Читать книгу Hacking the Hacker - Grimes Roger A. - Страница 4

Many years ago, I moved into a house that had a wonderful attached garage. It was perfect for parking and protecting my boat and small RV. It was solidly constructed, without a single knot in any of the lumber. The electrical work was professional and the windows were high‐quality and rated for 150 mph winds. Much of the inside was lined with aromatic red cedar wood, the kind that a carpenter would use to line a clothing chest or closet to make it smell good. Even though I can’t hammer a nail straight, it was easy for me to see that the constructor knew what he was doing, cared about quality, and sweated the details.

A few weeks after I moved in, a city official came by and told me that the garage had been illegally constructed many years ago without a permit and I was going to have to tear it down or face stiff fines for each day of non‐compliance. I called up the city to get a variance since it had been in existence for many years and was sold to me as part of my housing purchase. No dice. It had to be torn down immediately. A single day of fines was more than I could quickly make selling any of the scrap components if I took it down neatly. Financially speaking, the sooner I tore it down and had it hauled away, the better.

I got out a maul sledge hammer (essentially a thick iron ax built for demolition work) and in a matter of a few hours had destroyed the whole structure into a heap of wood and other construction debris. It wasn’t lost on me in the moment that what had taken a quality craftsman probably weeks, if not months, to build, I had destroyed using my unskilled hands in far less time.

Contrary to popular belief, malicious hacking is more maul slinger than craftsman.

If you are lucky enough to consider a career as a computer hacker, you’ll have to decide if you’re going to aspire to safeguarding the common good or settle for pettier goals. Do you want to be a mischievous, criminal hacker or a righteous, powerful defender? This book is proof that the best and most intelligent hackers work for the good side. They get to exercise their minds, grow intellectually, and not have to worry about being arrested. They get to work on the forefront of computer security, gain the admiration of their peers, further human advancement in the name of all that is good, and get well paid for it. This book is about the sometimes unsung heroes who make our incredible digital lives possible.

NOTE

Although the terms “hacker” or “hacking” can refer to someone or an activity with either good or bad intentions, the popular use is almost always with a negative connotation. I realize that hackers can be good or bad, but I may use the terms without further qualification in this book to imply either a negative or a positive connotation just to save space. Use the whole meaning of my sentences to judge the intent of the terms.