Only a handful of real programmers make 90% of the software tools that are used to hack servers. The rest of the wanna-be hackers (i.e., script kiddies) just download those tools to try to feel powerful, and usually have absolutely no clue how they actually work. These tools are built specifically to expolit some software bug in various software programs that are running on servers connected to the Internet. (FYI: The word "server" is used interchangeably as "a physical machine that serves files or data" and "a piece of software running on one of those servers".) These servers include mail servers, web servers, database servers, remote access servers, etc. The problem is that under normal conditions there are never any issues. However, if you feed one of these servers a specially crafted segment of data (that can only be created with another program), then sometimes the server can't handle it properly and basically has a "brain-fart". That is when an attacker can potentially take control of that server.

Greetings dexxtreme. Long time no read.

Are you still hanging out at BlackVoices?

At various times I've used 8080 assembler, Fortran, Cobol, C, Awk, Perl, DBase III & IV, FoxBase. Never stayed with one language long enough to be what I would regard as an expert, I've mostly been a hardware geek anyway.

I'm studying PHP now. It bears a noticable resemblance to C. I think I should devote more time to software. I'm getting to old to be crawling under desks. LOL

umbrarchist wrote:
Not really. The signal to noise ratio over there in the tech section has dropped significantly, especially since they set up the new system. It is pretty boring over there, so I only log in every once in a while.