Hacker Gear
Welcome to the November issue of Hacker Chronicles!
First of all, it’s been Thanksgiving and I want to say thank you.
I’m very fortunate to have stayed healthy so far through this pandemic. Also to have a reservation for a booster shot in a week and to have not suffered any losses or serious illness in my family. In addition, I’m thankful for the mental health I’ve been able to sustain through the stress and weirdness of these almost two years. I no longer have a pillow readily available in my home office to lay down on when it gets heavy.
My thankfulness covers you too. You are the group of supporters who’ve decided to give this debut author a chance. I’ve been eagerly waiting to get you the details of my book release but a few things are causing a delay (see below). So in this letter, there’s a hacker gear feature article for you to enjoy while we all wait.
For those of you who celebrated it, Happy Thanksgiving!
/John
Soon-To-Be-Released: “Identified”
“What’s up with your novel, John?”
Last month I told you we were finishing up the formatting for print and electronic versions. That’s all on track but when it comes to physical printing, things get … interesting.
The Proof Copy
Supply chain problems and inflation suddenly popped up and the printing company bumped the price 25% from one day to another. That made me sit and stare at my screen for a while.
But I proceeded and got my proof copy of the initial limited release delivered on November 9. Such an incredible feeling to hold it in your hand! My cover designer wasn’t able to look at it with his own eyes and requested a photo in daylight (not sunlight), preferrably with a gray background. So I took a picture on our gray deck. Check it out:
Almost Switching Providers
I checked the proof copy meticulously and there was one issue with the cover that I wasn’t satisfied with. I discussed that issue with the printing company for two weeks, in an email thread with 28 replies. It got to the point where I ordered a new proof copy from a different provider, effectively resetting the whole process with new measurements and color profile. But eventually it got sorted out with the orignal printing company and as of today (Nov 26), I have ordered the initial batch!
The Sales Page
The link to the sales page for the initial, limited release is this: hackerfiction.net/books/identified/. As you can see, the buy button on that page is still disabled. I’ll let you know when it goes live.
Several of you have reached out to say you really want to make sure you get one of the signed copies. Thank you! That means a lot to me. Stay tuned.
Till then, enjoy my exploration of hacker gear!
November Feature: Hacker Gear
Fictional spies and expert killers have their guns. Master thieves have their diamond cutters, suction cups, and silent footwear. Super heroes have super powers, over-shorts, and capes. What do fictional hackers have?
Hands On
Hackers mostly use their fingers which is a bit boring even though Ghost In the Shell managed to take it a nice step forward.
When the interface to the computer get’s more imaginative, you typically get into large virtual spaces but the hands still tend to play a large role, such as in Minority Report and Johnny Mnemonic.
Hacking Humans
Social engineering, or hacking humans, makes use of gear that lowers the guard of the target. A classic move is dressing sharp to sneak into posh parties. Ocean’s Eleven, James Bond, Ocean’s 8, and numerous other movies feature this trick.
It happens in real life too. The case that’s most fresh in my memory is Michaele and Tareq Salahi who in 2009 managed to get past two security checkpoints, into the White House, and all the way to the President and his guest the Indian Prime Minister.
Official White House photo by Samantha Appleton Flickr, Public Domain
Hacker Kit
F-Secure’s principal security consultant Tom Van de Wiele has shared what’s in his kit when he tries to break in to offices and steal corporate secrets (legally that is, as part of testing). I think it makes for excellent inspiration for fiction.
A few of his things:
- Banana. Actually eating a banana. Having something mundane in your hands and eating are normal things that people who belong do. So the hacker can more easily blend in and makes them look less stressed.
- Dress up as someone who is part of an event team, a worker, a window cleaner, or a handyman. In the case of the kit, that’s what the hard hat and reflector vest is for.
- Lockpicks and bump keys.
He goes into more tactical detail in their podcast Cyber Security Sauna - Carry smoke detectors and say you’re checking the intalled ones. - Carry electronics and say you’re checking phones in meeting rooms. - Use a fake, stellar résumé to get to an on-site interview.
Hardware Hacking
Real world hacking can use a lot more than keyboards as soon as the hack gets physical.
Access to a laptop can allow for hacking of computer ports like USB and there are readymade products for it such as the USB Rubber Ducky.
One of the (literally) coolest hardware hacks I know is the Cold Boot RAM Attack. A powered off computer may still leak secrets such as cryptographic keys because certain computer memory circuits retain their contents for several seconds after power is lost. Those seconds can be extended to ten minutes with a simple cooling agent such as compressed air. Liquid nitrogen can get the hacker a full hour to read the memory content.
Lock Picking
You’d be surprised at how openly and hackers talk about lock picking. It’s a popular pastime and training workshops are organized regularly. The purpose is not to train burglars. Instead it’s just a perfect fit for the hacker mindset – learn how things work, try to break them, and add skills to your toolbox.
I remember my jaw dropping when I went to the Lock Picking Village at the DEF CON conference. Soon enough I was laughing along with the rest of the audience at how easy it was for the presenters to break into safes and door locks. One safe was opened with a perfume testing paper strip! Check out their presentation.
Needless to say, fictional hackers are likely to carry lock picks and know how to use them.
Network Plugs
A popular hack is to either take over an existing network or mimic the existing network to make devices and people connect to the hacker’s rogue access point rather than the legitimate network. There are readily available products for that too, perhaps most famous is the WiFi Pineapple.
Hacking At a Distance
Popular attacks in movies are watching targets through a zoom lens and listening remotely by use of a directional microphone. The movie Sneakers features such a hack (see my review)
But hackers can take it further. Directional antennas lets them communicate with a target’s equipment much further away than intended. In the early 2000s, hackers started showing off their Bluetooth and WiFi “guns” – rifle-like directional antennas that could sniff network traffic from over a mile away, or almost two kilometers.
In the world of espionage, this category of hacking is code named TEMPEST and means spying through “leaking emanations” such as unintentional radio or electrical signals, sounds, and vibrations.
Use It In Fiction
As you can see, there’s ample opportunity to go all Q in hacker fiction. The hard part is to make the reader or viewer understand what’s going on while not turning it into a lecture.
Currently Reading
I finished reading A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin. Wow. Now I’ve started reading the seventh Bond novel – Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming, published in 1959.
Next Issue(s)
As mentioned, there will be separate emails about my book release. Then the fourth Matrix movie has world premiere on December 18 and so the December issue will review the hacking in the original Matrix trilogy just in time!
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