The most adept hacker BBSs will not advertise themselves, but don't worry: Once you establish yourself as a knowledgeable hacker, you will learn of their existence and they will welcome you with open arms.
There are plenty of hackers and wannabe-hack-ers who will openly advertise their BBSs as catering to the kind of thing you are looking for. Perhaps they have worthwhile information. Probably you'll log onto these boards and find nothing more than some no-brain kids cursing at each other. You can ask on overtly
hacker/criminal boards if the mem-bers know of any other hacker boards (or look in the BBS listings there), but you probably shouldn't stick around on overtly criminal boards, as they are more likely to be busted. Since they generally don't contain anything but publicly-available or useless information, don't feel you're missing out on much by shunning these places.
Occasionally you will find an electronic conver-sation with some intellectual value to it. Embrace it, add to it, and pretty soon you'll find yourself accepted into its underground. If you find such a BBS, one whose members proclaim themselves to be hackers, and yet the conversation is smart and con-servative, you can bet that there are secret sub-boards lurking behind trap doors, where all the real-hacking news gets discussed. Prove yourself as a worthy member of the above-ground community, and after awhile the sysops and assistant sysops will vote you into their elite society. To be accepted as a hacker you must be willing to exchange information.
You must have good information to share and to give.
If you log on to a respectable PBS which you suspect contains a secret hacker subsection, acci-dentally try a different unlisted command each time you log on. (Don't do more than one per login, to avoid generating suspicion.) If you find a com-mand that works, and you're asked for a password, then you'll know you're on
the right track. Talk to the sysop or other group members about your feelings on hacking, and ask them what they think about it. Modestly tell of your hacking achievements. You will already have impressed them by finding the secret section, but you don't want to agi-tate them by hacking it out. <One of the criticisms that
law enforcement officers make about hackers is that they say we live by a double standard: That we think it is no crime to violate other people's privacy, but we can't stand the thought of being probed ourselves. Well, I don't find a need to defend myself If a hacker can get through the safeguards I've set up, that's fine, because I
know that hacker will not damage me by it.As far as hacking a hacker BBS is concerned, since the users of that BBS do not know you, they don't know that your intentions are honorable. Thus, to invade them is to get their guard up. In your talking to the sysop you might want to mention that you refrained from hacking the
hole that you found, in order to reassure them that you are a fellow hacker and not a cop.>
And you certainly don't want to post a public message stating that you found their trap door; you can bet there are plenty of others without that secret access who are also roaming about. Talk to the sysop and assistant sysops privately about your find, via e-mail or on-line chats.
