Hi! I'm David C. and I'm doing a research project about hacking as a school assignment for my high school English class.

I just want to know about how you guys got into hacking and why you guys are ethical hackers - income, moral reasons, or just because you think hacking is fun.

 I know a lot of people are hacking for personal gain now, and I want your opinions on that, and whether hacking can be used positively in some way (other than hacking to defend yourself from other hackers)

Thanks in advance for your replies and help!

First experience with hacking:

Was shown a vulnerability in (I believe) the old Fido BBS software that would allow someone to log in as any user. 1200 bps modems FTW! From then on, life and computers had a different meaning to me beyond the typical BS reasons were heard about the value of computers, such as "storing recipes" and "writing papers." It became sharing information (which I considered edgy at the time, but now seems tame) and being amazed at (and trying to imagine the number of hours required to make) ASCII porn. For those of you way too young to know what I'm talking about, visit http://www.asciipr0n.com/pr0n/ (Rated "R" for "Retro").

(Personal Note: Can't WAIT to hear if you include an example of the ASCII in your report for school).

As for what motivated me, it was simply information. Back then, there was no money to be made shuffling information, unless you set up some BBS subscription service, but that never made sense, since all the same information was flowing around the BBSes anyway (you might have to wait for it to be transferred to your local BBS, which could take days... DAYS!!!!!) As for morality, there just wasn't any sense of illegality with what was happening. Nobody thought about copyrights at that time (except perhaps Bill G.). Oh, and we all hated AOL. Still do.

Now, we're in a completely different world. My 2 cents.

It was just one of the things on my "to-do" list. Back then I used to think that it would be so cool being called a h4x0r. Then, one day I read an article in a newspaper about a 20 yrs. old boy who had started a security company with his friends. These people were doing security work for Microsoft, Symantec and Infosys. That's when I thought that if these people can do it then so can I. I started taking IT Security as a viable career path after then and started learning and practicing a lot of stuff.  It was difficult initially. I just didn't know whom to approach but after a little guidance things started feeling easier and I'm satisfied with the kind of progress I've made. It also helped that I'm studying engineering (CSE).

I still have that article and if anyone care to read it, it's here
http://www.securitybrigade.com/images/media/18_03_2008_012_008.jpg

May be you should look into this thread also - http://www.ethicalhacker.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,54/topic,4636.msg22605/#msg22605

Similar threat titled - How you got into hacking?

No?... then GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

ASCII porn! I didn't even know something like this existed. It's actually very lolable 

Mine just stemmed from a long-time 'need' to understand how things work.  As a young kid, I always liked debugging code from other people, and had a knack for finding coding flaws and mistypes.  The challenge intrigued me, in trying to better someone else's stuff, or even just fix their mistakes, so I could use the programs.  Later, when I graduated school, I began working for a couple of retail shops, and saw how they misconfigured things, as well as leaving mgmt passwords lying around, etc.  I worked hard, and engaged the right people, to show them the value of a more secure environment.  It just continued to grow from there, to where now, I work for a large software company, and have opportunities to show value in both pentesting our own products, as well as showing my customers (and sometimes co-workers) where they're lacking in their overall security postures, in general.

Additionally, I do a lot of security training and speaking on the side, and use ethical hacking as a base point, to show others the value of proactive security analysis, rather than reactive.

Hmm I just like to understand how things work. I've been programming for a while and always wanted to understand the inner workings. I never allowed myself to really dive in until we had a project about security at college.

I've always been fascinated by hackers and hacker stories lol.