Path to 3lit3

Submitted by Ashley

The One True Path to Being Elite

Often in the hacker world, we hear the term ‘Elite’ and variations of the word. Traditionally, the only qualification for being Elite was being called Elite by another hacker. We all know who is truly elite, it requires no symbol or staff of office, one simply is.

Less commonly defined, but often inquired about, is how to become Elite. In this article, I will attempt to answer some of the most often asked questions in the hacker forums, IRC channels and mailing lists. We’ve all been asked, “How do I learn to hack?” or “Teach me to hack <insert anything>”. For one thing, we wouldn’t know where to begin, and another thing is that hacking isn’t a technique or the use of any particular software or hardware, its a mentality. Hacking is a way of thinking and living which requires intelligence, adaptability, advanced geometric thinking and a profound desire to learn anything and everything. This innate ability to dissect the world around us and understand it from all directions at once is unfortunately also what leads to many hackers performing poorly academically, because traditional educational doctrine promotes teaching to the slowest student and advancing gradually through topics in a linear fashion. By the time the instructor has explained the most basic principles of a subject, the hacker has already figured out the rest and become bored with the concept. This is a story for another time however.

The unique abilities of a hacker can be likened to candidates for intelligence agency field work and special operations groups. The qualities which make these candidates successful in their areas of specialty are ones which cannot be taught, they are simply inborn. Hackers are born, not trained, but the Elite among us are defined by their lifetime commitment to advancement of knowledge, often not only for themselves but for the entire human race. The day a hacker quits learning is the day s/he dies.

Understanding the points outlined above, you may ask yourself, “If its all about learning, then what can I learn to become better at <anything>?” Quite simply, the most important thing any hacker can learn in their entire life is efficient research methodologies and methods of breaking down complex systems into manageable categories. Each individual learns differently and comprehends complex systems differently, creating their own links between distantly related subjects, so the precise techniques and application of these techniques will vary between individuals in practicum. There are some basic concepts which will help you to discover your own path to effective learning however, and I will share with you what I feel are the simplest and most important concepts.

Taking advantage of your inherent ability to see the world in multiple dimensions requires you to understand yourself on many levels as well. One way to organize your thoughts, quantify them, and study your thought patterns, is to create a mind map. Mind mapping is the process of creating a hierarchical table with nodes and subnodes based on a single central topic, ultimately tying together seemingly unrelated concepts in a very ordered and logical way which can then be communicated to others. If you are a hacker, you may find the process of trying to explain how you arrived at a conclusion very tedious and inefficient, given the limitations of human language. This may manifest itself as a difficulty in, or even a refusal to show one’s work in mathematics classes. Sometimes we become very frustrated trying to explain concepts which may appear to be very complex or even incomprehensible to others, yet seem elementary to us. This makes it difficult to pass on knowledge, and sometimes even when speaking to someone of similar intellect, communication is hindered by incompatibilities in our minds’ information processing routines. At times you may even become overwhelmed by your own thoughts when considering multidimensional systems which are very intricate or seemingly infinite, such as theoretical physics. This is where a mind map can help you as well as others.

Personally, I find using purpose-built software to develop mind maps is the most efficient method. There are many free and open source mind mapping applications available for the most popular computing platforms. Cross-platform applications are not uncommon. Unfortunately however, there is no standardized file format for maps created by these applications, so if you want to share a map with someone else, you may be limited to graphical representations output as image files. At the following URL, you will find an example of a mind map created in an open source application called FreeMind. http://ostatic.com/freemind/screenshot/1

The structure of the above map should be very self explanatory, yet the usefulness of such a simple tool should not be underestimated. Many of us are able to essentially create mind maps in our own minds and need no software most of the time, but it should be an option you consider. The specific functions of any particular application are beyond the scope of this document, however the basic principle remains the same. First you create an origin,or parent node, which defines the central topic. Next you begin creating child nodes on the map which list related concepts. These child nodes may also have children of their own which outline the many characteristics of these concepts, which may be further broken down into their component parts and linked to each other. By starting with a single word, you will find that you have soon explored the concept ad nauseum and found relationships between seemingly unrelated facets of the problem which you may have otherwise overlooked, and explaining the subject to others may be much easier than you first thought. Another important aspect of this process, is that it allows you to graphically represent the way your brain links information and categorizes it, which of course leads to a better understanding of yourself.

Now that you have created a map of a problem down to its most infinitesimal components, what do you do with this information? If you identify a node which represents a subject which you do not understand in detail, you should explore the subject further and learn what you can about it. An example might be ‘web development’ as a core subject, with children such as Java, DHTML and PHP. Say you know Java pretty well, but you don’t know PHP. What better time to learn than now? Flag the nodes which you require more information on to understand the problem, then study them. This brings us to our next skill, research.

Research is more than simply retrieving information and applying it, although that is a substantial part of it. Research involves studying all available information on a subject, drawing your own conclusions, forming a hypothesis, and proving or disproving your theory. This is essentially what hacking is. Information gathering is such an important aspect of hacking that I believe it should be the very first thing that any aspiring hacker learns after mastering the organization of information. Advanced search engine queries are fundamental; learning to quickly and efficiently draw on the immense wealth of information at your disposal via the Internet will be the single most often used and valuable skill you acquire. Thanks to the communications infrastructure put in place by hackers who have come before, you now have access to virtually the entire sum of human knowledge. Using Internet search engines effectively allows you to learn almost anything and provides you with massive datasets from which to draw statistics and demographics which will assist you in your endeavors. A great place to start is Google. Now only are they genuinely good people at Google, but their search engine ranks the results presented for any given search query based more on information and tricks spammers use to be listed higher in your results, and they do not sell result slots, unlike some other search engine companies. Google also provides a rich set of advanced search tools which allow you to target your search to academic papers, books, images, just about anything you can imagine. They also provide a solid tutorial on using boolean operators and other devices to enhance your search accuracy. Google Labs actively develops new tools on a regular basis which further enhance its usefulness for us, such as some more famous applications like Google Earth. I highly recommend reading the Google tips on advanced query language found at http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html as a great place to start.

Now that you are a master of information gathering and organization, what more do you need? Something worthy of deep consideration is your hard skills, such as the ability to communicate effectively with people of different cultures, races, backgrounds and education levels. Learning to dress appropriately in different environments will help you to camouflage yourself during missions which require you to gather information from human intelligence targets. Also, remember that every secure machine or software package has less secure physical aspects to it and even less secure humans operating it. Physical security is a topic which should not be neglected. Understanding how various physical security systems work and what their weaknesses are will help you later on. Humans, however, are by far the most easily exploitable element of any security system. You should study psychology and interrogation tactics early in your career, so you may better understand how to coerce people to provide you with what you need, analyze the information gathered from people and interpret it. Studying physical skills such as electronics, lockpicking and other intrusion techniques, and physics will also prove highly valuable throughout your career.

Learning a flexible programming language that you are comfortable with will allow you to put your theories into practice, but don’t forget that you must also master human language to present your findings and assist others on their own path. Try to focus on more accessible programming languages such as C and Java so that when you develop your own applications later, more people can benefit from them. In my opinion, the future of proprietary software is in jeopardy. More open source applications are developed every day, allowing the community to contribute to their development. This trend has led to better security than ever before, exponential growth rates, and more community involvement in the evolution of computer science. Therefore, try not to be afraid of putting your work before the world for criticism, but view it as an opportunity to learn and teach simultaneously by giving back to the Internet community who has given so much to you.

Now you know what it takes to become Elite, right? Almost. There’s a bit more to it than simply being a master of physical and electronic warfare. For this analogy, let me take you back to 14th century Japan. During this time of great change in social, political and religious world views, there were battles being fought on all fronts for control of the country and its people. The Daimyo were the warlords whose modern analogue could be seen as governments who dominate large areas of land and attempt to influence the population which inhabits the land. The not-so-peaceful monks of the time sought to control the people through religious indoctrination, sometimes by force. Finally, there were the Shinobi, often called Ninja in modern times. The Shinobi chose their sides carefully, and often fought to protect the traditions and freedom of their family or villiage. While some chose to fight for the nobility and worked as assassins and spies, many chose to use their very broad range of skills to covertly destabilize the forces which threatened their land and people, protecting what was rightfully theirs and opposing external control.

Today’s hackers are commonly classified as one of three varieties. First, there are “white hat” hackers who often work as system administrators for governments, private organizations or themselves, actively opposing the next class, “black hats,” and choosing only to do what they believe is ethically and morally acceptable. Black hat hackers are those who stereotypically work only toward their own benefit, employing illegal and unethical means to further their own agendas at the expense of others. There are exceptions, however this is the commonly held view. Lastly, there are so-called ‘gray hats’ who use whatever means necessary to promote order in a chaotic system. They work for no one but the people of the Internet. Gray hats often hack for the challenge of it, to prove something can be done or simply to further their own understanding of something. They may also feel a sense of responsibility to the Internet and to humanity. Gray hats may choose to fight to ensure that control of the Internet remains in the hands of the people. Sometimes they act as the unseen and unauthorized police force on the Internet, taking down abusers of freedom and those who seek to exploit the Internet for its profitability at the expense of others. I propose that the gray hat is the modern equivalent of the benevolent ninja who sought to protect his/her way of life and freedom. I, for one, believe that so long as we control our own Internet, nobody else can control it for us or use it against us. I believe that it is the solemn duty of ethical hackers everywhere to ensure that we police our own Internet and fight to end censorship and abuses of the Internet. Our Internet may be the last hope for humanity, or it may be the most powerful catalyst for human advancement which has ever existed. My feelings are that either way its ours, its our home, and its up to us to ensure that it does not fall into evil hands.

So now you must choose, which side will you join? Will you fight to rid the Internet of anyone who might have bad intentions? Will you use your skills to help a government to take control of the Internet? Will you exploit the helpless masses who hurl themselves unwittingly into the line of fire each day? Or will you fight to maintain control of the Internet in the hands of the people, where it belongs, and to keep it safe from those who would transform it from an archive of human knowledge into a shopping mall or control tool? This choice is yours and yours alone. Ultimately you must put your skills to use if you wish to be Elite, but to what end? Choose carefully. With infinite power comes infinite responsibility.

-Ashley

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