“Hacker 4 Life? Turn it into a career. Study hacking and get a degree. We match you with programs quickly.”
I’m surprised there’s not a Facebook ad for how to shoot a politician, but maybe my profile doesn’t include enough gun references. The picture in the ad shows a bit of JavaScript that authenticates that the new password you entered matches the password in its “type it again” field, so props for actually having the picture be somewhat relevant to hacking.
The real WTF? of all this is that there really ARE degrees in “hacking”, as a particular slant on “network security”.
eHow has a couple of places that claim to teach script kiddies how to do it.
The University of Advanced Technology in Phoenix, AZ — site at hackerdegree.com, natch — even gives you a little prisoned shell in order to try hacking their site. The course information is cleverly hidden in the shell apps 🙂 In particular, they distinguish between “hackers” and “crackers”:
Crackers are junior versions of hackers who have their own jargon, filled with skateboard and alterna-rock talk. Some wind up as hackers, either using their powers for good (white hat hacking) or for maliciousness and profit (black hat hacking). Crackers are also known as code-crackers, in reference to the practice of cracking software code and sharing illegal software with friends and the public. Cracking has a long history and continues to morph into new forms as new opportunities present themselves.
Back in the 80s, computer hackers wanted to draw a line between those people who liked to do amazing things with computers (ie, the demoscene), and those who broke through the security of unfriendly computers. Nobody outside of the hacker circle ever made those distinctions.
Just ask the guy who broke into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! mail account…
Jargon File anyone?
Yet you wouldn’t be surprised to see an ad for a martial arts class. And that stuff doesn’t just bork up someones computer.