Jack of All Trades, Wednesday, Per 1

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Today's class wasn't in the Danger Shop, sadly enough. It was in the second best classroom in the school: the computer lab. Honestly, it might have just been easier to program the sim into the Danger Shop than set up each electronic safe manually in the classroom, but Hardison never begrudged time spent with tech. If he hadn't been worried about accidentally interfering with Kitty's class, he probably would have spent the rest of the morning making sure the computers were upgraded to a degree that bordered on ridiculous.

"Hey, y'all," he said. "Today we're learnin' how to hack. Just a little bit," he added, before anyone could get their hopes up. "An', obviously, I'm trustin' you not to use this stuff against your fellow students. Or teachers." And then, obviously as an afterthought, he added, "Or do anythin' illegal with it. While you're on the island."

He couldn't in good conscience try to tell them not to do anything illegal with it ever; that would be the purest kind of hypocrisy. But putting some limits on where and who they could use this information against was the best he could do.

"These hacks are pretty much brute force hacks: they're useful an' they're efficient, but there's no subtlety or artistry to 'em. The very best hacks have both. A good hacker can get into a system an' get out, leaving no trace that anyone was ever even there. These hacks ain't that. They'll not only leave signs of what you did, but a skilled enough hacker'll be able to follow those signs back to the computer you did the hackin' on. Dependin' how good they are an' what's around you, that could be enough to lead 'em to you, directly. Once they got your IP, they'll know where the hack issued from an' gettin' access to other electronics nearby--like CCTV cameras--is pretty much childplay. So don't be stupid is what I'm sayin'."

And Hardison hoped that would be enough of a warning for his class. They were bright enough students. "So, we're learnin' two of the most basic kinda hacks today. If you're ever in a situation where you need to hack somethin', these will most likely get you through, so long as you ain't up against nothin' incredibly sophisticated. Now, of the two hacks, the one you'd use in a situation is the one that best fits what you're tryna do. The first hack ain't really for personal computers. This is the kinda hack you'd use at a terminal when you're lookin' to gain control of outside systems: electronic locks, gun turrets, security systems, automated vendin' machines, that kinda stuff. If you're lookin' to hack into someone's personal computer an' gain access to their files, you'd use the second. Everybody follow? A'ight, let's get hackin'."

[OCD up, thanks for everyone's patience.]

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Hack 2

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"This next hack is more complex," Hardison said. "This is the kind of hack that'll get you access to a personal computer, where you can make changes to the system itself. You can read files, change the background, delete icons, install or uninstall programs, all that good stuff." He showed the class how to exit out of the terminal interface and to pull up DOS command prompt. "I included a small trainin' program to make it fun," he said, "but let's go over some of this together, too. If you wanna pull up the sim an' follow along as I explain, go ahead. Just type 'yes' an' then hit enter when the sim asks if you're ready."

"So, first off, you're gonna need the name of the security system to command. It's real easy to get; it's just the number combination of the access nodes, followed by a .0. That .0 is the computer you're trying to access. So a computer with a tiny setup like you will see in the training sim will be 1.0. A system with multiple security nodes might be somethin' like 1.2.1.1.4.2.0. It's easy to figure out, just look at the security configuration. When you're ready to start, type 'connect' followed by the security configuration, then hit enter. Once you're connected to the system, type 'get IP.' This'll get you the computer's IP address, which you'll need for the hack." He briefly went over what an IP address was, then continued to explain. "Once you have the IP address, you can send over a virus that'll dig up the list of possible passcodes the system is usin', just like with the terminals, before. Now, real hackers will code their own viruses, but I got a small one here for y'all to use. If you want to, you can save it to a USB stick after class, but, again, this is just somethin' to be used if it's important, not on the folks of this island, a'ight? Anyway, once the virus has sent back the possible passcodes, you just type 'em in an' see which one opens the system for you."

"So, again, the commands are: connect along with the numbers in the security information, get IP, then upload virus followed by the IP address. Once you've figured out the correct password type in enter, followed by the IP address again, an' you'll have access to the computer system. There's another kind of security node, but I'll let the sim explain how to hack that. Practice with the sim till you feel comfortable."

[This is a different kind hacking sim. It has noise and can take awhile to load in the beginning, don't be surprised if you see the adds flash by a few times.]