`Access to computers should be unlimited and total. All information should be free. Mistrust Authority. Promote Decentralization."
This is an excerpt from a book entitled Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (Steven Levy, 1994). Of course, computer hackers are nothing new. The length of time they've been around takes on the auspices of a chicken-and-egg debate: which came first - the computer or the hacker?
Now, thanks to the infinite hacking opportunities presented by the Internet and e-commerce and a desire for a less pejorative name, hackers have become crackerz - seeing themselves as those who triumphantly outwit the huge computer corporations of the 1990s.
Crackerz inhabit the darker corners of the Internet. Corners where a different language is spoken, a language filled with words like "crackz", "warez" and "appz". Crackz are codebreakers that allow access to certain parts of websites or refer to ways of abusing inbuilt dormancy in trial versions of software applications and games. Warez is the rather nifty name for pirated software - often available from FTP sites though also on CD-ROMs. Appz are, well, apps.
The best known Irish hacking/cracking-related site is Hackwatch News, which recounts the pretty limited tales of cracking in Ireland.
"It does go on here, but not to the same extent as in other countries," says Alex French, Technical Manager of the ISP, Medianet. "People do find an FTP server that's not properly protected and they are able to create sub-directories for the dissemination of pirated software. There were Beta versions of Windows 98 flying around before it was released and Microsoft Word is a popular choice. The time when servers are raided isn't too far away."
With a more computer-literate population as well as an anticipated dramatic increase in the levels of e-commerce, hacking is surely a phenomenon of ever increasing concern for the non-crackerz of the Irish Internet community.
Just two weeks ago, a group of Irish crackerz met in Dublin. The meeting was discussed on a newsgroup of a major Irish ISP, under the heading of "2600", the original frequency used in phone phreaking.
To "phreak" you simply walk around a housing estate, for example, with a popular model of cordless phone and hope to latch on to someone else's phone frequency. The whole process, while ridiculously straightforward, affords the possibility of endless hours of "fun" at someone else's expense.
When you consider that one of those intending to go to the meeting in Ireland announced to the newsgroup that he would be easily recognisable by the Verve T-shirt he would be wearing, it sets the cracking scene against an adolescent, pop-culture backdrop, enhanced somewhat by the venue for the meeting - outside Tower Records on Wicklow Street.
Of course, there's more to the crackerz' realm than information relating directly to software applications and games. At least one site, hosted by a major Irish ISP, carries detailed lists of radio frequencies used by the Garda, including the Special Branch, and the RUC, including call signs. It also provides the frequencies used by a range of security firms, the frequencies used by air traffic controllers at all Irish international airports and those used by cordless phones - listed by make and colour.
Another site, on another major Irish ISP, carries a so-called virus gallery, which boasts of containing every known computer virus. Among the array of other information of a more than dubious nature, the pages carrying detailed information on how to trap bank information from ATM transactions are a highlight. This site is currently off-line, though not apparently due to the intervention of its ISP host.
"It's a grey area in legal terms," says Alex French. "While ISPs don't want to assist in the distribution of dodgy information, they don't want to intervene either. If they do, they will be seen more as publishers than common carriers, which could make them responsible for the content on sites over which they have little or no control."
In the middle of last month, a hacker gained access to the British Minister of Defence's DAWN database and was able to see details of battle plans and the locations of nuclear missile bases, arms caches in Northern Ireland and personal details of military personnel - the stuff of suspense films. Late last month, a security hole was discovered on a prominent Irish e-commerce site when an online shopper noticed that by manipulating a straightforward URL, he could gain access to the database username and password.
Don't say you weren't warned.
Hackwatch: www.hackwatch.com/~kooltek
2600 magazine: www.2600.com
Cormac Bourke: cbourke@tinet.ie