I have heard the question many times, "How do I know when I am ahacker?". Each time that I heard it, I would ponder it for days at a time,thinking, how did i know when i was a hacker. It has taken me a longtime to discover what makes a person a hacker, and what traits a true hackerhas. I decided to write this file in order to help newcomers know when theyhave become hackers, and to provoke the thought of this question in the mindsof the advanced hackers. There are many things that make us what we are.
One, is thedetermination and the drive the gain knowledge. I had always thirsted to gain knowledge about computers. They haveintrigued me in a way few things have done. My mind had flooded with questionsabout them. So, the only way to satisfy my thirst, was to learn. I enjoyedlearning in general, and I could never learn enough about computers and theway they work. I learned about computer hardware, software, and operatingsystems in my spare time. I downloaded all of the information that I could offof the Internet. And still, I thirsted for more. After i had learned about all of the operating systems, the hardware,etc.
I wondered what it would be like to actually operate one of thesesystems. So I began thinking, how could I use an operating system that Ididn't have. Then it hit me. I remembered having watched the movie "War Games"and remembered how he gained access into a system. He was a Hacker.I knew what hackers were, and they also intrigued me. They were verymysterious to me. I wanted to learn about them too. And I wanted to becomeone. I had just gotten an Internet Service Provider, and I began tounderstand more and more about the Internet. I began going to hackingnewsgroups, World Wide Web Pages, etc.
I downloaded hacking text files andprograms. I began to understand that hacking wasnt about crime, as it wasportrayed in movies. It was about the pursual of knowledge, which is what iwanted in the first place. I began to take a great interest in this. I wouldspend most of the day, if not all, learning and reading about every aspectof hacking. Eventually I had felt like I knew alot about hacking, and I had hackedmany, many times. I thought I was a hacker, but yet I felt like I wasstill an outsider.
I was always nervous about asking questions, but than Idecided not to worry about it. I asked alot of questions and began to makefriends with people throughout the world who were hackers. I felt like I wasfinally being accepted by the hacking community. Then I noticed that there were some very good hackers attending myschool. We started to get together frequently and traded hacking materialand information. That is when I decided to make it an official hacking group.I named it LOA (Legion Of the Apocalypse). This also made me feel more likea true hacker.
Remember that knowledge is power,and that only the ignorant take it for granted. Maybe one day the governmentwill realize that we harm no one, and that all we want is knowledge.
