.  When you assume something, you make an ass out of you and me.  Ass...u...me.  Have some fun with this!         Robert Well, that's certainly the first time we've ever heard that one!  How very clever.  Let the fun begin.

The Game of Justice

Dear 2600: My brother is a hacker who enjoys reading your articles in 2600.  He's been held for the last four years for a crime he's not actually guilty of.  They claimed something that was not true in order to gain access to his home. He said it can be proved that it's a lie but needs a competent individual to do a little forensic work.  He does not trust the government supplied forensics, lawyers, psychologists, etc. because they only exist to serve the government. He's asked me to write for your address so he can mail you a letter with all the details.  The only people he trusts right now are his family and the hacker community, who he considers his brotherhood. Thank you so much for reading this and for any help you can give him.         Anonymous We get many letters like this, all of which are really sad and frustrating.  They're sad because they make us realize how many potentially innocent people are wasting their lives locked up for unfair reasons, frustrating because there's only so much we can do and it never feels like it's enough.  While the hacker community will certainly show support and offer suggestions, it's not wise to simply write off everyone else as being untrustworthy or an agent working for the other side. There are a multitude of organizations and agencies from the ACLjU to the EFF who are familiar with both legal and technological issues.  They, like us, receive far more pleas for help than they could ever handle.  This is why it's up to anyone who finds themselves in such a situation to be as vocal and public as possible.  If you can state your case in a brief and clear way that the average person would sympathize with, that's a great first step.  But it's only the first step.  Reaching as many people as possible, not just in one community but in a whole bunch, is the only way to get more than just a sympathetic ear.

Dear 2600: Every time I am stopped by the police, I tell them I am taking the Fifth and refuse to answer their questions.  I even refuse to tell them my name.  I am not a criminal, but I figure that since the Founders died to get me those rights, I should use them or lose them.  The next thing that usually happens is the cops tell me I don't have any Fifth Amendment rights in "this case."  I am confused on that because Miranda vs. Arizona says "If the individual indicates ... he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease."  And, of course, things then get worse.  The cops usually illegally search my wallet, and all of my pockets looking for my ID, drugs, and guns.  I don't carry an ID, and I don't use drugs or carry a gun, so they never find anything.  Yes, I know Terry vs. Ohio allows the cops to give you a pat down search of your outer garments looking for weapons, but a search of my pockets and wallet is clearly illegal per the Fourth Amendment and Terry vs. Ohio.  Then I am usually handcuffed and falsely arrested while the police make all kinds of threats on what is going to happen if I don't answer their questions.  Then, after an hour or two, the cops release me and tell me I am a jerk for thinking I have "Constitutional rights."  With that in mind, I can understand why the cops are going to attempt to force Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, to answer their questions without reading him his Miranda rights. Our Constitutional rights were not created to protect criminals.  They were created to protect the innocent from government tyrants, like the police that have a number of times falsely arrested me, illegally questioned me, and illegally searched me.  I guess I should be glad because I have not been beaten up yet for thinking I have Constitutional rights.         Mike It sounds like law enforcement really has it in for you for some reason.  What you describe is sheer harassment and should not be tolerated by any of us.  As for bypassing Miranda rights, you can count on authorities to look for any reason to put those on hold or even bypass them altogether.  The best way for them to do that is to get the public on their side. Be extremely dubious of any "news" story that reports how being read Miranda rights got a suspect to become uncooperative or examples of how terrorism was thwarted because somebody gave out vital information while being tortured by the good guys.  These are merely methods of swaying public opinion and convincing us that the basic tenets of our society, which we claim are under attack by terrorists, are worth giving up when fighting them.  When an evil agenda links forces with naivete, there's no end to the destruction that can follow.

Dear 2600: Hi, it's Jesse McGraw.  Celebrate with me, because after an agonizing 13 months in a 9x6 cell in Seagoville's Administrative Segregation Unit which I have dubbed "the crematorium," I was finally transferred in a great hurry to Beaumont (low) in order for prison officials to nullify a temporary restraining order my attorney filed to have the court order them to place me back in general population and render medical care.  Sneaky, huh? This mythical, misguided reputation as a destructive "super hacker" preceded me here, which is quite ridiculous, as the first words I heard upon my arrival were "you're not going anywhere near our computers."  Sadly, we as a people within this hacker subculture are so hazardously misjudged, many of us become targets of paranoid witch hunts led by the misinformed.  This is nothing new.  That is part of the reason why I was kept illegally confined for an indefinite amount of time.  "Because of who you are, and what you're capable of" is what I was told. Now that I'm out, I'm strengthening my sea legs and pursuing the appeal of my sentence, and the civil lawsuit against Seagoville FCI for violation of my Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment rights, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress under Texas law, case number 3:13-CV-0740-L. Thank you 2600 community for all your letters of support!  You're awesome. Endurance is the power to rise above all obstacles, refusing to succumb to the fires of tribulation; standing strong against insurmountable odds, for the sake of the victory.         Ghost Exodus

Memories

Dear 2600: After my father passed away recently, I was faced with a choice.  Should I disconnect my childhood phone number which has been in my family for almost 45 years?  Or should I transfer ("port") it to be my own? This got me wondering what the longest-assigned number could be.  Are there records of such things?  I know area codes didn't exist before 1947 but, area codes aside, is it possible that a phone number from, say, 1913 is still "owned" by the same family's descendants 100 years later?  What about a 1947 phone number still "owned" 66 years later by the same family?  Are there records of such things or am I the only one who cares? In the end, I decided to keep and port my childhood number.  Assuming I live another 45 years, this phone number will have remained in my family for about 90 years.  I just hope my descendants keep the number when I'm gone so when the zombie apocalypse comes and the dead "rise from the grave, I can call my great-great-great-great grandson to say; "Hey Little Jimmy, come pick me up!"         Les Hogan This is the kind of thing we're very much interested in and would love to find out more about.  Apart from making a conscious effort to hold onto your phone number (and congratulations on making the right decision on that front), phone numbers can also be changed by phone companies for various reasons, such as adding a digit, retiring an exchange, or splitting an area code.  If the area code is eliminated from consideration, there would be a great many more phone numbers in existence now that haven't changed since the advent of the first area code in the 1940s.  The hotel of our HOPE conferences (Hotel Pennsylvania) has had the famous PEnnsylvania 6-5000 number since at least the 1930s, when seven digit dialing was introduced.

Dear 2600: As we move towards the future of UIs with Xbox Kinect's hand interfaces and voice to text, it really made me think back about my life with technology.  From keyboard and mouse to spoken word and hand gestures, this is my remembrance for the keyboard... The first computer I ever had was a rebuild that I did of an IBM XT in 1988.  It ran with a one MHz CPU, 128 kB of RAM, and it had a 10 MB hard drive the size of a dictionary.  It was the joy of my life learning DOS and hex machine code.  I broke it trying to play Doom, and then scored a rebuilt X386 that had a little more power. This began my hacker days in the computer art/code world...  BBS systems, 800 numbers, 14.4k modems, all-nighters breaking PBXes, whistles on old phone booths, solder on phone dialers, loop back conference calls, art for code, code for life.  1990-1994 were the most exciting days of my teenage life.  At 14, I had rewired my parents' home to have four phone lines.  Two on the grid and two ghost lines that didn't exist.  It was all about trading knowledge and digital graffiti.  There were no black hats.  It was all kids who could skateboard with code, digital art that evolved into the background of what we take now for granted in our technology. Just as that background will always be there, the keyboard will live on in shadow.  The real Monet in the pixels of reality, the single dots where it all started.  The simple QWERTY of the Remington No. 2 typewriter of 1878.         Trevor Pontz - aka acid phix (spastic/ice) Thanks for the memories.  We have no doubt that the kids of today will also look back fondly on their magical times with developing technology.  While the tools themselves are constantly changing from year to year, the hacker spirit is remarkably similar with each generation.

Copy Protection, Trademarks, et al.

Dear 2600: I don't recall seeing anything about Tor Books (tor-forge.com) in recent issues.  While reading through some tech-related articles on Ars Technica, I came across this gem entitled "Tor Books says cutting DRM out of its e-books hasn't hurt business" which mentions that Tor Books has been DRM-free for a year now with no discernible impact on the level of piracy of their publications: "Tor announced last April that it would only retail e-books in DRM-free formats because its customers are 'a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them.  It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of ereader to another.'" Hurray for more DRM-free e-book publishers!         Broken Syntax It's great to see the numbers reflect what so many of us have been saying for years.  But it's especially important that we not take this for granted and remember to support those writers and artists whose work we value.  Not only will you be ensuring their survival and more content, but you will be proving to the world that insane copy protection schemes do far more harm than good.

Dear 2600: On the subject of trademarks, the best way to lose a widely known trademark is to encourage or allow it to become a generic word in the English language. A valid registered mark can be lost if misused.  When Otis advertised that it "made the finest escalators and elevators," its use of its trademark "escalator" in the same context as the generic noun "elevator" rendered its escalator mark generic and in the public domain.  It should have said "Escalator (TM) brand moving stairways," using escalator as an adjective to describe the generic noun "stairways," or "moving stairways." "Aspirin," "cellophane," and "heroin" were all once trademarks.  It's a good idea to clear your advertising through trademark counsel to protect against the ad man's urge to destroy your mark by making it a generic household word. Xerox, for years, sent notices to people that the word for "photocopy" is not "xerox." If Scott's "tissue" is a kleenex, then Kleenex loses its mark. Google is in the same bind.  If anyone's websearch is a "google," then Google loses its trademark. You seem to use language precisely enough to distinguish between a Bing or a Google or an AVG or a Yahoo search. The loss of the translation of "ungoogleable" in Sweden recently should be just what Google wants in order to preserve its mark.         Christopher Still, it must be a bit of an accomplishment to have one's company name become synonymous with the product they're selling, even if it doesn't payoff financially.  We can only wonder what might have been had Heroin kept their trademark.

Advice

Dear 2600: This is written from behind bars and is an open letter to top tier civilian hackers.  I would like to comment on the evolution of the scene over the past couple of years.  A hacker's moral construct is their own and it is not the place of others to critique the basis for which a hacker makes decisions.  That being said, where has the loyalty gone?  It is no secret that the FBI, CIA, and other federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have done a terrific job of recruiting criminally oriented hackers to engage for their own purposes.  Why though is this a catalyst for domestic intelligence gathering on hackers by hackers?  I suspect these handlers do an expert job of playing on the emotions of their teenaged to early adult sources, which is a slimy tactic.  This model is defective, however, because everyone is now a threat.  Information can no longer be shared freely.  Pooling of resources is dangerous and the global threatscape is broader now because information is compartmentalized, where before it would be shared freely. To the interested agencies - this is a new and dynamic environment.  Your handling of sources now determines the tone for the future.  If you continue to squeeze your sources like a sponge and then discard them without so much as a thanks, your pool will dry up.  If, instead, you manage the community reasonably and with some desire of transparency, you will add to the pool. These broken, drug abusing, risk filled college dropouts provide angles you will otherwise never have.  Manage wisely. Shouts to Medvedev, Arash, OneStien, PorsterHelp, SedAzzad, Wolfy, Kayla and Tope.         BudLightly

Dear 2600: I have to comment on two points which share a common thread. 1)  The disingenuous "outrage" over reports of Chinese "hackers" launching cyberattacks/info gathering probes against U.S. businesses.  I question the validity of this outrage on the basis that this behavior should be expected, guarded against, and prepared for.  Only the truly stupid would believe that U.S. businesses are not doing the same on their own or with government support.  "Competitive intelligence gathering" is legal.  Industrial espionage is illegal.  The line between the two is thin and blurry.  Governments spy on their enemies along with their allies.  There is only winning and losing - there are no points awarded for ethics/following the letter of the law and, in international law/courts, it's difficult to prosecute war crimes and genocide, let alone "information theft."  If corporations/governments aren't practicing (aggressive) counterintelligence, they have only themselves to blame.  Nobody likes a poor loser. 2)  Similarly, I often see letters in 2600 concerned about government agents infiltrating 2600 meetings.  Well, duh!  If I were the head of a federal or state law enforcement/intelligence agency, I would certainly have an agent sniff around those meetings frequented by "dangerous" hackers.  Perhaps even agent provocateurs to enable, promote, and create a "crime" for fellow agents to detect and foil...  If one chooses to engage in illegal activity, prudence dictates that this information must be kept on a strict "need-to-know" basis.  And remember the old Hells Angels saying: "Three people can keep a secret - if two are dead..."  Participate in meetings, but always keep in mind that anybody may be a government agent or confidential informant.  Also, courts hold you have "no expectation" of privacy in public - thus, no warrant is needed to conduct audio/visual surveillance.  You have been advised.         Geri Q As we've said repeatedly over the years, meetings are completely open to anyone and we don't engage in illegal activity.  Our very existence seems to be almost enough to categorize us as a threat these days.  We have no need for ominous sayings or oaths of secrecy and allegiance.  A curious mind, a willingness to listen, and resistance to preconceived notions are the things that will help anyone of any age learn and grow from any of our meetings, as well as from the material we print.  We hope that spirit continues to flourish.