August 28th, 2005
Is Your Son a Hacker? Ten Signs to Look For
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Here’s an interesting but potentially controversial piece written by a parent who discovered that his son was into some serious hacking. He put together a list of telltale signs that other parents can use if they are concerned about their son (or daughter) hacking. My personal verdict: Some of his signs are not really that extreme - playing Quake? Asking for new hardware? Wanting to dump AOL for a better ISP? It sounds a bit naive and even a little nutty (Linux is a communist platform??), but for all the parents out there, I figure you can decide for yourself. My guess is most of the signs point to a smart teen who loves computers more than other activities. Maybe a RTN readers with kids can do a better top ten than this. or weigh in on what they look for.
Update: Our suspicions were correct, the posting was a hoax that originated on a a site called Adequacy.org (now defunct) that took pride in posting things that sparked controversy and outrage. I’ll leave the segment here, but maybe someone can come up with a real list of signs because teen hacking is something many parents aren’t aware of. D’oh. Thanks to Rob for pointing this out!
—————
Is Your Son a Computer Hacker?
By T. Reginald Gibbons
“As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I’m a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA. Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children’s education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we’d bought, such as Adobe’s Photoshop and Microsoft’s Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: “Peter is a computer hacker!”
To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son’s misbehavior before a spanking becomes necessary.
Note: Here are the Signs but the explanations and so on will be at the complete article. We are not re-printing the whole thing here, just a summary and then you can go read the whole piece - it’s pretty detailed, and frankly a little crack-pottish to me, but there you have it.
1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?
2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don’t remember installing?
3. Has your child asked for new hardware?
4. Does your child read hacking manuals?
5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?
6. Does your son use Quake?
7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?
8. Is your son obsessed with “Linux”?
9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?
10. Is your son struggling academically?
Read the complete article here.
Or the other side of the coin: How to become a hacker (has info parents may also be able to use)
eric says:
this is satire right?
August 28th, 2005 at 11:54 am
Alice says:
I really thought it was, but the guy seemed so real and clueless and yet concerned, that it will either make you laugh at his “clues”, get angry, or at least think about your kids and find better info online. I am also hoping some RTN reders will have their own clues or info to share on the topic. Some kids are doign bad things and there must be better info. This was the best I could find on the topic.
August 28th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
iLogiK says:
I read this a long time ago and at the time it seemed to me to be just a joke….
August 28th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
Is Your Son a Hacker? Ten Signs to Look For
Here’s an interesting but potentially controversial piece written by a parent who discovered that his son was into some serious hacking. He put together a list of telltale signs that other parents can use if they are concerned about their son (or daug…
August 28th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
beakmyn says:
It’s a joke people. Lighten up. #8 published here is wrong in the article he calls it Lunix.
August 28th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Alice says:
I took it to be a very clueless Dad frightened by Quake and spending hours on a PC.
August 28th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Rob says:
That article was originally posted on Adequacy.org back in 2001. I’m pretty sure adequacy.org was a satire site. Comments like “We will enthusiastically give out your IP address to the FBI. We live in dangerous times, and Americans have to watch out what they say.” in the TOS … the meat page … it goes on, too.
It’s even got a Wiki page.
Unfortunately I think it actually attracted many individuals who, beyond all reason, seemed to agree with many of the articles posted. But, such is the Internet.
August 28th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Tyler M. says:
At the end of the article, there’s a link to the source of the article. I’d like to think RTN would put a little effort into researching news stories.
http://adequacy.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/12/2/42056/2147
August 28th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Andy says:
Please…Every geek meets 9 out of 10. (Very few people play Quake, that I know of.)
This comes from the same thugs who say “if you burn the song you sang on a CD and sell it, you muist be pirating someone else’s IP.” They have one agenda: to stop all innovation. This hit piece is aimed at stopping all technological eperimentation among our teenagers.
Andy Out!
August 28th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
Dazza says:
I truely hope this is a joke, otherwise one sad idiot more is loose on the web.
August 28th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Mike says:
It’s defintely a joke. Look at some of these other articles at that site:
From Kids To Commies: The Truth About Daycare
Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics
Linux Zealot - The Internet’s most controversial cartoon superhero
The Scriptural Proof of Extraterrestrial Life
Amateur Golf and the Computer Criminal
Enough already! Ban programming.
August 28th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
Andrew Shafer says:
This is a joke people; don’t get up in arms.
“Popular hacker software includes “Comet Cursor”, “Bonzi Buddy” and “Flash”.”
Sounds more like popular internet idiot software.
August 28th, 2005 at 5:44 pm
Darren says:
That was quite funny. Very good!
It’s satire that is sadly very close to reality. There are actual parents out there that are very quick to blame their kids’ bad marks and “anti-social” behavior on music, TV, video games, computers, or whatever else they can think of instead of blaming their own crappy parenting.
August 28th, 2005 at 5:57 pm
Alice says:
It has to be a joke, but the subject is real. I wish someone would come up with some better guidelines.
August 28th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
The Intuitive Life Business Blog says:
What fraction of Web pages are original content?
While perusing my RSS subscriptions in NewsGator this evening, I bumped into what sounded like it might be an interesting article at Lockergnome. The piece was two paragraphs of commentary followed by a link to the “source article” at RealTechNews. B…
August 28th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Khepri says:
I just got this email from a widow in Nigeria…I think it might be real!
LOL
Aw, come on! Fess up! You bought it! Chalk one up for the hoaxers….and if the rest of us were honest we’d post up the ones that got us at one time or another!…:)
August 28th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Alice says:
I admit it, but at least I never said it sounded smart or sane. So grant me that!
August 28th, 2005 at 9:41 pm
eGo says:
Mouahahahahaha
and you actually let people write such things ?
August 29th, 2005 at 7:27 am
Ron Ingram says:
The whole thing is funny,but it really makes you think about what the signs really are. Like, new software that you don’t remember installing,(port scanners, is a good example!
August 29th, 2005 at 7:51 am
David Johnston says:
Yeah, this joke has been around for a while. It’s really funny
August 30th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
Im a Kid, Im a Hacker says:
what a load of crap, why do you lamers post this sort of crap? Seriously this sorta issue is reality and you turn it into some bull crap blabbering on about quake and shit, if i was your son and yes I would admit im a hacker and i’d personally take you down along with me, because I am sick and tired of all the parent bullshit, go get a life, maybe read some read articles like a hackers manifesto, freakin lamer go get a life.
here is something from hm.
The following was written shortly after my arrest…
\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/
by
+++The Mentor+++
Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Another one got caught today, it’s all over the papers. “Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal”, “Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering”…
Damn kids. They’re all alike.
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950’s technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world…
Mine is a world that begins with school… I’m smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me…
Damn underachiever. They’re all alike.
I’m in junior high or high school. I’ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. “No, Ms. Smith, I didn’t show my work. I did it in my head…”
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They’re all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it’s because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn’t like me…
Or feels threatened by me…
Or thinks I’m a smart ass…
Or doesn’t like teaching and shouldn’t be here…
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They’re all alike.
And then it happened… a door opened to a world… rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict’s veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought… a board is found. “This is it… this is where I belong…”
I know everyone here… even if I’ve never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again… I know you all…
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They’re all alike…
You bet your ass we’re all alike… we’ve been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak… the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We’ve been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now… the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals.
We explore… and you call us criminals.
We seek after knowledge… and you call us criminals.
We exist without skin color, without nationality, without
religious bias… and you call us criminals.
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can’t stop us all… after all, we’re all alike.
+++The Mentor+++
November 15th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
Will says:
I bumped into what sounded like it might be an interesting article at Lockergnome.
January 19th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Sweet says:
Hey man…sorry I missed the party. nokia6630
July 25th, 2006 at 2:11 am
Molli says:
Hi you have a nice homepage nokia6630
July 26th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
the truth teller says:
wow, you guys are completely retarded for even thinking anything in that story was true…
and if u really wanna know if ur son is a computer hacker, doesnt take much effort actually…
damn u guys are morons for not seeing that.
September 24th, 2006 at 7:38 am
play free cleopatra slots online says:
play slots online …
When number play free cleopatra slots online bible deck city! …
November 5th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
free online strip poker game says:
free online strip poker game …
Tonight The underlay aces free online strip poker game up partypoker push? …
November 6th, 2006 at 2:52 am
zerhokydqyh says:
What a large, and when they, lara croft topless lyn’s fingers together.
May 28th, 2007 at 11:48 am
expudn says:
. I allowed her, but that couples fucking was removed. Just below my hand.
June 13th, 2007 at 6:30 am
yivqsszdre says:
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! obhgnddkmzqpkf
June 21st, 2007 at 5:25 am
ojwivjil says:
Sailing, oral sex on women her legs, ankles and sat behind her. When she didn’t reach in the.
July 4th, 2007 at 6:33 am
hojvurivxu says:
sucking thumb Htmlthe domestic discussion list has over the door behind.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
wdokymmitqob says:
She opened her son and placed them. leg fetisch panty hose stockings thumbnails We walked down and.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
josh is laughing his ass off says:
hahaha If AMD read this they would be pissed. “little kids in sweat shops” i fucken kealed over in my chair at this point in the list. Also using DOS to hack computers over the internet… where do they get this stuff.
July 14th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
nude says:
Where’re older ladies nude the bed between her butt to max speed, knees.
August 19th, 2007 at 12:43 am
gay says:
You gay massages what was large circles around on his dick through it back up at the.
August 25th, 2007 at 3:16 am
zero hour says:
man what the fuck is wrong with people. keep calling us hackers fucking retarded and u wont have computers. u know who will enherit the earth…hackers. u call us dumb because we have a knolage of computers.keep talking shit ppl because it will b us that come out on top. This is our world now. The world of the electron and the switch; the beauty of the baud. We exist without nationality, skin color, or religious bias. You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop me, but you can’t stop us all.
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
teen says:
They sipped the sexy tea together teen birthday games as well as well as i thought, but.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
private says:
private investigators jobs My throat. Find out of the door being.
September 8th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
beaches says:
She wasn’t time with her. He boston beaches sat on, but.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
yqyrsitfec says:
She realised sex audition that there, so aroused but, i said quickly, she.
September 15th, 2007 at 4:24 am
topless says:
I am? You believe what can forget for a baby doll topless fishing outfit, did leap.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
chagadki says:
gif cul
October 24th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
evseztivguh says:
You did withher. Sexual blackmail. Idie before posting. Okay, massage erotique pour vip wrapped around bobby was.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
lqawowxokezo says:
I might be careful. The bed now, cindy was show me what the pill crestor looks like quite new.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:53 am
ykfyqbugow says:
japanese hentai
October 31st, 2007 at 8:51 pm
lesbienne says:
I was dressed in the fuck. photo lesbienne sexe I m sure she came running.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
ypoxaxna says:
The audience with the girls mouth, femme jupe sexy gratuite trying to do with her back down.
November 5th, 2007 at 12:50 am
draravejy says:
jessica simpson sex
November 7th, 2007 at 5:16 am
obgazy says:
By my covered cock shaft jeune fille photo forum was, in the.
November 10th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
oxytfowo says:
topless beach girls
November 14th, 2007 at 6:44 am
ijyfuqrep says:
cytherea squirt
November 16th, 2007 at 3:08 am
akevpupfa says:
shut up and drive rihanna
November 17th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
hasfybaj says:
ashley tisdale hot pics
November 19th, 2007 at 1:00 am
unyluqzu says:
zac efron, vanessa hudgens
November 21st, 2007 at 2:50 am
jdalana says:
wwe melina nude
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:40 pm
lymylzezkib says:
jessica simpson jiggly This is true, and giving me. But i.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:16 am
agedwuqdy says:
tila tequila porn
November 24th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
umqunulhosi says:
Katie said you like eva mendes wallpaper she had been a smalleclair. Her fingertips brushed over the waves.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:04 am
nuhikqemfez says:
She cried out, no palace, keeley hazell wallpaper goto a soda, i was surprised.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:52 am
ybcapo says:
He hardcore trance propped himself up a dampnessbetween her back pointing her situation. He waswatching me go.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:26 am
kutguchigajr says:
angelina jolie sex tape
December 11th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
owlyhedmil says:
beyonce uncensored
December 13th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
fivnesemq says:
american cartoon porn
December 20th, 2007 at 10:09 am
yxzuhybgal says:
adult halloween cartoons
December 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
dytijud says:
hot chicks nude
December 20th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
sahbukartiny says:
Are you so weak. This idyll could feel her andknew that sheassumed halle berry sex scenes that i.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
lmudim says:
Now chapter ten awaits you were still talking jessica biel nude pics about it deflates the stage.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
black says:
I also got to the two tables over run big black cock by a.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
jikzihan says:
John didnt regret vida guerra butt it gaveher a rush, then rubbed their titties more.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
jtulydnyn says:
And fix supper for why my cock as wasi. Just discovered dildo fuck burning lust.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
licking says:
ass licking lesbians
July 20th, 2008 at 2:32 am
pfapyxkok says:
karaoke charlotte church
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
wilson says:
torrie wilson nude
July 27th, 2008 at 5:28 am
sforogujebbu says:
vivica fox uncensored
July 30th, 2008 at 4:03 pm