Back from Lucknow, Interview by Hacker5 Magazine & more
Sorry for a late update folks, I m just back from SRM CEM lucknow, where I was invited to deliver a seminar on Reverse Engineering & application cracking using custom code. Lucknow was a blast, the students there were very cooperative & I was accompanied by my best friend Prateek Singla, fellow teammates & hackers Parul Khanna, Rahul Tyagi & Mr Ajay Anand. You can see that we really had a blast there :D
The Team
The Lecture
The Aftermath
Plus,recently I was interviewed by the folks at hacker5 magazine, which is the first hacking magazine of India.I m publishing excerpts of the interview here.
Hacker5: About you ?
Me : I am a peaceful little ghost & have a passion for computer security. Please note I am not a hacker. I m more of a computer security researcher.
Hacker5: Your Rig ?
Me : Fedora 13 x86 on Intel dual core 1 GB ram. A modest machine, but customized to anything :) Want to move on to SPARC architecture for a change.
Hacker5: Your Life style ?
Me : My Lifestyle ? Waking up early in the morning to exercise, tone my body,mixing up with people, going college. The real part starts after dinner, logging into irc to roam free as a bird in freenode, watching cracktros, reading about virii at netlux heavens, reading usenet newsgroups, going through with retro files , ASMX86 & C program crunching, emulators,& reading phrack magazine & ezines through the night,..only to wake up in the morning to know that you have been late to college..when I m not messing with computers, I m into classic Halo & videogame reviews. AVGN,XKCD,Theoatmeal are a favorite.
Hacker5: How did you get into hacking ?
Me : It all started as when I didnt get into medical line..then a revelation occurred , My friend Prateek inspired me into this & i went with basic windows, learning the OS, knowing its structure, mingled with programming in C/C++. partly, I got encouragement from my lecturers who actively supported my passion. Later on I drifted to ASM & Linux (I am still getting better) & was inspired by emulators by El Semi & the Kawaks team. Debugging into ROM files, hacking N64 data roms, ppf patching in playstation & studying how programs worked in low level..that was all my life in class 12 to Btech 2nd year. I hated databases by instinct & never got good at them, but later on when i fully switched to linux (courtesy of Raghu), I came to know about the intricacies of MySQL & open source platforms..& was hooked to it till Oracle purchased SUN.
Now I m into ASM again.
Hacker5: How you have started your organization
Me : Organization ? nah..call it a fanbase, a movement. I started PROHACK with only one thing in mind, to share what I knew..the start was tough but later on, It gained momentum.
Hacker5: Family support ?
Me : Ah well..initially my family was not that supportive for my passion, but as time progressed, they cooperated & backed me up. My father is my backbone & the pillar of strength for me. I thank God for making me who i am.
Hacker5: SWISS bank hacking & politicians...provide few scandals.. ?
Me : Not interested. Call me an anti politicist
Hacker5: Hackers resources for both white hat & black hat
Me : PHRACK magazine, ezines , IRC, Usenet, newsgroups, forums,manuals of devices & programs..its all there, you only need to see through it.
Hacker5: USENET concept as only 7% data is available on Google
Me : USENET has been into scene even before Internet, & its something to experience. However, even today, its in infancy (less than 20 groups in USENET from India), you can say 90% of people don't get to know about it. internet as we see is the public network, the scary truth is that the major networks are always hidden & they are quite prominent behind the scenes.
Hacker5: SUNNY VAGEHALA truth.. who hacked Orkut
Me : Those who cant code are not hackers.
Packet monkeys?
YES.
Script kiddies?
YES .
Hackers ?
NO! .
Next question please.
Hacker5: Your views on Ethical Hacking
Me : I have problems with some folks who call them ethical hackers. There is nothing called as Ethical hacker, Hacking is an art & there is nothing unethical in doing Hacking. Ethical hacking is analogous to saying Ethical Rapist. however, Hacking is the passion to pursue anything with deepest dedication, its all about knowing computers as they are & beyond. That's why..its rightly said, there is nothing called as an Ethical Hacker..Hacking is an art & you need no ethics to pursue it. & for God's sake no body is a hacker till he can code, & till he can code with absolute efficiency...till then he might be a security liking guy, an admin, a packet monkey..but not a hacker.
Hacker5: Views on Open Source
Me : An absolute necessity nowadays..its the key to connect with developers all over the world. .its about freedom..I mean what's the point in using a tool designed by other, unless its open source ? a closed source tool is as dangerous as a virus, we just don't know what is behind its hood & what it may cause to anonymity & efficiency of a successful xpl0it. why not to get a low level knowledge of packets & protocols & write off a code to sniff it out, that may take time, but that is foolproof...it will make a good programmer out of you & you will be able to customize it to your limits
Hacker5: The Hacking Underground ?
Me : I m more of a coder...I was more interested in international scene, for the security scene in India is in the state of infancy. The scene is degenerating & its better to have a look at it while its still there <hint:IRC/USENET>. India's team technotrojans (team t3) & their disappearance from the web..I wonder where are they now,didn't knew them personally, but they spearheaded the scene at one time.
Hacker5: Views on Pakistan China Cyber attacks
Me : Ah well..as far as Indo-Pak cyber war is concerned, what i have seen is that its nothing more than defacing websites for pure revenge. Nothing more,nothing less. I highly respect Saqib Akhtar (from PCSX2 dev team) as he has been my hero for last 2 years as a driving force to get better at low level code. I believe the war is futile..why not to get better & share code..amen
Hacker5: Your Heroes ?
Me : The_ut, Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Eric S Raymond, Alan Cox,Fyodor, FX of Phenoelit, Wesley McGrew, geohot, Saqib & me :)
Hacker5: Dream ?
Me : To be a speaker at Defcon, be a legend like the_ut, get money, get rich :D
Hacker5: People you wish to thank
Me : My father, Prateek, Martin, Silverbullet, RS3V3, Neha, Param & Saloni. Thanks for making me who I am today :)
Hacker5: Contact
Me : You can find me roaming in the IRC's, surfing wikipedia & ezines & dorkly/XKCD/Phrack/textarchives/preterhuman & studying snippets. Else while you can find me inside HOD's office :D or roaming into corridors of college snooping into netgears .
You can get the hacker5 magazine from here :)
will be updating you guys soon :) A very special thanks to Vaidehi Mam & Amarjit Sir for giving me a platform. greetz fly to folks at SRM.
like this post ? you can buy me a beer :)
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