WELCOME!

"My crime is that of curiosity."

The Mentor, Hacker
(The Hacker's Manifest, 1986)

"I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent;
curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas."

Albert Einstein, scientist
(Quote)

"Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury:
But, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule."

Shakespeare, writer
(Macbeth, V, 2, 1623)


"I never once hacked a computer,
I never got into one,
I never felt like trying to crack a system,
but I think that people that do are like myself.
I had one of those minds that I think if I could I would have looked for ways,
and been real clever to try and find a little hole"

(Steve Wozniack - source: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=16269)

WELCOME!

First of all, thank you for your cooperation and for the time you will dedicate reading and possibly answering to the Hacker's Profiling Project (H.P.P.) questionnaire.

The questionnaire has been designed and developed by Raoul Chiesa – an ethical hacker - and by Dr. Stefania Ducci – an independent criminologist - in the context of an international research project which aims to outline the real hacker's profiles, and it represents an important phase of this project.

The other main stages of H.P.P. include the study and the correlation of the logs gathered using worldwide distributed Honeynet systems, attacks, 0-days exploits and new-targeted worms analysis, as well as in-depth reading of documentation and literature related to the so-called world of hacking.

For further information, deepening, bibliography and related links, you are invited to download and carefully read the H.P.P. overview, in order to get a clear picture of our approach, vision and methodology, before you start helping us - if you wish - dedicating a little amount of your time.

Maybe you are wondering why we have decided to launch this project and what has got us involved in this in-depth and passionate research - started far back in year 2004 – dealing with the profiling focused on the world of hacking and phreaking.

The answer is very easy: because of our curiosity.

We are talking about the same curiosity that pushed you since the beginning to explore new systems, networks, protocols, technologies, devices, hardware and software: we are just alike :)

Maybe you are also wondering why you should answer to this questionnaire, which will take some of your time, and what you are “going to win” if you would do so.

We can answer you that there is nothing to win and nothing to loose. However, we can certainly tell you that the entire hacker community can gain a lot from this research project.

Indeed, the purpose of this study is try to describe objectively "your" everyday life, providing the people that have a poor knowledge of the hacking scene and the digital underground with a clear vision, uninfluenced by mass-media and by personal prejudices, putting an end to all the common-places and stereotypes surrounding this fascinating world.

Given these clear introduction, you are kindly invited to provide us with frank and true answers to the questionnaire or, alternatively, just don’t answer to the questions you don't want to.

Remember that there are no “right” or “wrong” answers: our purpose is to outline the real profile of all the persons that, each on its own way, populate and vitalize the hacking panorama, which is in continuous evolution.

All of the questions you are going to answer to are absolutely anonymous: this means that you will not be asked for your name or nickname, nor for your dwelling or e-mail addresses. Furthermore, this web site does not make use of any cookies, it is entirely static and does not hide any kind of "unwilling surprises".

The data you are going to provide us with will be electronically processed in compliance with the international and mirror hosting’s national regulations regarding the Privacy and the Data Retention, as detailed in the privacy section of the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), also available at the ISECOM website (http://www.isecom.org/).

The only rule we ask you to follow is to take seriously the questions: please be so kind to fill in the questionnaire only if you understand and agree on what we are trying to do and why.

For further information, please refer to the FAQ section of this web site.

Thank you for your effort, with all our hearts.

Cyberspace, June 2006 - Raoul Chiesa