Life Before 1337: The Hacker's Illustrated Guide to Script Kiddie History

Presented at The Circle Of HOPE (2018), July 20, 2018, 10 p.m. (60 minutes).

For some, "script kiddie" is a term leveled at the younger, more boisterous, and less experienced members of the hacking community. For others, it's a badge of honor confirming their dedication to the more inane, sardonic, and social aspects of the hacking scene. In this talk, these two New York City security veterans will give a loving tour of the history of the script kiddie scene. The speakers will describe the evolution of script kiddie staples such "1337" speak, ASCII art, widely shared premade exploits, hacking communities such as IRC/Usenet/forums, and a wide range of the cultural tropes born in the script kiddie scene. The speakers' aim is to educate and entertain listeners by demonstrating the genesis of the hacker stereotype, and to fill in the blanks between media hyperbole and hacker culture reality. Negative preconceptions about the hacker scene will be dispelled, and mistakes from hacker history will be explored.


Presenters:

  • John Dunlap
    **John Dunlap** (@JohnDunlap2) is a New York City cybersecurity expert. He has given presentations on his exploit development research both at home and abroad, including talks at Defcon, Derbycon, and Australia’s Ruxcon. John is a major proponent of hacker culture preservation, and is a supporter of the international demoscene. John specializes in reverse engineering, exploit development, social engineering, and source code analysis.
  • Alex Ivanov
    **Alex Ivanov** is a New York City-based cybersecurity advisor. Alex conducts research on network infrastructure technologies, and is a specialist in network-based exploitation, as well as a collector of vintage and “bootleg” (copycat) gaming technology, seeking to collect and catalogue the ingenious variety of unauthorized copies of major gaming consoles.

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