Hackers Beware - Your time is running out..

[Pterocarpous]

I just watched a fascinating (albiet brief) program on Discovery Channel on hacking and the advent of Quantum Cryptography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography) (which is on the horizon). It's very interesting. Quantum Cryptography is based on the Quantum Mechanics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_physics) Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle) which states that the very act of observing a thing changes it. In the case of Quantum Cryptography, that "thing" is a photon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon) of light. Developers have employed this theory by developing a monitoring system that watches for changes in these photons that represent the network traffic. Because the very act of Eavesdropping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eavesdropping) can actually change what the hacker is observing, the monitors can detect this change and thwart the attack or intrusion. Since it's impossible to replicate a photon exactly, there's no apparent (yet) way to circumvent this firewall. The problem in development right now is the changes a photon incurs over long distances. Once they get that worked out, it's going to be an incredible firewall technology. The 1st to come onboard w/ this technology will be government and large commercial entities for whom hacking has catastrophic implications.

It's fascinating reading for those who might be interested.

[nonstop301]

It does sound like a very unusual concept to employ but if it works successfully then I can't see anything preventing its use. The bottom line however is since it's another human invention, it's only down to another human to decrypt it :)

The science of Quantum Cryptography is just as sensational as the science of Quantum Cryptographic Deciphering :)

[Pterocarpous]

...The science of Quantum Cryptography is just as sensational as the science of Quantum Cryptographic Deciphering...
Exactly. It is a cat and mouse game. This time though it looks like the mouse will have a good head start. :smiles:

[nonstop301]

Indeed a very healthy head start as well in this case :)

Your average hacker doesn't have the faintest clues when it comes to quantum mechanics in the first place :)

Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if eventually it took something less complicated than quantum physics to find a way around it

[Jonsey]

Your "average" hacker, isn't a hacker, it's a script-kiddie.

Your "average" hacker is a real geek most of the time, I read particle physics journals and books at night about once a week or so. Q-bits are neat, and they've just tested a 16-Q-bit test that apparently solves some neat issues with isolation. Turns out complex matricies tend to have particles interact a bit too often causing them to collapse their wave-particle function to a single point, then go back into their beautiful fuzz again...

All we need to do is solve one NP problem in P time, and then we can (in P time) make all NP problems into the one NP problem we can solve in P time.

No worries though, we're all alike:

\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/

by

+++The Mentor+++

Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
Damn kids. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,
ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what
made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of
the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain
for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms.
Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is
cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I
screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...
Or feels threatened by me...
Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is
sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is
found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to
them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at
school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip
through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us will-
ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and
you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us
and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

+++The Mentor+++
_______________________________________________________________________________


Reprinted from Phrack without permission, because I'm pretty sure information wants to be free. (I still can't believe he said the beauty of the baud... stupid hackers!) :)

[Leonardo]

If they were half as smart as they thought they are, they might actually build something, rather than their usual vandalism, which is nothing original or new.

[Jonsey]

See, now we have more misperceptions of the word Hacker. You'll find rather few malicious Hackers deserving of the title.

Malicious Script-Kiddies, Bot-Net Ops, and Crackers/Ragers.... but those aren't Hackers.... nor are they the ones that would be hurt by quantum computing.

[Leonardo]

I'm referring to the term "hacker" as frequently used by the U.S. mainstream (ignorant in all things technical or complex) press. I should have been more precise.

[Jonsey]

I'm just `takin' it back`. :)

[FreeC8675]

The 1st to come onboard w/ this technology will be government and large commercial entities for whom hacking has catastrophic implications.

It's fascinating reading for those who might be interested.

Thank goodness the gov't won't be super vulnerable to computer attacks anymore. Computer Terrorist Hackers could really screw stuff up in gov't computers (or infrastructure i.e. blackout eastern seaboard).

Good find Ptero! :thumbsup: