Going Postal

From: Alex Lucas (anomalyXXXX@gmail.com)
To: staff@attrition.org
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 14:05:00 +0100
Subject: so...what?

Hi,

I came across your site earlier today, for the first time i'll admit, and
while i'm still getting to know the place i have a remaining question that i
couldn't find or didn't look hard enough for.
The accusations of you lot being hackers, where does that come from? Now i
know you're not going to come out and say "oh yeah yeah, we hacked into the
nsa's mainframe and deleted the system files", nor am i suggesting you have
done something. Are the "HAX0RZ!" comments simply down to the content and
nature of the site and its staff or did something happen previously that
prompted the suggestion of such a comment?

Couldn't find the answer anyway, and i'm just a-wondering.

Peace

From: security curmudgeon (jericho@attrition.org)
To: Alex Lucas (anomalyXXXX@gmail.com)
Cc: staff@attrition.org
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 19:02:44 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: so...what?

: I came across your site earlier today, for the first time i'll admit,
: and while i'm still getting to know the place i have a remaining
: question that i couldn't find or didn't look hard enough for. The
: accusations of you lot being hackers, where does that come from? Now i
: know you're not going to come out and say "oh yeah yeah, we hacked into
: the nsa's mainframe and deleted the system files", nor am i suggesting
: you have done something. Are the "HAX0RZ!" comments simply down to the
: content and nature of the site and its staff or did something happen
: previously that prompted the suggestion of such a comment?

: Couldn't find the answer anyway, and i'm just a-wondering.

Few reasons;

1. The red on black is a true sign of hackers. Seriously, many people over
the years associate the color of the web site with our supposed criminal
activity.

2. Early on we had 'hacker' files available (text files) that were about
hacking, security and everything between. The presence of such files
clearly indicated we were black-hat malicious evil hackers, people
frequently told us so.

3. Our attitude. Because we don't care what some stick-up-ass righteous
CISSP babbled to us, we clearly must be on the 'other side'.

- jericho

From: Alex Lucas (anomalyXXXX@gmail.com)
To: security curmudgeon (jericho@attrition.org)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:41:36 +0100
Subject: Re: so...what?

Ah, understanding dawns upon me.
Gotta look at it from the nay-sayers point of view though:
Red on black, clearly imagery for you killing black people with your evil
hacker ways.
Nowhere respectable has text files (you hacking scum), therefore with your
(evil hacking) text files you are clearly in league with other such unsavory
(evil haciking scum) places such as Phrack.
Finally, you care not what people think? Clearly your hackingness has
prompted a sudden switch in mindset to that of a terrorist. Only terrorists
care not what people think (and possibly Yoda).

Ah yes, the joys of ignorance.

Aaaanyway, cool, I get it now. Cheers for the info