My best advice to any budding hacker would be for them to find a job as unrelated to computers as possible, but which leaves them with enough free time to tinker with whatever currently tickles their fancy.
How to Become a Hacker
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Re: How to Become a Hacker
#12Warms my heart to see the old ways kept alive.
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#13If you need to ask How to Become a Hacker, you are not going to be one. It all depends on your personal curiosity, either you have it or you don't. PS: Found 0day on Paypal when I was 12 in the early '00s, never got paid or recognized for it :(
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I normally don't call people out on this as we are human and we need wiggle room for conversation and the formulation of opinions. Plus, everyone is guilty of this, me included. In fact, the previous statement is me doing it as well. We are human after all.
But I do tend to call people out on this when people stifle curiosity with these type of claims. Knowing myself, I know that 10 years ago I might've taken your advice to heart as I didn't know any better. I know that I've done this in other areas of my life and it has had a negative impact.
So I am here to produce a counter voice loudly proclaiming that one should be very sceptical about taking your opinion to heart.
Some people claim God exists. And I therefore should live quite differently than I am right now. I require extraordinary evidence.
Some people claim that you can't become a hacker if you need to ask it. I require extraordinary evidence.
In spirit of my sentiment, I'm going to give you a counterexample. I'm the counterexample.
Step 1: Go to http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
Step 2: Complete Binary and Malware Analysis at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 3: Complete Computer and Network Security at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 4: Complete Hardware Security at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 4b (bonus, I mean, you're there now anyway): Complete Kernel Programming at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 5: Go to https://hackthebox.eu, hack at least 1 easy, 1 medium, 1 hard and -- for good measure -- 1 insane box
Congratulations, you are now a hacker in every sense of the word:
1. You broke into computer systems.
2. You needed to be curious in order to do it.
If you think this is my whole path then that's not true. This is simply the happy path that I uncovered. It's not optimal, but it works. It might not work for everyone, but I'm sure it will work for more people than just me.
I am now a hacker. And I'm sure there are more counter examples stemming from the VUSec group that started hacking real machines after that.
That's my evidence. I don't expect that you have enough evidence as your position is much tougher and I wouldn't even know how to begin on starting an argument that does. My point simply is: please be a bit careful about the accuracy of your statements if it implies negative consequences. Inconvenient truths are fine, but simply opinions without any backing that leads to something negative really feels disheartening to read.
Note: I didn't downvote. I don't think you had any ill intentions. And you do provide your actual view in a succinct manner (something I could learn from O:) ). And that's what discussion is all about, albeit a bit rough at times, perhaps.
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#14My best advice to any budding hacker would be for them to find a job as unrelated to computers as possible, but which leaves them with enough free time to tinker with whatever currently tickles their fancy.
Pretty much what I'm doing but I do hope for a coding job...
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#15If you need to ask How to Become a Hacker, you are not going to be one. It all depends on your personal curiosity, either you have it or you don't. PS: Found 0day on Paypal when I was 12 in the early '00s, never got paid or recognized for it :(
[deleted]
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#16My best advice to any budding hacker would be for them to find a job as unrelated to computers as possible, but which leaves them with enough free time to tinker with whatever currently tickles their fancy.
I’m sure this works for some people in the right context, but so many great OG hackers were career computer scientists and engineers. I mean, people like the original Xerox PARC guys, Woz, Cerf, Diffie, the RSA guys, TBL, and too many more to name. They were all working in jobs or started companies that allowed them to devote the bulk of their time and energy to hacking and building. There are only so many hours in the day. If you’re devoting a third of it to something completely unrelated to your passion, it’s pretty hard to get the best out of yourself. And forget it if you want to have any other kind of “life” besides.
Edit: readability
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#17My best advice to any budding hacker would be for them to find a job as unrelated to computers as possible, but which leaves them with enough free time to tinker with whatever currently tickles their fancy.
Pretty much what I'm doing but I do hope for a coding job...
Like most things, hacking is a lot like angling in the respect that it's a fun, relaxing and rewarding pastime, but most often neither of these when depended upon for survival.
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#18Interestingly, the initial article [0] is still alive and updated. The most recent addition was about Go. I'm always impressed by how many people do things with this language. It seems to really hit a sweet spot for small to big tools.
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#19I'm reposting part of a comment I wrote (and adding to it).
My version on how to become a hacker. It's just another reference point.
Step 1: Go to http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
Step 1b (bonus): read Hacker News (it actually helped, it also really distracted, the latter part is why it's labeled as bonus)
Step 2: Complete Binary and Malware Analysis at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 3: Complete Computer and Network Security at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 4: Complete Hardware Security at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 4b (bonus, I mean, you're there now anyway): Complete Kernel Programming at the Vrije Universiteit
Step 5: Go to https://hackthebox.eu, hack at least 1 easy, 1 medium, 1 hard and -- for good measure -- 1 insane box
Congratulations, you are now a hacker in every sense of the word:
1. You broke into computer systems.
2. You needed to be curious in order to do it.
This took me 8 months, personally (60 hours per week). I found it a lot of fun. It could take you a lot less time or more time.
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I'm assuming you already know how to program, if you don't then get the following prerequisite knowledge.
Step 1: do CS50 in order to learn programming and learn how to learn programming languages. What I've seen in students is that the first 6 weeks are experienced as more difficult than the last 6 weeks (hint: it's because you start off with C). So don't get discouraged. If this is not you and it is the other way around, I've seen that too (though, I've seen it less. It depends on the default mode of thinking that a person uses).
Step 2: do https://www.nand2tetris.org/ to understand computer systems and get some assembly under your belt.
Step 3: if you feel like this road is too rigid, do a project that you're interested in here. Get it out of your system now, because the above mentioned stuff took me 10 months, personally. Create a computer graphics engine with OpenGL and Java. Yes, you could do C++ but that's complicating things for now. If you really want to though, go ahead, C++ is a fine choice if you're burning with passion.
These 3 steps probably take between 4 to 8 months. Some people with a hacker mindset could do this within 2 months, or 1 month even (email me if you did!). Some people that have other stuff going on in their lives will do this in 8+ months. It's all fine.
Re: How to Become a Hacker
#20My best advice to any budding hacker would be for them to find a job as unrelated to computers as possible, but which leaves them with enough free time to tinker with whatever currently tickles their fancy.
I’m sure this works for some people in the right context, but so many great OG hackers were career computer scientists and engineers. I mean, people like the original Xerox PARC guys, Woz, Cerf, Diffie, the RSA guys, TBL, and too many more to name. They were all working in jobs or started companies that allowed them to devote the bulk of their time and energy to hacking and building. There are only so many hours in t…
Most of those guys operated under circumstances vastly different from today.
If you can land a job like those at PARC or Bell Labs, then yes, "carreer hacking" is certainly possible. Considering how many IT professionals there are now and how few there were back then, I'd say those kinds of jobs are even more scarce now than they used to be.
It's not impossible, but it's not a realistic expectation.
> If you’re devoting a third of it to something completely unrelated to your passion
A programming job is likely to be as far from any kind of hacking passion as any other, with the added disadvantage of possibly poisoning the well, so to speak.