Based on the exposure I had to hacking until now…

This is what I have to say.

(BTW this is my first post on any social media ever, after 6 years of lurking anonymously to learn, using throwaway accounts and never interacting with the community)

I wanted to be a hacker since I was a kid.

Always a prankster, trying to do tricks, impress people or even just “fuck with them”.
It’s been fun and it keeps me entertained.

There’s some pleasure in being able to do things that most can’t.
(Especially if you can get something good from it.)

So, when I first got internet access at age of 7, I realized we can “connect” to other devices.
I could just prank and mess with people… remotely. “But how?”

So I thought:

“I bet [friend’s name] would be PISSED if I shutdown his computer with mine, he would be clueless!”

So I searched and learned how to code a file that does that, and I sent it to him. He clicked, his PC shut down and I found it hilarious.

Then it became a habit.

“What if I do more than just shutting down a PC? Or… how to take control of the full thing?”

I learned network, Linux, coding, social engineering, and, more importantly, how to communicate in another language just to seek more knowledge.

And everything was so convenient too!

• Internet getting faster
• Computers getting more powerful
• People becoming more connected and technology-dependent
• Devices more and more accessible, “is this a dream?”

From a skiddie, pranking someone by shutting down their PC…
…to being able to do recon, analysis and full-blown attacks!

Eventually, working in IT was an obvious and convenient choice. I was like:

“I’m going to meet more people like me!”

But at the moment I finally stepped into the office, I realized I was very wrong.

I met every kind of people. Just like anywhere else.

Josh, the support guy. David, the casual dev. Marvin, who of course hates his work.
If you’re lucky, you get a savvy manager or someone that’s not an NPC.

So I started asking myself: “where are all the hackers, then?”

Am I a hacker?

Well, to be honest, maybe I am, maybe not.

I mean, if David is a brilliant developer, who am I to say he’s not a hacker, just because he won’t slip a backdoor in the code?

What defines a hacker? That’s the question.

There are millions of faces under the same mask.