Let's take this case of breaking into a Unix system without a logon and password. If we lived 1000 years, we could get into a UNIX (or PC) system, after working continuously, night and day, and being helped by a lot of luck--we, or anybody else. If we write a program to do the work for us, in case of a good logon and password, it would take that application few tens of years of continuous work. Please note: this refers only to a logon and password. We know little Unix Shells Scripting, and one of the first Scripts a programmer implements is to allow for maximum 3 failed logins. Next, the attempting hacker is kicked out of the system, and he has to waste a lot of time reentering.

Any hacker knows it is impossible to break a decent login and password; therefore, the only methods they implement for "breaking in" are the old, simple, fooling tricks--those used by thieves for thousands of years. Those methods are based on stimulating strong emotions in order to hide/dissimulate their actions; others deal with the "substitution" techniques. What they do is, they send you a fake email saying, something bad happened to your account at, for example, CityBankX. Next, they insert a link leading to a page looking exactly like the real CityBankX one. You could be fool enough to enter there your CityBankX login and password, and that is how they get it. In conclusion, never follow links in emails; close them, and then navigate to the mentioned site by yourself, and see if there is anything wrong with your account or not.

The above example is just one particular case, but there are thousands other possible scenarios. There is a lot of documentation on the Internet about hacking techniques, and we do encourage all visitors to study them because a lot of people became victims following simple and stupid techniques as the one described above. Fact is, the Internet is a
free-for-all jungle; regardless of how many firewalls, antispyware, and virus-checks you have, there are always all sort of "routines" capable of tracing your moves. The only reliable weapons you have are your login and, mostly, your password. Be very careful with them, and rest assured that no decent company will ever ask you to "change", to "update", or even to "identify" yourself using your password, excepting for the true login pages.

Now, to come back to encryptions, they started exciting people's imagination since the Second World War, more precise since the Enigma story, the German encryption machine. It happened the Polish Intelligence managed to break the Enigma encryption code since 1939 (or close), but the US and British Intelligence were so intelligent that they did not believe them. In consequence, the US and British Intelligence worked very, very hard together, for few years, on designing "intelligently" a plot to capture an Enigma machine from the Germans. Well, true intelligence wasn't much appreciated in those days either. Anyway, they did manage to capture that electro-mechanical machine in 1943, or something, and the result was thousands of lives saved--a little bit late but "good intelligence job", nevertheless.

Enigma used a primitive encryption code equivalent to--just an estimation--a 16 bits encryption code, yet it proved to be almost unbreakable at that time. The point to note is, the 64 bits encryption code we use today is practically unbreakable; a 125 bits it is totally out of discussion; as for a 256 bits encryption code, you have to be almost brain-dead to consider a human person could break it in less than few good tens of thousand years. Now, if you do have clues, that is possible regardless of the level of encryption used; sometimes those clues do exist.

The "true hackers" are never known, officially. They are your PC/MAC/LINUX OS developers, plus few governmental agencies, plus few private [secret investigations] companies. Each PC machine ever produced has a unique ID code, and that code is inserted in all files that PC machine produces/opens. While you navigate on the Internet, your unique ID code is recorded on each router/server/gateway. Practically, there is no way you could hide using today's technology, because it was specifically designed that way. The fact that we do have (ordinary) hackers, email spam, pornography, copyright infringements, and the rest of miseries is only due to the fact the "legislators" allow that to exist.

The "encryption codes" used on our PCs do not matter [they do not exist] for those "true hackers" because your own PC decrypts the messages automatically for them. There is absolutely no way to prevent, say, certain Microchip professionals to decrypt/read/download your entire hard drive if they want to. The only way you could have a good encryption system is if you build it yourself. Note that our book Learn Hardware Firmware and Software Design teaches you the very first steps--the most important ones!

By the way; it is common the idea that wireless phone (or Internet) conversations cannot be tracked/tapped. Ha! You wish. There is absolutely no such thing as "privacy" using any of the available technology on the market. The only way you could achieve some privacy is if you design/build encryption systems/codes yourself in meaning/message.
 

MERCY is a nice, decent, instructive book, and we are certain it will incite your imagination towards intelligent, constructive developments. In our World today, full with bestial pornography, senseless violence, absurd lies, endless greed, hate, and stupidity, MERCY is just a drop of clean, pure water in the desert ...

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First published on November 17, 2005 
© Corollary Theorems Ltd. All rights reserved.