I am not a big Star Wars geek, but I do like them. I often think about the theme of the dark and good side of the force. That really relates to hacking.  We can use our knowledge for good or bad. The more skilled we get, the more temptation there can be to give into the “dark” side.  For instance, what if you had a safe contact that would give you a dollar per credit card number. You also knew where you could easily download 200,000 numbers. Hmm, thats an easy $200,000 in your pocket. Would you? Maybe you knew a place you could breach and get 600,000 numbers. Would you? Maybe you just lost your job and feel the establishment sucks! Its so unfair because the boss decided he had to hire his nephew and you had to go! He didn’t care that you had a wife and kids and a mortgage. For some, that would enough to begin a rationalization for their next move.

For us ethical hackers, its so important to have a code and I don’t mean any kind of programming language.  We need a code of conduct. One we all subscribe to and one if we breach, its considered the unforgivable sin. 

I also really like the Lord of the Rings and it was always very interesting to me about Saruman. He was the leader of the wizards and he thought it was wise to study the dark ways of the enemy. His logic was, if you understood the dark side, then you could defeat it. Unfortunately, in his studies he ended up being seduced by the same thing he was trying to defeat. It so important to not let that happen.

I can get into most people’s emails that I live or work with. Do I? No way!  Because that would be a breach of my code of honor.  Can you resist the temptation? What if you think your girlfriend or spouse might be flirting with someone? Would you hack their email? Maybe you are worried your boss is thinking something negative about you or you just want to see if that other person in your department makes the same money as you.

I guess my point is, as you get more skilled as a hacker, you might get tempted to go to the dark side. I have only one word of advice and that is DON’T!  If you do, it’s a journey that most likely will ruin your life and hurt the idea of what we are about.
 Please believe me when I say I could give you a number of stories and they always turn out very bad.

A quick buck now can cause a lot of pain later remember that it's a small community and if you drift the wrong way you will be remembered and when it comes time to get a new or real job there will be a lot less doors open. I have seen other online friends that thought it would be cool to get into botnets or other dark stuff. Now they are having a hell of a time getting good jobs because they have a difficult time explaining there past.

(Do you want fries with that???)

Brian