Quote:
Originally posted by nanofever
Start port scanning people in your dorm, see how many open machines exist, post an anomymous report to trees around campus with the open IPS.
/already knows that the UCSB Resnet staff will have it out for him come fall 2004
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Honestly, I'd adapt this idea a bit: Drop a copy of Slackware, FreeBSD, or (my preference) OpenBSD on it and start fooling around with network security stuff - learning the tools of the trade. Try to figure out a network map of the university, complete with where switches are, routers, and so on.
Key thing to note: carefully
carefully read your university's "acceptable use guidelines" or whatever to make sure that exploring the network doesn't violate rules (do *NOT* attempt to hack on your campus network, as that'll just get you fucked if you're caught).
And while I'm talking about hacking, here's another option: Set up the computer with a default install of some OS (Redhat, Mandrake, Windows, whatever) and have a friend set the root password without telling you. Then break into it. It'll teach you a lot about how to secure machines. The one thing you really want to watch out for in this is to make sure that it's not on the University network - put it behind a router if possible.
I had a very interesting incident with my campus where they came to me about hacking a computer - at which point I showed them that I was hacking another of my computers. They told me not to do it again, or at least not on their network. Whups
