From: cosmos@yabbs
To: Justin@yabbs
Subject: re: First steps
Date: Tue Jan 25 15:21:57 1994

Forgive me if I am intruding, but what do you mean "board"??  If you are 
referring to a bulletin board based server like yabbs then you are not 
going to find a multitude of them.  This is not ms-dos and windows weenie 
land.  Now explain to me why you would want to break into an internet BBS 
anyway...90% if not 100% of them are public and accessible anyways.  

To go on, if you want to compromise the security on an internet site then 
the first approach is not to ask "hey, how do I do it" but to learn and 
absorb the operating system.  This is not the easiest of tasks.  Unlike 
the 80's, the internet is now relatively secure to the average attacker.  

Learn UNIX.  Learn it, study it, and live it.  Get all the books you can 
about UNIX, find a local provider, school, etc... and get aquainted to 
using UNIX.  If you are on an intel platform get netBSD(or LINUX if you 
are inclined), macintosh get macBSD.  Play with it and expirement with 
everything.  Yes, welcome to hacking 101.  More books, time, and sweat 
thatn any damn college course you will ever take.

NEVER beg for accounts, and expect a silver platter to be handed to you.  
Hacking is not picking up some cool t-philes and typing some commands.  It 
is a philosophy and an intense understanding and knowledge of computers 
and operating systems, and is not limited to the uebercracker(thank you 
Dan Farmer) but to any person who accomplishes their goal through 
undocumented or abstract methods.

My $.02

Cosmos