When and why did you become a hacker?

[KthProg]

I'm just interested in knowing.
For me, I would say I'm still not a hacker, but I started really attempting to become one in the last week or so.
And for why I just like the competition.
It's one programmer vs. another -- Can you write a program that I can't compromise? -- basically.

I'm interested a lot in peoples motivation, maybe their advice, their reasoning and of course their history.

Also what type of hacker do you consider yourself.

[e3cb]

Kth... being somewhat modest... gasp! I find hacking not so much about competition, but about learning. Yes, there are trade secrets that hackers keep, but a lot of information is open and based around the free information platform started by Richard Stallman.

[3vilp4wn]

I find hacking not so much about competition, but about learning. Yes, there are trade secrets that hackers keep, but a lot of information is open and based around the free information platform started by Richard Stallman.

Very true, but i must agree with kth at least a little in that it feels good to make an "unhackable" program. That's why I like crypto

For me, I would say that my journey started about 2 years ago. I really started getting into hacking about a year ago. Now I'd say I'm getting close. I discovered a vuln in a real site (and reported it, of course!), and know more about hacking than I ever thought I would. But the more I learn, the more I see that I have to learn. For a real hacker, the journey will never be over.

[-Ninjex-]

I would say I'm still not a hacker, but I started really attempting to become one in the last week or so.

Awesome, keep at it. From knowing you first handed, I am just going to lay this out there. You have potential, and a lot of it. I personally think you need more of a switch in the way you act, and also accept that being wrong or not having a full understanding of something is just another opportunity to learn from others, when they let you know you are wrong. I remember when every mod on the forums was telling you that you had been wrong about something and you was being 2 stubborn to stop arguing your side and actually take that chance to learn. We hackers, would never pass up a chance to learn something from someone whom is more knowledgeable than us in a field, when the chance is there.
I remember having a conversation about you, and was going to "Take you under my wing", and try and teach you some stuff you might not know, and try to actually help you start thinking and acting like a hacker. I decided not to, based purely that I believe you would try to belittle me on certain subjects, argue, and become stubborn.
Just keep learning, you are actually becoming better around here.

And for why I just like the competition.
It's one programmer vs. another -- Can you write a program that I can't compromise? -- basically.

It's not about competition.
Hacking and programming usually go hand in hand, but I wouldn't quite put them in the same field.

I'm interested a lot in peoples motivation, maybe their advice, their reasoning and of course their history.

Motivation: Knowledge of how everything works, and how everything breaks; that's what motivates me.

Advice: Again, back to the top "Maybe their advice", you shouldn't use the word "maybe", you should have simply put "their advice", or even "their advice, if they would like to share it".
The way you worded it, shows that you would or would not care if they gave you advice either way. However, putting that statement there, shows me you really do want some advice, and not just "maybe" want their advice.

Reasoning/History: When I was growing up, I heard a story about my uncle. He was said to have hacked into NSA. He was only a young teen at the time, maybe 14-15, and the next morning, he almost got v&, but luckily got away with a warning after he dumped his computer in the water. This inspired me to learn. I started out on youtube with stupid searches like "How to make a trojan", which showed nothing about trojans at all lol (It was a bunch of batch files, running the shutdown command). I still liked the idea, and made a batch script on my USB. Basically when I plugged the USB into the computer and ran one file, it would copy itself to the start folder two times (windows), and then shutdown the computer. Basically when you logged back in, it would copy itself two more times, and shutdown the computer, rendering you unable to login. That was what I would call my "first hack". Next it moved onto more messed up stuff with the delete command in cmd.

Also what type of hacker do you consider yourself.

Websites & Applications. I really like the use of SQLi & XSS.

[Thraxius]

I'm not a hacker at all..as a matter of fact I'm quiet horrible at it. HA! I have been a computer network technician in the Air Force for the past 13 years. I recently re-trained into the Cyber Defense career field and I love it. I heard about this web site looking on line trying to learn more about defending networks and security. I am currently in school right now learning about cyber and information security. The missions are fun and I love it when I figure the missions out, but most of the time I spend my nights reading websites trying to learn about languages codes or SQL injections or protocols, and the realize I have an enormous amount of things to learn. The whole time im thinking "and these are the basic mission im trying to learn about.." I think to really to be considered a hacker you have to have an intimate knowledge of all things computer related. I feel like this website is a good starting point to begin to comprehend the fundamentals involved with protecting our information and networks. Anyways...that's my story on the when and how

[black_sun]

I began about a year ago. At that time, my father wanted to program website. And I said that to program website. And gradually I learned HTML, PHP, CSS ... But I wanted to know how to hack. I watched too stupid videos on youtube "how to shut down to your friends PC" or "how to create a virus BAT" ... Then I discovered that I enjoy via the web. I started to look like hacking website. I finally found this great site HTS. Then I forgot my login information, but I went there about half a year later. Now I am still learning a hack, and I am very interested in it. I'm not a hacker, not study information technology. But I like IT.

[DrRoach]

I like a lot of the other people on this post wouldn't class myself as a hacker, I would love to learn but to do that I need to master a lot more things that I barely understand at the moment. I first got into hacking and coding around 2 months ago when I was talking to a friend about a website and then that night learnt as much HTML as I possibly could. That night really opened up the whole world of computer hacking and coding to me and even though I've moved on to writing computer programmes instead of web pages I'll never forget what I've learnt and I can't wait until the day that I actually find a vulnerability in a website. One last point is that my inspiration is being able to make a computer do what I want it to do.

[pretentious]

I got into hacking about 5 years ago. As a kid I think I was far more intelligent than people gave me credit for. I read conscience of a hacker and it resonated with me. I've always been a curious person and the mediocrity of the education system just didn't do it for me but I could get lost in the vastness of computer science. In the last year or so I've lost a bit or interest in the information security scene but the hacker mindset never really leaves you and when I get my geek on, I regularly stop by here

[Per5ef0ne]

Thank you, Ninjex, for that link to this topic.
I wish this conversation hadn't died out two months ago, but alas, I'll bump it up.
I'm not a hacker. Not yet, anyway. All I did was read a book, a fiction book for teens, google "Hacking", stumble upon this site, fathom at the name of it, squeal at the prospect of actually hacking the site,and finally create an account and get rolling. The only thing holding me back from escaping the "Script Kiddie" title is life: college, parents, friends I haven't seen in too long, etc. But yeah, that's my very short story. I started about...two weeks ago.