Re: Dealing with "Teach me how to hack" emails?

[Kevin Shaw <kevin.lee.shaw () gmail com>]

I get requests like this that fall into two camps - the truly curious and
the ones that assume I changed my last name from Mitnick and will do
borderline or overt criminal activity for them.

My answer to the first? I follow the "you don't learn to hack, you hack to
learn". Often it's a technical person that already hacks - finding unique
solutions to problems,  coding that script that helps the admins do their
job - I give them pointers to take it to the next level. And I always point
them to places like Pauldotcom and your site, Adrian,  because I know for
those it is a desire to learn, not necessarily learn how to infiltrate
computers - at least not after they lay eyes on the mound of paperwork and
reports I have to write!

For those with a dubious intent, however innocent they may think it is, I
often turn the tables on them .. do you think it would be right to do
something criminal? How would you feel if someone did that to you? And I
have stories of being a victim and explain my job is to help deter, stop or
even catch the bad guys. Then I go back to answer one.  YMMV though.
On Feb 20, 2011 2:30 PM, "Adrian Crenshaw" <irongeek () irongeek com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Many on this list run a blog/podcast/etc and I imagine like me you get a
> lot of "Teach me how to hack" or "do this for me" emails. How do you
handle
> them?
>
> The categories I get can generally be broken down into:
>
> 1. Teach me how to hack (which is too broad to ever do).
> 2. I think my boyfriend/girlfriend is cheating on me, how can I spy on
them
> (why would I want to get involved?).
> 3. Help me break into my neighbors/schools WiFi/Computer (Why would I help
> you do something illegal, and leave a subpoenable record in email?).
> 4. Do a bunch of free work for me as a favor and under dubious
expectations.
> I had a guy recently say he wanted be to teach him how to track down
> spammers so he could sue them since he put a declaimer on his Craig's List
> posts that said people owed him money ($50,000, and without going to
court)
> if they sent him spam, and various other outrageous demands. That one
first
> got the response that I though he had unreasonable expectations, and when
he
> email again I told him I was not interested and if I got another email
from
> him he owed me $100,000,000. Needless to say he was not happy. I mailed
the
> conversation to the list, but it got rejected, perhaps for being off topic
> or having too much personal info in it.
> 5. Questions about things I know nothing about, or that if I do know
> something about I've already put all I know in an article/video. These
> questions I normally just point to the best resource I know.
>
> My responses are usually:
>
> 1. You question is to vague and sorry, I can't teach individuals over
email.
> 2. Ignore them, especially it they used text speak in the email (ur =
your,
> etc).
> 3. Point them at some other materials and say I don't know much on the
> subject.
> 4. Sometimes, if it is especially whacked, I may have a snarky response.
>
> I like to help people learn, but some people just want too much time, or
for
> you to do all the work for them. What are your normal responses? How do
you
> deal with these things? I don't want to seem like an ass for not helping
> people, but I'd rather speed my personal time doing other things.
>
> Thanks,
> Adrian
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