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2014 Letter

Hello! It is a both a pleasure and a privilege to have been asked to write this letter as it is the first edition of something that we hope to continue for many years to come. We are swiftly approaching a new year and multitudes of major events have been resonating internationally. Many corporations such as Sony, Target, Home Depot, and other big name companies have been broken into and have had their information stolen, black men and children are being murdered inches from their front doors without question in the United States, a Caliphate has been declared in the Middle East, and the dawn of a new epoch is quickly approaching us.

The digital attacks on large companies goes to show that no machine is safe while connected to the internet, in adage of old times I say, the only safe machine is one that isn’t connected at all; It doesn’t matter how many layers of protection you have inside of an institution, somebody that is determined to get in, will. However, there is no means to an end by throwing in the towel. Take your blows and learn from what happens and continue on shaping the pillars that have been previously constructed. Sony seems to be doing a horrid job at this since time and time again they have been hacked, cracked, and stripped down to their birthday suit. Hackers have been thumping the company in the nose and yet they seem to be doing nothing. Ironic since not too long ago GeoHot, a renown hacker in the Playstation and iOS scene, was dragged to court for releasing the METLDR root keys for the PS3. In fact, Sony’s PS4 and PS Vita are two products which still haven’t been completely dismantled publicly yet and frankly, they both have native bugs that are itching to be exploited.

Although few products may actually be secure for a short time, corporations appear to be completely lacking in quality security all over the globe. It's not just well known penny pinchers such as Microsoft, Apple and Sony, it's everyone. Large businesses all the way down to the small mom-and-pop shops are guilty of not taking serious security into consideration, ultimately shooting themselves in the foot. Security seems to be a quaint afterthought in todays tech world even after the wild child known as the internet has been tamed. I think that's the issue though: we have built a house out of glass. Initially the internet was not intended to be monetized and as soon as that happened, we got catastrophes. All because we weren't prepared for something so simple. The Net wasn't ready for something so sensitive as handling credit-cards and social-security, it was created for sending messages to physicists – with a string of one-way bounces mind you, not even a mesh – if there happened to be a world disaster. But we are chugging along anyway, patching the boat as we sail.

Nonetheless, alongside the consumer and entertainment industry's misfortune are the barbaric acts of the Islamic State and all of the media coverage they have been receiving. I just want to quickly note that they truly and physically are a free group; Meaning they are able to command and conquer without the oppression of any form of government despite the spread of their radicalism. Yes, they may be free but what are they actually accomplishing with their freedom? At the moment, they are sieging villages, beheading and shooting men in cold blood, capturing, raping, and executing women and children.

In the 13th century, the Middle East was the capitol of scientific exploration which leapt over obstacles in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and physics. Some would like to blame religion solely for the decoherence in their society, yet it would be unjust to settle on a specific trend that killed an entire nations thinking. There was more to it than preachers uttering the name of Allah, a majority can be allocated towards years of violence and war with the Christians; They wanted to reclaim the apparent holy land, thus they brought a prospering civilization down to its knees over time.

Centuries later, the kin of those whom had perished in the burning of Baghdad and whom were slaughtered elsewhere are now doing the slaughtering, ironically of their own people. Unfortunately, the United States and other nations have yet to strategize against the expanding IS force and we seem to just be playing with them using fun toys such as autonomous drones and AC-130's. The Islamic State is a festering immovable darkness which should to be rectified, otherwise, their forces could spread more rapidly than a virus. Their recruiting techniques which utilize social media is extremely effective, reaching across nations to men, women, and children from all walks of life. Their phenomenal video production skills allow their videos to look more like a video game than reality, resulting in many Islamic conversions; These lost souls jump at the opportunity to take part in something they see as fun. The Middle East is not the only place with hardships though, multiple executions of African Americans, both young and old, have birthed protests across America resulting in die-ins, which is catching fire and has become an intrinsic way of protesting in the big cities; It consists of blocking major arteries so traffic is halted for hours causing just a portion of anarchy. It is a shame that lives have to perish in order for people to flee the trend of ignorance and rise up against something that matters. However, a handful of individuals have already been forced into exile for the sake of humanities evolution: Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are just two popular individuals who have sacrificed their convenience of life in order for the rest of the world to have access to knowledge that should be free to begin with!

Both have spoken at several conferences around the world such as the Hackers On Planet Earth conference which takes place at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. H.O.P.E is a biennial conference usually taking place in the summer between July 18th – 20th. Basically, it's a collection of people hailing from all over the planet who come together to share their newest philosophy, inventions, and just general knowledge. Sadly, I myself wasn't able to attend this years conference due to personal reasons but I definitely look forward to the next one. The event is like an over-driven schoolyard experience because of how much information is presented along with the amazing social atmosphere. However, H.O.P.E is not the only event which takes place. Numerous conferences such as the Chaos Communications Congress, Black Hat, Hacking At Random, Positive Hack Days, DEFCON, and many more also serve as couplers in the void of knowledge.

Quite a lot of information is presented at these conferences and more importantly is the fact that the general public chooses to ignore a great portion of it. For example, the foreshadowing of illegal data collection by the United States government was presented way back in the early 2000's. It really popped off after the September 11th attacks which spawned the DHS, and other three letter agencies; They deemed it a necessity to intercept all internet traffic in the country, and so they created 'Ultra Networks' that collected and combed through terabits of data every second. We now know about these secret programs – thanks to the folks mentioned above – along with all of the ridiculous bills, which would very well impede on the freedom of the net.

Information about all sorts of topics is available at these conferences. For example, I recently learned that it was possible to target and completely crush any machine running the .NET framework; Writing some not too complicated code then executing it on a machine would essentially give me root to the OS itself, including Windows XP all the way to 8.1 and even the Xbox One. Things like this are just the tip of the iceberg though, for instance, H.O.P.E has a big Social Engineering panel which actually exemplifies how to do it. It's fun because the guys don't necessarily get it right every time.

Not only are there cool computer exploits, information on feds, and practical crank calls at these things but there are also concessions too! In these areas you can wander up to anyone and see what type of project they have been working on; or grab a soda or a book. Sometimes you can find the old-school guys who have some TRS-80's and Commodores hooked up to some big CRT's, or you can find tables littered with circuit boards and LED's. At The Next H.O.P.E, I remember there being a lot of books being sold, which is always a thrill for me because I am a freak who still loves to hold a physical copy. In fact, I remember first seeing drones in the area where you buy your badge, they were actually owned by two European hackers, I believe they were German if I'm not mistaken.

These functions aren't just about talking and geeking out though. All of these conferences strongly gravitate towards the idea of free expression enabling anyone who actually participates, with the option of freeing their mind. You're able to bring projects that you have been working on for however many years and recruit others that might be interested, potential startups could always be lurking. Not only that, but it's even possible to play dress up too and not be judged for it!

Society today is still very much facilitated on the color of ones skin and thus these conferences allow all of us to drop this bullshit mask that we all wear on a daily basis, it gives us permission to explore our inner freak without dealing with the criticism we otherwise would in public. We can go wear a Batman cape paired with some SpongeBob slippers and tote around a Clifford backpack, never giving a shit about who sees us, because we know whomever sees us is most likely enjoying the sight of something new and refreshing, rather than scolding us for being a little bit different. People actually take the time to try and get to know you as a human being who sees eye to eye with them, they don't see the superficially projected ego many people think rules the world; Conversations may sometimes actually turn into life long friendships, and those who communicate poorly are still presumed a person. It doesn't matter wether you're a girl from college who likes anime and ramen or if you're a stay at home dad who happens to be a nanny. In this community, you're usually always welcome.

The general population has been lead to believe that we as Hackers are extremely scary, however, this is truly not the case, we are simple people just like you; We have feelings, we have skin, we have blood, and we have bone underneath it all. Granted there are some who do live more on the darker side of technology but, it doesn't mean that every kid wearing a black t-shirt is going to blow-up your precious computer system that cost you a fortune. The only difference between the general public, and us as Hackers, is in the way we think. Most people will be satisfied with minimal answers, but we like to push things to their outer limits, we like to really stretch the boundaries. We don't just sit and ask why something is the way it is, we also ask how it works; That's the difference, we are the curious.

All of us wish for knowledge, information, data, whatever you want to call it, to be accessible to everyone on earth that can reach a computer. We believe information should always be free no matter what situation may rise, in any shape or size. It is integral for our growth as humans.

In the end, we should all come together and focus on improving what is here and creating new technologies besides trying to cripple one another; It was fun in the past, but now I think we should all turn towards building off of the framework a lot of men and women have laid out in front of us.

Stay safe, stay curious, and question everything, my friends.

- Madara