How I Got Into *Sec
Everyone has their own path and I’m not here to tell you my path is the right way or admonish anyone for choosing the path they take. I am here to tell you the story of how it happened for me. Hopefully you’ll find it (at least) entertaining and maybe even inspiring if you’re having troubles or doubts about your place in *Sec.
When I was about six years old, my family got a Commodore 64 for our home computer. I still have it and the accompanying tattoo on my arm with the Commodore logo. It was my first introduction to computers. I loved playing games like M.U.L.E., Sim City, Raid on Bungling Bay, the SSI Dungeons and Dragons games and more. I played with my Dad and my best friend who also had a Commodore 64. We subscribed to “Compute!” magazine and in many, if not all, of the issues, was code to type in and create your own game. Doing this in BASIC at seven years old and not knowing how to touch type yet, was tedious to say the least. But as my fingers typed in the line numbers, I started learning what the commands did. Little by little I started to unravel the mysteries of this computing device. I started to understand what was happening. This was my curiosity. Many years later I would come to read the “Hacker’s Manifesto” (http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html) by The Mentor and realize that this was true for me and everyone I’ve encountered along this journey.
I was placed in a gifted program at age seven which, in hindsight, was both a blessing and a burden. I thrived in the excess challenge of logic and thought while feeling less restricted by the lack of curriculum during these few hours each day. Although I still had regular classes to attend, after lunch I would join up with a few other students from other classes to work in this new environment. I didn’t know it at the time but the downside to this is setting the self-expectation of excellence.
By junior high school it was apparent that logic was one of my strong suits. In grade seven math I scored 99% in one semester and a whopping 100% in the second. I wish I still had that report card for proof but, like many small things growing up in a military family, it was lost during a move. At this point, I started to learn music as well. I started with the trombone and moved into percussion later on. Music opened my eyes to a whole new world of creativity outside that of computers. It offered me the chance to express emotion while still enjoying the logic and structure which came with the theory of music. Even today, this has carried forward. I’ve been fortunate enough to have played on four cruise ships, two concerts in Disneyworld and to be part of amazing groups through the years.
It was when I was in high school that my hacking curiosity really flourished. I joined a local Bulletin Board System (BBS) and quickly found another user who shared similar interests as I did. When I was in grade ten, that other user on the BBS gave me my first ever packet capture software. Since all we had back then were hubs, not switches, there was no synchronous communication between network devices and hubs are considered “dumb” as they just repeated all packets across all ports. I loaded up the packet capture software from the 3.5" floppy disk on to one of the computers in the computer lab and within minutes, I had admin credentials.
It was at this point I started to question the system. Not just the computers. Not just the network. But the teaching institution. Most of my teachers were the best teachers around. They cared for the students. They helped us see our strengths and taught us to work on our weaknesses. One teacher fluently spoke nine (!) languages and could read and write in five of them. She was a tiny woman with a second dan black belt. When we brought in hockey cards to trade, she brought three Eric Lindros signed rookie cards and a wad of cash. Kids at this age towered over her but she commanded respect and she damn well earned it. But how could I trust the computer instructor when the systems implemented were so insecure? All they had to do was isolate the lab computers with the administrative computers on different hubs. But they didn’t. It was ineptitude, laziness or both and I wouldn’t be treated as a marginal student if I could do something so simple and gain so much power.
As the saying goes: “With great power comes great responsibility”. I didn’t abuse it. I didn’t change my marks or perform anything destructive. Disruptive, on the other hand, was well within my moral realm. I re-assigned the applications between departments so the library computers only had access to the wood shop program, the computer lab only had access to the music application and so on. It was mischievous, nobody got hurt, nobody’s grades were changed but the point was made: The current network situation is a disaster. This was my first righteous hack. Everyone remembers their first.
High school classes became a bore. There was no challenge for me. Unfortunately, being a teenager and smarter than anyone else as teenagers often think of themselves, instead of approaching my guidance councilor or my parents about my intellectual ennui, I just stopped applying myself. My grades went through the floor and I just didn’t care. I managed to squeak through high school with enough credits due to music. By the time I graduated, I was one of only two people who had gone to that high school and acquired every possible music credit available. Ever.
After finishing high school, the cold and hard reality of being an “adult” was now upon me. I was seventeen and had no idea what I wanted to do in life. Do I want to go to college for music? Do I want to go to university for academia? Or do I just want to hop back on the BBS and see what’s happening? I’m sure you can guess where I went. As it turns out, one of my BBS friend’s father worked at Digital Equipment Corporation and they were hiring people in the warehouse for shipping and receiving. A job’s a job and it paid so off I went. And you know what? It was fun as all Hell.
I was in a large (over five hundred metre long) complex where they assembled DEC Alpha boards, chips and full machines. I could go up to Phase-1 and see the PCBs being printed and sent through soldering baths or I could head to Phase-3 and see the final product being packaged for shipping. I got five fork truck licenses (rider, rider/walker, high-reach, order-picker and turret), life was simple and there was no stress. Get the order. Pick the order. Deliver the order. Close the order. Repeat.
A year or so into the job, while I was running an order from Phase-5 up to Phase-1, an older co-worker of mine, Ed, flagged me down. I pulled my truck over and asked him what was up.
“What are you doing?”, he asked me, almost cynically.
“Uh… Running a skid to Phase-1.”, I answered.
Ed laughed at my naivety. “No. Working in a warehouse. Why are you working in a warehouse?”
Not sure what he was getting at, I sheepishly answered: “Getting a paycheque, I guess.”
“Deliver that skid, close the order then come back here.”
So I did.
And that small conversation was the beginning of my professional journey into Information Technology. If it weren’t for Ed, I’d likely be in jail for some cybercrime instead of where I am today.
I took they keys out of my truck, put them in my pocket and Ed told me to follow him. He took me down some hallways and back corridors in the complex in Phase-3 which I didn’t know even existed since my life was on the production floor. After a few minutes of walking, we arrived in an office area which was split in two and had a small assortment of cubicles on each side. The clicking of the old AT-101 keyboards filled the otherwise silent rooms as Ed led me toward an office at the end of one of the rooms. The office was almost pitch black except for the glow of a CRT monitor and workbench light. Ed didn’t knock. He walked in and just started talking.
“Harry! How are ya’, you old bastard?”, Ed let out. The man behind the desk looked up from whatever he had under the magnifying glass and looked at us while his eyes adjusted to the light.
“Ed, you sonofabitch, how’s it goin’?”, he replied, standing up and shaking Ed’s hand.
“Good, Harry. You had any luck up at the hunt camp yet?”, Ed asked. Harry shook his head.
“Not yet but I’m sure I’ll bag a few before the season’s out.”, he said. Turning his focus toward me, he continued. “Who’ve you got with you here?”
Ed put his hand on my shoulder and said: “This is Sean. You need to hire him and bring him onto your team.” and then promptly left.
There I was. An eighteen year-old wannabe hacker working in a warehouse standing in front of a veteran of the industry and just abandoned by the only person I knew within a one hundred metre radius.
Harry shook my hand and introduced himself: “I’m Harry and I run the entire network operations, systems operations and programming here in this facility. Eddie and I go back a long time and I trust his judgement. So why should I bring you onto my team?”
“To be honest with you, Harry, I don’t know.”
“Well…”, he started slowly, “What of those three things that I oversee do you have experience with? Don’t be humble. It’ll get you nowhere.” I’m sure he could tell how nervous I was. I went on to tell him about my BBS experiences, designing my own web pages, coding with this newly founded programming language called “JavaScript” and how I stole the credentials to the school’s administration in high school.
I’m certain Harry was an amazing poker player as his face was as neutral as pushing in the clutch. What felt like an eternity passed before he nodded that small nod of understanding and acceptance. You know the nod I’m talking about.
He finally broke the silence. “Who’s your cost centre manager?”, he asked.
“Becky.”, I informed him.
“I know Becky. We go hunting together. She’s good people. I’ll get in touch with her and start the transfer. You’ll be in operations and networking. Darlene will be your boss and tech-lead and Darryl will be your senior. Any questions?”, he finished off.
“Just one.”, I started. “How do I get back to my forklift truck from here?”
Harry stood up and escorted me back to my forklift. We shook hands and twenty minutes later, I was called into Becky’s office. She told me that Harry had set the wheels in motion and I was out of the warehouse in two weeks starting my role as junior network and operations administrator. The tree of us were in charge of everything for over two-thousand people. Hardware, software, operations, you name it. We were the leaders. I had my own cubicle, my own box and my own phone. At eighteen with just a high school diploma, I was in the big leagues.
Between then and now, a lot has changed. DEC no longer exists but I cherish the friends I made there and the skills I learned, especially the teamwork in the warehouse. I’m now the CSO for the company I work for as well as the senior-most engineer and lead of the Red Team. I’ve written articles for 2600, hackin9 and had a white paper published by Nokia. I’ve spoken at the IPv6 summit and had many other speaking engagements throughout the years. I’ve also created https://tcpdump101.com to help people learn packet captures and I do my best to help others out whenever I can. I’m still learning new things, new tricks and teaching others to help themselves along their journey as well.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be part of whatever industry you want to be a part of. Learn. Teach. Repeat.
