Essay/Term paper: Revenge of the hacker

Essay, term paper, research paper:  High School Essays

REVENGE of the HACKER

Richard was a normal looking kid, he did a lot of the same things that the other kids did, hung out with friends and talked his way out of the occasional trouble he got in, much like a lot of guys his age. Richard went to Dolton public high school and just about everyone knew him by name. He did a mediocre job and was often content with getting good grades on tests and paying no attention whatsoever to homework. Although everyone in school thought they knew just about everything thing about the life of Rich, they where seriously mistaken. There was a very important aspect of Rich"s life that many people had no idea existed, because he was afraid to tell people thinking that they would not understand even if he did. What is this mysterious characteristic you ask?, almost every day when Rich finished with the tyranny of school he went home to practice the main ceremony to this "secret life." He would get comfortable turn on the TV or radio and become an instant celebrity around the world. Rich was a computer "hacker." Known to all those brave souls who dared the "information highway" as Hax0r, Rich would penetrate computer systems locally and around the world. Never malicious in his endeavors he sat back and explored what seemed to be another dimension to the every day "lamer." Rich was not alone on his journey"s though. He had four friends from school that accompanied him. These friends where just about the only people that knew about his Internet secrets and every day these four met on a chat service called IRC that stood for Internet Relay Chat. Always the same nicknames, always the same chat channel. The stage was set for the most fun anyone in the world could have, or so though Rich and his buddies. In the channel of friends course there was Richard the master of hacking access to a place. When on the Internet Rich used the nickname Hax0r. Also included in the gang was also the man with the fastest computer Chris, who used the nickname |-Rage-| Chris"s specialty was in the art of Warez, or getting software for the gang for free. Then there was Brian, who probably the most all around handy with computers, he used nickname Number9. Another inclusion in the gang was the ever studious Mike who"s nickname was Phaser, Mike was a really good asset to the team when it came to scanning images, and helping with the occasional hardware problem they would run into. The very newest addition to the group, Tyler, used Z3r0 as his nickname Tyler was a pretty 0good programmer and also knew his way around a UNIX system.
One seemingly normal day as they all sat back at the terminals each almost simultaneously popping open a "Jolt Cola," something very abnormal happened. Suddenly they all read the same message at the same time on their computers "Connection to host lost, account terminated." Being as hyped up on caffeine as they where they quickly reacted by calling each other. Since they all had call waiting they all got through. After a little "bitching" about what just happened they came to the conclusion that they must call the System administrator of the Internet service provide to which they all subscribed. After "bitching" once more about who would make the important call they all decided that Rich would do it. So Rich picked up the phone and dialed the service phone number to Link Net. After about three rings the women who owned Link Net, Mich, picked up the phone. "Yes can I help you" said Mich. "Ya how ya doing this is Rich Doom calling about service failure". So Rich explained what happened to Mich and she in turn explained that the service to the boys was cut off because they took over the Chat channel that belonged to Mich. Along with that ludicrous reason was also given the fact that they had used "explicit" language while talking "privately" with each other on their own channel. But it didn"t end there, about three days later the boys all came home from school only to find a VERY angered parent waiting. Mich had send four notices to their parents explaining the situation as of course she saw it. The letter also included nice mention of the specific language in which the boys allegedly used. It doesn"t really have to be explained how infuriated the boys where when they learned they where all grounded from 1-2 ½ MONTHS!! Along with the fact that because the company Link.Net was going through a transition of ownership the main office would be closed for as long as that took which proved to be a further burden to the guys. The big revenge was already set, the wheels where in motion towards what would be the downfall of Link.Net. The discussions at the lunch table in which all four boys sat everyday where totally replaced by the plans for revenge. This kind of thing went on for one month until the parents of all four boys talked to each other on the phone and decided to suspend the punishment. That along with the early completion of the transition stage of Link.Net led the boys to believe that NOW was the time to strike the still vulnerable computer network. Their parents signed agreements with the new administration that promised that no further activities of the kind they had gotten in trouble for before would persist. The very same day they where back on the Internet and ready for revenge. They met just as they had before all with the same nicks all at the same time, and all with the same soft drink. The plan was first to get acquainted about the new structure of Link.Net. This took Rich and the guys about a week, constantly reading the manuals they had collected over the years. They where looking for anything relating to the operating system that Link.Net was now using. Then Number9, it so happens stumbled upon just the thing they where looking for a "BACK DOOR", a second way to get into the system without having to use an administrator password. Then Rich, who was the virus professional of the gang made a virus that would later go down in history as one of the fastest spreading, in the "home made" category. The final stage of the plan was set and for extra flair they thought they would add a few bonus points. On Monday November the 25 it started. Every terminal on the Link.Net system Read "HAVE A NICE DAY… NOW ITS TIME TO PAY!" (that was the bonus point) and at that time they all stopped. Every bit of data on the system was corrupted beyond repair. Not even the neatly stacked backup tapes that the old owner Mich had left for the new owner Eric would save them from the crash. Not only was all of the information held on the Link.Net sever bad but all of the information that passed through it was. So every person who downloaded anything from the Internet and used the Link.Net server was infected. This amounted to about seventy five computers losing all of their information. Link.Net suffered such an economicle loss that they where forsed to sell out all the UNIX computers as a suplimentary server to America Online. The boys where never questioned because the virus had signature trademarks of another hacker squad the boys had rivaled with a time before their suspension. As luck would have it for the boys this same gang did hack Link.Net before (in attempts to get at their mail) which left other evidence in the system logs that the FBI linked with the current case. So ended the saga of the Richard Doom and his hacker buddies.