Before you begin researching you should know what kind of information you should be trying to find out. There are three topics a hacker should be concerned with: Telecommunications in general, computer systems in general, and specific systems. There is a certain level of understanding you should have about computers,
modems the tele-phone and human nature. Hopefully this"book will prepare you with most of the information in these categories that you will make use of. If not - and I readily admit this is not an all inclusive Bible of the Universe - then go around to some local or special libraries and find out what you need to know.
Maybe there isn't anything you specifically need to know. You will still want to keep up with the latest developments in technology as well as the organizations who run the computers you intend to hack. Even if you think you know everything there is to know, it can be most helpful to do a bit of reading to make sure you really are an expert in your field, especially when dealing with such rap-idly changing fields as computer hardware, soft-ware and telecommunications So go to your local library. Go to the shelves with the computer books, and the shelves with the criminal justice books, and the shelves with the business management books. That's where you'll find the "legit" books about hacking and computer crime. Every once in a while, take out some books on telecommunications and look through them. You want to start getting familiar with the various situations you'll be encountering, so look through books on the different information services, on-line databases, computer crime, operating systems, BBSs, and anything else that pertains to what you can do with a computer and a modern.
Look up "telecommunications" in the card catalog. Also, security," "computers," "hacking," "telephones," modems," and anything else you can think of that's relevant. Also, remember to look through the books in the reference section; you will find the most useful materials there. Hacking is best learned by doing, but many good tricks and leads can be found in the literature.
By the way, do you know who the biggest book publisher in the world is? The United States government. If your library is a government depository, read through all the relevant government publications that interest you. You'll learn a lot from that stuff.
I'm not saying you should read every book in the library, and I'm certainly not saying you should read all this before you begin your hacking ex-ploits. What I am saying is that very often people don't realize the wealth of information that is available to them free for the asking - no need to hack. And by reading these things you will get familiar with what different computer systems look like when you log onto them. You will get to know the kinds of commands that are available to you, and what formats the systems use for names and pass-words. Also, you will often find toll free numbers listed in these books - lines you can call to test out various systems, or to get information on the sys-tems. All this information will be helpful to you as you proceed.
While you're at the library go to the periodicals section and take out some computer magazines and newspapers. Borrow some that you don't normally read, or that you've never heard of before. It is use-ful to write away for information from the maga-zines, and to send in the Reader Service postcards to get free information.
It's amazing what compa-nies will send you, and it's further amazing to think about all the great tips this information offers to the hacker. I'm now on several perpetual mailing lists from various computer security companies. I know everything I need to know about all their products, their upgrades, what businesses
use their software - and from that information, I can hack my way around their products. Knowing how they go about catching hackers, I know how to avoid getting caught.
Another, sometimes more practical way to use the library is to find out about donated books. Many libraries get donations of books, either for an annual book sale or for their shelves. A lot of those books are old technical and company manuals for computers, software, and operating system proce-dures. The librarians
who deal with donated materials will probably look at this sort of thing and throw it out as useless. If you make friends with them, surely they would prefer giving such 11useless" items to you, rather than discarding them. I've gotten many valuable guidebooks, reference guides, operating systems manuals, and disks this way. I even have a very nice and very current set of AT&T security books.
Sometimes the books you pick up have notes scribbled in the margins or on the cover. My favor-ite note was the one that gave a phone number and group ID access code. The access code had since been deleted, but the phone number still worked and so did the sample visitor's password listed in that manual.
