DAMIEN BANCAL
Hackers vs The Matrix ( ?) |
Damien Bancal, 30, has been a journalist since the age of 16. A specialist in cyber crime, he is the chief editor of ZATAZ, a magazine which sheds a different light on cyber crime, current news and police action. ZATAZ is the first French magazine to release information on the underground computer world. Since 1998, ZATAZ.com gathers 30,000 readers every day and more than 150,000 web surfers subscribe to the daily newsletter. ZATAZ magazine can be found in any news stand since December 2001. Its third issue will be reased in June. ZATAZ’s strength : a top class source network, and "a dash of humor for, after all, all this is only information".
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GLOSSARY
- Hacker
The contrary of a pirate. The good side of the internet loving people. He will try and find a security flaw, and a means to correct it and warn the person in charge of the web site. Whereas the pirate will use the knowledge of the hacker in order to destroy, steal and spy.
- Ripper
This has nothing to do with hacking. A ripper pirates commercial softwares in order to enable others to copy them.
- Supplyer
The one that chooses which products can get ripped.
- Phreaker
A pirate specialized in phone hacking. His role is to find a means not to pay for the telephone. There exist many different methods, like finding the password of the toll free number of a firm for example. That pass word will enable him/her to have his/her phone bills paid by the firm.
- Cracker
he breaks the protection or password codes.
- Trasher
A pirate whose goal is to destroy everything through different means : virus, denial of service ?
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Is there any equivalent to your magazine and web site abroad or even in France ?
Only abroad. There exists a lot of magazines of the same type, but they focus more on the 100% technical aspect. We do not have the same target as, for example security-focus, or alldas.org, or even force.org : we target a large audience for it is the average people who become the victims of cyber criminals.
Why did you decide to launch an "underground" culture magazine ?
We need to talk about the underground in order to highlight its different aspects. In the phrase "computer underground", we mean what is hidden, what wants to be different and discreet.
Why do you think is it important to talk about this issue ?
Because the first victims are very often the uninformed citizens like you and me. It is so easy today to find oneself in front of a computer and not be able to solve a problem. Anyone can get hacked, loose his/her identity, be infected by a virus or even turn into a cyber criminal. It is so easy today to download illegal softwares, or use programs that can hack or create a virus. Our idea is to show what’s happening and try and to point out the fact that everything is not permitted on the Internet. Too many kids think that the computer underground is synonymous with anarchy. I hope that informing people on this issue helps them realize that the web is not a judicial no-man’s-land where any regulation can be outlawed.
Are you having fun ?
I wouldn’t talk about fun, but I must admit that I am quite satisfied to see a kid explain to us that he chose to become a security flaw webmaster rather than go on the web site and destroy it. Or when a firm calls to thank us because we informed them about a security flaw, or when professionals come and shout at me because I did not give enough information on this or that kind of flaw ?
Why is it important for you to share this knowledge ?
Being a journalist first and foremost, I want to be able and witness things and report about them. With the Internet and with computer sciences in general, the sharing of the knowledge is a priority. The fusion of the two makes you realize that you can give a lot but also receive a lot. We wish to start and educate people on what should be the security for the computer for the average man.
How is your purpose perceived by the people from the "scene" ?
Very well ! There always exist grousers or people who prefer to stay behind the scene as far as their own projects are concerned. My position is that of a witness of their actions. I speak about them in a very honest way. If their goal is just to brag about the fact that they are going to modify 1,000 web pages, I’m not afraid to tell them that it is totally silly. A lot of people contact me to become a go-between for their findings and the firm they wish to warn. We receive between 100 and 150 alerts every month. We talk about them one time out of ten, especially when the firm did not thank the person who helped them. A lot of kids find flaws, want to help, and never get thanked for it. Rude administrators just forget that they breed frustrated young people who won’t want to help them again, and might pass to the other side, modifying, or even destroying everything in their way.
What are the strategies in this computer war ?
The most used one is discretion. The numeric war uses the same strategies as any classical war.
Is guerrilla a major model for this kind of war ?
There are a lot of fantasies around the so-called virtual guerrilla. There exist very few groups that have a real motivation for political hacktivism. 99 % of the cyber crimes are done by kids asking for recognition. And it is even scarier when those kids happen to be used by bigger groups that do not want to dirty their own hands.
What are the best methods against Big Brother ?
Do not leave any trace. We recommend people never to leave their name and address on the web, and to always control the softwares set up on their computer.
What other threats are there ?
Those that we do not know about yet. Through the ones we’ve known so far we can already see problems looming. Take for example, the "Red code" virus that hit the web last summer. Today we see virus of the same kind coming, but they are a 100 times more dangerous.
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