Before I begin, I’ve got a little explanation to do. This domain mentions a word – Hate. Remember? Firstly, I don’t hate anyone. Hate is a strong word. Let’s term it as “I despise him” to make it more meaningful or say how about “I don’t really like him very much” – Ok, that would be an understatement. Actually, I respect the guy [honest]. I was among the “privileged” few who discovered an “ethical hacking” bible when I was in school some 6 years back.
There was only one copy of the bestseller – Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking in the school library and the book was like EXPENSIVE going by the fact that my pocket money was some Rs.100 a month in 9th grade and the book costed a fortune like some – Rs.499. While others would read novels I would read the mammoth sized hacking bible when it was available and had not been issued by someone. The opportunity to read the same came only around once a month as it was The Hot Property among geeks at that time. I got the book photocopied from beginning to end and paid Rs.200 for the same. I still remember this stuff? Geez!
I was a FAN of Mr.Ankit Fadia [respect], frankly speaking, I was able to understand windows and its core functioning, I was able to modify the settings and tweak my copy of Win98 – by either changing Welcome Splash Screen or Changing text of Start Button. It did not add any value but was worth a few curious glances from friends when I showed them screenshots or when they came over to stay.
Fiddling with the infamous – Hkey_Registry had become my pass time and I was able to program my system to self-destruct after letting my hacking instincts loose. It was very addicting indeed.
Though, one thing which I was not aware of was that – I was becoming a script kiddie.
I did not realize the fact that what I was doing was not hacking. It was mere Tweaking! Changing configuration of system to show Start Button with my name did not really solve any purpose. It was just self amusement.
It was like getting your dog’s hair coloured. Even though it looked cool, The Dog didn’t care a damn. He was still the same albeit some neat looking fur-style. It walked the same way, ate the same way and hell, even barked the same!
After the initial excitement had died out. I tried talking matters into my own hands and decided its time for me to go mainstream. Let’s do some hacking. I spent hours “Pinging” other websites and going through “tracert” hops as if they were more important than Alegebra questions. Also tried different DoS(Denial of Service) attacks and the infamous – Ping of Death.
After all this, I thought. There must be something that I am missing. I was not able to Hack anything!!! It was just some theory and methods which never worked. Even if I got access to a system via Telnet. Now what? I am still in the router? I need to access the damn Hard Drive! There is a reason we have OS managing TCP/IP protocol and something called a firewall! I discovered even routers had them inbuilt within them at times.
I felt as if I had been taken for a ride. I was fed by half baked theory by Mr.Ankit Fadia through this book – Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking. It was not just me, people whom I knew and talked on the forums felt the same way. The 16 year old hacker had fooled us but it was OK. I had a dozen of scripts that worked. Except myself, who knew I was a script Kiddie?
Time passes quickly, Win98 ->WinXP ->WinVista ->Win7
When Windows XP hit the market, even those scripts stopped working. I was at peace hoping Mr.Ankit Fadia would release a new “Updated” edition. And well, he did. Second Edition – to the now bestseller with a new cover, hefty price tag and the same Comic Sans MS font. There is something called as Typography. In this case, it never existed! It was Comic Sans MS to make you feel good.
Anyways, the book has remained the same. Same content, the so-called hacks do not work anymore. No one I know uses Windows 98 anymore. Hell! Even Microsoft has officially declared it obsolete. Ankit Fadia stole the lime light and the media attention but I write on part of thousands of folks who read THE Book. We feel cheated.I do.
I only have one word to say for him – Script Kiddie