Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen | Log File: Script kiddie | English Summary | Onderwereld

 

Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen

Log File: Script kiddie

Eckhardt tells Greg about a famous hacker named Kokey who used to live near their school, in Harrismith. He learned how to hack from reading books that he found in the library and by age 15, Kokey built his computer for only R170. He hacked various major businesses and entities in South Africa, like Standard Bank, CSIR, and Pick’nPay, in addition to exploiting Telkom’s toll-free numbers to send tones over the phone. Greg asks about other South African hackers and Eckhardt tells him about logik, who infiltrated Dimension Data’s systems, which granted him access to Telkom; aKt0 r from Polokwane who hacked into NASA’s website with some friends from the US, the Middle East, and New Zealand and a few others. Greg asks if any of them were ever caught and Eckhardt explains that many of them had Interpol hot on their heels, eventually having their houses raided and computers confiscated. However, that was back when hacking itself had not been ruled a crime, so they were nailed on charges of things like information theft and vandalism.

Now hacking is outlawed by the Electronic and Communications Law (ECA) and depending on what one does, they could face up to five years in prison. Eckhardt confirms that what he has taught Greg is illegal, but he reassures Greg that no one will find out, saying that they have not conducted themselves in an especially heinous manner. Eckhardt tells Greg about a dissatisfied worker who halted the Edgars and Jet systems and faced a civil suit because it cost them millions of rand. Since he could not pay, the case was turned into a criminal one, but since the ECA was not yet in place, they could only charge him on the intentional damage of property. There was another individual who worked together with a criminal syndicate and uploaded spyware to the government’s computers, in order Caught red-handed, he testified against his accomplices for a reduced sentence.

Greg asks Eckhardt how he knows about the various things he says, and he merely says that he has his eyes and ears open as Greg does on the rugby field. Greg asks Eckhardt who taught him to hack and he tells Greg that having a mentor is not a usual thing – most people have to learn by themselves through trial and error, distributing information to other hackers as they go along. When Greg asks Eckhardt if he has ever been caught for hacking, Eckhardt’s denial sits very strangely in Greg’s ears.

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