Intro to Hacking - First Class

[Lawrence Galontauré-Jones]

Those students who attended the class directly before this one might notice Professor Galontauré-Jones' has taken on a slightly harder expression. The wall monitor flickers, brining up a new syllabus.

"Good evening and welcome to Intro to Hacking," he said. "It is here that you will learn the basics of code cracking, virus creating, and riding the line between testing computer security and being an internet highwayman. By the end of the semester you will have gone from noobish script kiddies to legitimate - if untested - hats."

His voice was hard. "Be forewarned. If anyone is caught using the knowledge from this course for affecting their grades at this academy, they will face the full limit of the faculty's collective punishment. Are there any questions?"

[Somariel Lamaron]

Having attended the previous class, Somariel was already in her seat. When the professor started to talk, she saved the piece of art she was working on and exited Photoshop.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen noticed Somariel was also in this class. Kahlen thought that she might as well see what this hacking business was about. She knew she would be in way over her head, but Ada or the professor could always help her.

'As if I would hack into the school system to change my grades,' Kahlen thought. 'I can barely figure out how to use the more complicated things on my computer.'

Kahlen busied herself reading the new syllabus.

[Lawrence Galontauré-Jones]

Having waited long enough for questions, Lawrence nodded and hit a button on his laptop. The wall monitor changed, bringing up more information. "What is hacking?" he said. "Can anyone tell me?"

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen raised her hand. "Er, hacking is basically breaking into someone else's computer. It can be for fun, like to spy in someone's files, or in a meanspirited way..." Kahlen trailed off as her definition started to sound idiotic. She turned a bit pink and tired to use her computer for cover.

She started to wish Ada was in this class. She would sound smart and make the rest of them look good.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Somariel raised her hand and continued Kahlen's definition. "In a mean-spirited way, it's sometimes used to take over someone's computer remotely or make unauthorized changes to their files. Also, I've heard that the people who take this really, really seriously tend to define 'hacking' as only being done with malicious intent and call everything else 'cracking'."

((I can't remember where I heard about the hacking/cracking distinction, but it does exist. I think I read it in an article in some computer magazine.))

[Lawrence Galontauré-Jones]

"It's good to see you've both got the basics down," Lawrence said, "although 'cracking' is actually referring to the malicious form rather than the other way around. At its most basic level, hacking as known by the majority of the public today is concerned with circumventing computer security systems."

Lawrence then dived head long into his lesson plan, describing the history of hacking and the development of the hacking sub-culture.

[Somariel Lamaron]

"Whoops," Somariel muttered. "I guess I got the two terms mixed up."

((It's been at least two, maybe three, years since I read that article, so things are a bit fuzzy.))

[Lawrence Galontauré-Jones]

"... and that concludes today's lesson," Lawrence finished. "There's no written assignment for the next class, but I want everyone to come in prepared to discuss the various types of hacking that have been used in the past. If you have any questions, I'll be in my office."

He wheeled himself to the door and, unless stopped by students with questions, took his leave.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen packed up her notebook and pen as the professor left the room. "This is going to be an interesting class," she said to Somariel.

Kahlen knew next to nothing about hacking, let alone different types. She would have a bit of research to do before the next class. She threw her backpack over her shoulder and skipped out of the room, heading for the computer lab.

[Somariel Lamaron]

"I agree," Somariel said, packing up her computer, notebook, and pencil. Leaving the room, she decided that her next stop was going to be dinner--her stomach was already rumbling quite loudly.