In the previous section we discussed methods of exploring publicly available computers, but there is another.side to on-site hacking. It is one that you might think would be best left to spies and thieves, but one that you can actually participate in yourself. I'm referring to the on-site hacking of, not public computers, but private ones. Basically, I'm referring to trespassing.
It is risky and possibly dangerous to walk into a company headquarters and simply start using the computers you find there. But it's also thrilling! It is an electrifying experience to first maneuver one's way into a restricted place and then, while there, to explore both the building itself and its computer system.
Sometimes, on-site hacking is a necessity. In many situations, computers will not be connected to outside phone lines. More secure setups might use some facet of the hardware to validate authen-ticity. You might have to use a particular kind of terminal or modern, or install a certain security chip to access the system. In these cases you would have to hack on premises. Furthermore, reverse social engineering often requires admission to the computing site. Hacking is about computers; there are lots of reasons why a hacker will need to be able to touch and see those computers in person.
You might think it would be virtually impossible to do this, but more often than not it can be an easy thing to do. For example, security expert Robert Farr, in his book The Electronic Criminals, explains how he penetrated the "heavily guarded company headquarters... [of] ... a well-known office machine company" to win a bet. Farr also tells an anecdote of his entry into a vault at the Bank of England: "There I was
standing inside a vault con-taining millions of dollars with a bewildered look on my face, wondering what to do next." Farr did it with prethought, planning, and sometimes blundering. You can do it too. In some ways it is easier to enter large organizations like this than the local insurance office or small busi-ness. Wherever you go, you will often have cameras, guards and possibly biometric devices (see below) to deal with. All of these
can make it tough for a hacker to get close enough to even touch acomputer on site, let alone infiltrate it.
