My Last Post on This Domain

OK guys,

I think that it is time for me to publish the last post on this blog using WordPress as a domain. As you probably already know, GitHub is my favorite company and I have decided to switch my blog to a completely new domain.

I have published a couple of posts exclusively on the new domain and backed up every post from this domain to my new address (with one exception, but I’m working on it). I feel confident now to make the switch and I started to feel really comfortable using GitHub + Jekyll as a blogging platform, so I’ve decided to drop by and say good bye to my old domain.

From now on, you can follow me on r3bl.github.io. Be sure to use the http version of the site because https version is currently not properly implemented in the code. If you run into some issue while browsing the site or you miss a feature that I had implemented on this domain, feel free to report it here.

As always, you’re more than welcome to contact me anytime on aleksandar.todorovic@mail.ru. I hope that you’ll continue to read me on my new address.

Sincerely,
Aleksandar Todorović

My Manifesto

Across my Reddit feed, I came up with this great article titled Why You Should Write a Personal Manifesto, published by Wiseism. I feel like this is a great way to keep yourself motivated, so I’ve decided to do just that: to write down my own manifesto.

I’m pretty confident that this manifesto really represents who I truly am, so I’ve decided to share it with you guys.

At the end of the post, there’s a picture with the manifesto that I made because I wanted to use it as my wallpaper. From time to time, I really enjoy reading Hacker’s Manifesto, and I made this Manifesto to replace that occasional reading with something I wrote myself. This Manifesto is not new, it’s saved on my computer for a long time now and I had a different reason to write it. After reading this article, I’ve just rearranged it a little to look more “manifestish” (whatever that means).

I’m not like most of you.

I do not have emotions. I don’t feel the same way as most people feel. I don’t get hurt easily. I don’t believe I’m going to go to hell if I do something. I don’t believe I should be forbidden to do something I would like to do.

I’m not a role model of any kind and I’m not trying to be a role model to anyone. I’ve tried most of the things people consider bad. I don’t think that anyone could help me if I don’t want to help myself. I don’t believe anyone will be by my side until death do as apart. I realize I’m on my own in this world and that’s the way I like to live my life.

When I meet someone, all I see is a game. A game that I can win or loose. I don’t get attached to people, all I see is a way to exploit them. A way to manipulate them to get what I want. And you know what I want? I want to be happy. And I am just that.

You wanna know why? Because I have something that most of the people surrounding me do not have. I have my mind and I know how to use it. I know how to make the best out of any situation and I’m perfectly happy in every situation I can possibly run into. I’m not saying I’m any more intelligent that you. I’m not saying that I think of myself as some higher species than most of the people. I’m not saying I’ve read more books than you. I’m just saying that I know how to be happy. I know how to feel alive…

PNG version:

The font used in the picture is my new favorite font called Ubuntu Mono. If you like the design used in this picture, you should thank Tom Brewe (GitHub username: nylki) for creating this awesome syntax theme for Atom called pen-paper-coffee-syntax. The wallpaper is basically a screenshot of the text (using that syntax theme and Ubuntu Mono font) slightly edited using GIMP.

I’m also thinking about creating a dark version of the wallpaper. If I decide to make it, I will update this post immediately.

Ljudi vam dosađuju pitanjima tipa kako postati haker? Evo rješenja

Uvod

Svako od nas se bar u jednom trenutku života zamislio kakav je osjećaj biti haker? Možda ste i pokušali da istražite malo tu temu, a nemate dovoljno dobro znanje engleskog jezika da bi pratili engleske tutorijale? Možda imate druga koji je vidio da koristite Linux i odma je pomislio da ste haker? Možda vodite blog post i dobijate konstanta pitanja tipa “Kako da hakujem Fejsbuk od svoje bivše”?

Ukoliko spadate u bilo koju od ovih skupina, velike su šanse da nemate baš dovoljno živaca, motivacije i želje da objašnjavate svakome šta znači ovaj pojam. Zbog toga sam odlučio da sve postove domaćih autora sakupim na jedno mjesto, tako da od sada kada god dobijete slično pitanje možete sagovorniku poslati jedan link i završiti sa diskusijom.

Predstavljam vam kako-postati-haker repozitorij

Ideja ovog repozitorija jeste da se na jednom mjestu objave linkovi prema svim tekstovima domaćih autora (bili oni na “našem” jeziku ili na engleskom) na ovu temu, da se poređaju smisleno i pravilno grupišu. Na ovaj način se kreira jedinstvena lista tekstova preko koje nove osobe mogu da nauče nešto više o ovom pojmu, te se na taj način skida teret sa nas ostalih da prelazimo iste teme više puta i oslobađa nam se vrijeme da radimo neke bitnije stvari (tipa rekompajliranje kernela).

Repozitorij sadrži samo linkove prema teksovima. Na taj način piscima nije uskraćen broj posjeta na njihovim web stranicama. Pored svakog teksta se nalazi i naziv autora, te link prema njegovoj službenoj web stranici.

Budući planovi

Trenutno imam samo jedan plan za budućnost ovog projekta, a taj plan jeste da listu postavim na sopstveni host umjesto da se listi pristupa GitHub repozotorij. Pošto trenutno nemam iznajmljen vlastiti host, kreiraću GitHub stranicu za projekat i predstaviti ga tamo u međuvremenu.

Kako doprinijeti projektu?

Doprinijeti projektu možete na više načina. Prvi način svakako jeste da pronađete tekstove na ovu temu i dodate ih na listu (ukoliko ne znate kako, jednostavno me kontaktirajte i ja ću to odraditi umjesto vas). Možete da dijelite ovaj repozitorij ili pišete o njemu pa da na taj način više ljudi sazna za njega. Možete da pišete originalan sadržaj na ovu temu da popunite praznine. Možete da mi pomognete da napravim web stranicu projekta učestvovanjem u izradi HTML verzije stranice ili dijeljenjem svojih hosting resursa za ovu svrhu.

Tekstovi koji neće biti primljeni

Dozvoljeni su samo tekstovi prema kojima čitaoc nije dužan da se registruje na neki sajt da bi ih pročitao.

Through the Algorithm (2014) To a Free World

I like watching movies about hacking. There are only two possible outcomes of me watching this kind of movies: they’re fantastic OR they’re terrible. If the movie is fantastic, I’m going to enjoy it of course. But, if the movie is terrible, I’m going to laugh my ass of how stupidly hacking is displayed in that movie.

Well, this movie goes into that other group. It’s called Algorithm (like you haven’t seen that coming from the title of the post). I’m going to start my story by talking about how I found out about this movie.

A couple of hours ago I was just browsing my Twitter feed like I usually do. But this time, there was a certain link to a blog post that got my attention. It’s a post by Jonathan Schiefer, a writer and a director of this film. In a post titled The Free Future Starts Now, he talks about how piracy changed the way he looks at his movie. He didn’t earn much from the movie (not even enough to compensate the money he spent making the movie), but still, he did something marvelous. He shared his movie with the world for free for 24 hours. He knew that after those 24 hours are over, the pirating of the movie is going to be unstoppable, but that didn’t stop him from doing that. Now, his movie is all over the internet, and he feels damn proud about that.

I’ve never done a movie review before (hell, I don’t remember even reading any), especially not in English (I’m just saying this because I’m not a native English speaker as you probably notices by now), but I will give it a go. That’s the least I can do for Jonathan and his excellent piece of work.

This is the first movie I ever rated on IMDb and it got a perfect 10 from me. The movie is a perfect example that you can make a movie about hacking without making something up. Everything I saw in this movie is possible, and that’s something that really impressed me. It’s something that made this movie stand up from the rest of the similar movies I saw. Everything seems possible. Although I didn’t like the way hackers are represented in the movie (I think of a hacker more in an ideological way, as someone who thinks outside the box, not as someone who breaks computer systems), I completely understand why Jonathan decided to represent hackers in such way.

This movie covers a story about a hacker (or if you’re like me, the term cracker might work better for you) who will try to break into anything he wants. He went out of line once and broke into some government database, which was a big mistake (of course). His friends were tortured by the government because of that and in the end he himself got tortured because a friend of his betrayed him. After they tortured him, the government did offer him a job, something that would probably happen if this was a real life situation (think of Sabu as a perfect example). I don’t want to spoil everything so I’m not going to say anything more about the story. I highly suggest you to pirate the movie if you’re interested.

What I liked even more than the story was the way the technology was described in the movie. He talks about Linux, about Tor browser, the disadvantages of the open WiFi network, the disadvantages of proprietary programming languages, and the main ideology of every hacker: that the information should be free.

Jonathan even went one step ahead as he adopted those words from the movie in the real life by sharing the movie with the world.

As he said in the blog post I linked, it all started with the software. Then came the books. Next stop was sharing the music. Now, we’re at a stage where sharing movies is something we encounter with on a regular basis. And the next stop is going to be sharing small physical objects (by using 3D printers).

I’m going to end the post by sharing the last couple of sentences from the post Jonathan published, because I really think that those sentences cover it all:

“When everything is free there won’t be any poor. There won’t be any wealth inequalities. There won’t be people starving because anyone can just print food. People won’t go into debt for the rest of their life to go to college because we’ll have equal access to information and art. There will be no tricking the ignorant because people won’t be ignorant because information will be free.

I’m crazy enough to believe I can help change the world. And the world I want is when the future is free!”

Get Office 365 License For Free! [A Little Contest]

So, even though I’m a regular Linux user, I use Microsoft’s software whenever I need them. I’ve bought an Office 365 Home Plus license in July of this year. So, what did I get with it? I got five Home subscriptions, each one with a licensed Office suite, 1 TB of OneDrive space and some premium Skype minutes (I can’t remember how many exactly). The license expires in July, but I will renew it as soon as it expires.

After using this license for a couple of months now, I still have two licenses laying around without an owner and I’ve decided to share it with you guys for free! The only requirement for this contest is that you have Windows 7 or newer installed on your PC because the older versions are not supported with this version of Office suite.

Now considering that probably more than two people are interested in getting it, I’ve decided to create a little contest. All you have to do is to write some short story and send it to me. I don’t have any specific theme that I want you to write about, you can write about anything you want to, but I will prefer the topics that I’m interested in than those that I am not.

Those topics include anything related to open source, hacking, Linux, PC Master Race, NSA spying, artificial intelligence, social engineering or human psychology. You can write your story in any language I know: English, Bosnian, Serbian or Croatian.

I want to know something about you. I want to hear your story and learn something from your experience and I’m ready to give you $80 worth software just to hear your story.

You can send your stories to my email address (aleksandar.todorovic@mail.ru), just put [Office Contest] in the beginning of the email subject. I will select two stories that I like the most and share the license with them. I will probably publish the winning stories on my blog with the explanation on why I chose them. The contest ends on November the 5th. The winners will be announced on November the 6th.

Here’s a picture as a proof that I have two licenses available right now (excuse my poor GIMP knowledge):

Da li su dobri muzički producenti ujedno i dobri psiholozi? [eksperiment]

NAPOMENA: Ovaj članak nije ograničen na neki muzički žanr, preporučujem svim čitaocima da ga pročitaju bez obzira šta da slušate.

U prethodno objavljenom postu sam već najavio svoje najnoviji rad na temu o tome da li muzika može da utiče na ponašanje određene osobe. Prije nekih 10 dana sam počeo da se bavim time i još uvijek sam fazi pisanja draftova i traženja kvalitetne literature da bih uradio rad na nivou.

Međutim, tokom mog procesa traženja materijala, naišao sam na jedan zanimljiv tvit koji tvrdi da je dobar muzički producent ujedno i dobar psiholog. Nisam ga razumio, pa sam odlučio da pročitam članak na koji se taj tvit odnosi. To me je dovelo do ovog članka u kojem se objašnjava šta je tačno muzički producent. U članku se samo nekoliko puta spominje ta izjava bez detaljnog objašnjenja kako tačno muzički producenti utiču na psihu kod ljudi, temu koju objašnjavam u svom radu.

Da bih samo dodirnuo površinu toga, odlučio sam da malo prostudiram temu u obliku ovog posta, čisto da zaintrigiram vašu maštu.

Dakle, dobar muzički producent je ujedno i dobar psiholog. To je izjava iza koje stojim. Potrudiću se da ukratko objasnim i zašto.

Svi smo tokom svog života čuli makar jednu pjesmu u kojoj je tekstopisac pogodio neku našu bolnu tačku i natjerao nas da se osjećamo na određeni način na koji smo se osjećali. Međutim, mnogo manje pažnje se posvećuje muzičkim producentima, ljudima koji muziku ukomponuju sa tekstom i preko nje izraze svoje emocije. Zašto je to tako, trenutno ne mogu da sa sigurnošću tvrdim. Jedini razlog koji mi pada na pamet jeste taj što se samoj muzici moramo u potpunosti prepustiti da bi ona izazvala u nama ono nešto, dok to nije jednak slučaj i sa tekstovima u pjesmama.

Zato želim da uradim jedan eksperiment. Izazivam vas da na nekom malo kvalitetnijem ozvučenju (bile to slušalice, malo kvalitetniji zvučnici ili nešto treće) poslušate sledjeće pjesme. Dakle jedino što ne dolazi u obzir jeste slušanje preko telefona, zvučnika od laptopa ili slušalica od jedan euro. Ja ću vam tačno opisati kako će vas pjesma natjerati da se osjećate, a vi me slobodno kontaktirajte i recite mi da li sam pogriješio ili ne. Poslušajte pjesmu sa zatvorenim očima, nakon što se pjesma završi, pročitajte tekst u kojem sam opisao tačno kako ćete se osjećati dok slušate pjesmu i napravite usporedbu. Garantujem da će se mišljenja poklopiti u minimalno tri od pet slučajeva.

Prva pjesma: Netsky – Lost In This World

Sam žanr ove pjesme vam se možda nije svidio, ali ste se osjećali uznemireno dok ste je slušali. Kroz misli vam je prošla osoba koju ste nekad imali, ali je izgubili. Mislili ste o njoj, osjećali ste se nervozno i u vama je počela da se nakuplja određena doza bijesa.

Druga pjesma: The xx – Intro

Za razliku od prvog eksperimenta, ova pjesma nije dotaknula vaše emocije u negativnom smislu. Zapravo nije ih dotakla ni u dobrom smislu. Sve što ste osjećali jeste osjećaj relaksacije, i svi problemi su nestali na tih nekoliko minuta.

Treća pjesma: Blackmill feat. Veela – Life

Zbog ove pjesme ste se osjećali srećno. Osjećali ste kako se nalazite na nekoj plaži, toplo sunce vas je grijalo, a vi ste se osjećali bespokojno. U glavi ste imali osjećaj kao da su svi problemi postepeno nestali, a do kraja pjesme ste imali osjećaj kao da ste upravo proživjeli jedan od najljepših trenutak vašeg života.

Četvrta pjesma: Noisia – Tommy’s Theme

Osjećali ste se prljavo. Zamislilili ste se u nekoj post-apokaliptičnoj situaciji u kojoj je čitav svijet uništen ljudskom glupošću. Sav bijes je u vama proradio u tom trenutku.

Peta (i posljednja) pjesma: Porter Robinson – Unison

Ovo je vrlo posebna pjesma na listi jer ne budi jedno osjećanje u slušaocima, nego više njih. U samom početku niste znali šta da očekujete i kako da se osjećate. Kada se taj dio pjesme završio i kada je krenuo drugi, osjećali ste se opušteno, svaka nota vam je odgovarala, čak i ona jedna jedina za koju ste u tom jednom trenutku pomislili da je pogrešno odsvirana. Međutim, na vaše iznenađenje, pjesma je krenula da vas diže, da se osjećate živo. I tu je završio drugi dio pjesme. U trećem dijelu pjesme ste se osjećali onako kako zamišljate da ćete da osjećate kada bi nekada probali neku drogu. Sav ovaj proces se još jednom ponovio.

Ukoliko vas je članak zaintrigirao, pozivam vas da mi se javite i da podijelite sa mnom rezultate ovog eksperimenta. Javiti mi se možete na nekoliko načina, putem mail-a, koristeći Facebok, Tviter ili komentirajući direktno ispod članka koristeći vaš WordPress nalog.

LiBRE! 28 – Slobodni softver i internet stvari (1. deo)

Izašao je novi, 28. po redu broj LiBRE! časopisa. U ovom broju možete pročitati prvi dio teme Slobodni softver i internet stvari koju obrađujem u ime LiBRE! tima.

U prvom dijelu sam se zapitao možemo li računati na softverske gigante u uvođenje slobodnog softvera u internet stvari. Pored toga sam napravio uvod u to kako tačno rade pametni uređaji te tako napravio uvod za drugi dio članka u kojem ću obrađivati Spark projekat koji sam izdvojio kao najzanimljiviji projekat vezan za internet stvari koji se fokusira u potpunosti na slobodne tehnologije u svom biznis modelu.

Ukoliko ne želite da skidate čitav broj da biste pročitali tekst, tekst možete da preuzmete i iz za to posvećenog dijela moje web stranice.

Pored nastavljanja bavljenja ovom temom, u izradi je i moja prva ozbiljnija samostalna publikacija u kojoj se bavim u potpunosti drugačijom temom, uticajem muzike na ponašanje osobe. Ovo je prva tema koju obrađujem u svom cilju da savladam razumijevanje ljudskog ponašanja i načine preko kojih se ljudsko ponašanje može modifikovati u ličnu korist (pojam socijalni inžinjering). Kada rad bude završen, vratiću se regularnom blogingu.

What exactly is a hacker?

Quote:
Not to be confused, hacker is a person who wants to share his knowledge about computers with others. Hacker is every person who thinks in an unconventional way. An idea that a hacker is someone who does something malicious is an idea created in Hollywood.

This is a quote from a report about a hacking convention called BalCCon 2k14 that took place for the second year in a row in Novi Sad, the second biggest city in Serbia.

I think that this quote describes perfectly what a hacker is. I feel kinda tired of all those “you call yourself a hacker, you’re going to end up in jail” conversations and Google+ posts in hacker communities where idiots ask stuff like: “teach me how to hack fb plz”.

I do realize that 95% of people don’t understand us who call ourselves hackers and I do realize that they will probably never learn, but I feel so tired of this that I had to share this quote with you.

If you’re not sure what a hacker is, I suggest you to start learning by reading this Wikipedia article about a term hacker. You will start to realize that the hacker is a much more broader term than the one you have in mind, although I don’t think that this article explains it a lot.

In the end of this post, I want to share another quote with you. This quote is from Bruce Schneier‘s book called Secrets and Lies (2000) and I think that this definition covers it all.

Quote
A hacker is someone who thinks outside the box. It’s someone who discards conventional wisdom, and does something else instead. It’s someone who looks at the edge and wonders what’s beyond. It’s someone who sees a set of rules and wonders what happens if you don’t follow them. A hacker is someone who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity.

EDIT:
Here are some other articles written about what a term hacker is.

Koje softverske firme vas kontrolišu?

NAPOMENA: Ovaj blog post sam napisao prije mnogo vremena (dovoljno daleko da bude stariji od ideje da uopšte napravim blog). Sve do sada nije objavljen nigdje, a sada sam dobio želju da ga podijelim sa javnošću i na taj način malo popunim svoj blog. Post je ostao neizmijenjen u cjelosti i kao takav kopiran iz LibreOffice-a, tako da su podaci malo stariji a stil pisanja takav kakav jeste.

U zadnja dva mjeseca smo stalno bombardovani činjenicama da postoji neko ko upravlja svime što radimo na internetu. Od toga da mogu da skupljaju metapodatke o našim pozivima i SMS porukama, preko toga da čitaju naše mejlove, Facebook razgovore, objave na Twitter-u i aktivnosti na Youtube-u. Podaci koje smo saznali u zadnja dva mjeseca nam daju do znanja da negdje postoji računar koji zna više o nama od naših prijatelja, porodice, pa čak i od nas samih. Mi ne znamo šta smo pretraživali po Google-u prije godinu dana u ovo vrijeme, ali postoji neki računar u svijetu koji to zna. Moguće je čak i da postoji više računara koji to znaju. Recimo, jedan u Google-ovoj korporaciji, drugi u NSA kojem je Google dostavio te informacije, treći na teritoriji naše države koji su na neki način pokupili te informacije od prethodna dva računara a četvrti negdje od strane nekoga ko je uspjeo da se dokopa informacija sa bilo kojeg od prethodna tri računara. Ovo je samo pretpostavka, ali ne čini se toliko nemoguća, zar ne?

Odavno je već rečeno da ako ništa ne plaćate za neki servis, vi sami ste produkat. To je već odavno činjenica u svijetu računara i interneta. Primjer: ne plaćate gmail korisnički račun, gledanje videa na YouTube-u i ne plaćate pretrage preko Google-ove tražilice, ali gledate reklame, što je jednostavan način da oni zarade na vama. Sada ću vam dokazati da postoji ne samo jedna, nego nekoliko firmi koje vas u potpunosti kontrolišu.

1. Google vas kontroliše. Svjestan sam kakvu izjavu sam dao i stojim iza nje. Uzmimo tipičnog korisnika, recimo da se zove Marko. Marko ima smartphone sa Android operativnim sistemom. Taj sistem je Google-ov produkt. Preko njega će pretraživati nešto po internetu. Koristiće za to Google-ovu tražilicu. Recimo da želi da objavi video, na kojem će to servisu uraditi? Na YouTube-u, još jednom Google-ovom servisu. Da bi objavio video, mora da napravi korisnički račun, a pošto YouTube ne dozvoljava niti jednu drugu mejl adresu, mora da napravi gmail adresu. Ne pričam o sitnim radnjama, pričam o radnjama koje radi milijarda ljudi svakoga dana. Google vas jednostavno kontroliše. Mnogi ne mogu da zamisle niti dan bez njegovih servisa, zar ne? A nisam niti spomenuo Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Google Calendar i ostalo. Čak i kada je njihov mali servis kao što je bio Google Reader nestao nastala je pometnja, šta bi se tek desilo sa većinom nas kada bi nestao čitav Google?

2. Microsoft vas kontroliše. Microsoft nije ništa bolji od Google-a. Recimo da uzmete neki laptop koji vam se sviđa, platite nekoliko stotina ili čak i hiljada eura za njega. Uz njega dođe Windows 8. Da li ga možete koristiti odma? Ne. Morate se prijaviti. Da bi se prijavili, morate napraviti Outlook korisnički račun. Praktički nećete moći pristupiti vašem laptopu od hiljadu eura bez pravljenja Outlook adrese. Jedini način da to uradite jeste da označite da imate poteškoće sa internetom prilikom podešavanja koje se pojavljuju pri samom dizanju sistema i tu ćete dobiti sasvim malu opciju da napravite lokalni korisnički račun za Windows. Većina korisnika vjerovatno ni ne zna za tu opciju, a u Windows 9, ako ne već i u Windows 8.1 operativnom sistemu čak će i ta mala i trenutno sakrivena opcija vjerovatno da nestane. Windows i dalje zauzima ogroman dio tržišta kada su desktop računari i laptopi u pitanju, nekih 80% recimo (ovo je samo pretpostavka), svi će postepeno preći na Windows 8. Možda kada izađe Windows 9, možda tek kada izađe Windows 10, ali hoće, isto kao što su svi prešli na Windows XP. E sada, po mom iskustvu sa Windows 8, ljepši je, brži je, troši manje baterije na laptopu i ima neke fantastične aplikacije – besplatne. Naravno, besplatne su samo na prvi pogled, jer većina aplikacija (čak i one koje dolaze sa samim sistemom) prikazuje reklame. Dakle, nije im dosta stotinu-dvije dolara koje su uzeli od vas kad ste kupili sam računar/laptop i još vas natjerali da napravite njegovu mejl adresu čak i ako je niste željeli, već vas i sam sistem bombarduje reklamama. Postoje i neke besplatne Xbox igre za njega, ali naravno, i one su pune reklama osim ako ne uplatite malu količinu novca na njihov račun. Poslije toga, da bi uživali u tim igrama ili omogućili neke dodatne nivoe, opet morate platiti. Ne zaboravimo i biznis koji se odvija preko Microsoft-ovog Office paketa koji opet košta nekoliko stotina dolara. Dakle, Microsoft vas kontroliše.

3. Facebook vas kontroliše. Facebook je mnogo drugačiji od dvije prethodne firme. Facebook nema više servisa, ima samo jedan. Ali, na tom jednom servisu vršite komunikaciju sa svim vašim prijateljima, pa čak i ljudima koje ne znate. Stavljate lične fotografije, stavljate fotografije prijatelja, ponekad i neki video zaluta, događaji, aplikacije, fan stranice, grupe… Da se ne lažemo, Facebook nije uopšte loš servis, samo ga većina ljudi ne koristi kako treba. Kao posljedica toga, Facebook ima sve o nama, od imena i prezimena, preko broja telefona, slika i videa, pa sve do dokaza o skoro svim postupcima koje smo uradili u zadnjih par godina. Neke od njih nisu legalne, a zbog nekih ne bi nikada izašli iz kuće od srama kad bi izašli u javnost. Ali kada malo bolje razmislimo, sve ovo već jeste u javnosti, sve se ovo već krije negdje na nekim serverima u SAD-u hiljadama kilometara udaljenim. Većina nas te servere nikada nije vidjela čak niti na slici, a opet smo dovoljno glupi da im povjerimo sve moguće informacije o nama. Dakle strancima smo dali sve informacije koje nikada ne bismo voljeli da dođu ni do naših najbližih, a kamoli do nekog stranca?

Slična priča se ponavlja i sa Apple-om, mada nisam dovoljno upoznat sa njihovim proizvodima da bih mogao da napišem malu priču o tome kao što sam uradio sa ove tri firme. Istina jeste da mi više jednostavno nemamo kontrolu nad svojim podacima. Istina jeste da ne trebamo stavljati naše podatke u cloud servise koje vode nepoznate kompanije na nepoznatim serverima. Istina jeste da trebamo uzmati naše podatke nazad sa takvih stranih servisa koje nude strane kompanije u stranim državama na serverima koje ni na slici nismo vidjeli niti jednom u svom životu niti znamo nekoga ko je vidjeo te servere. Trebamo da razvijemo decentralizovane sisteme. Trebamo da vratimo naše podatke nama, i tada, i samo tada ćemo biti sigurni da nam ih niko neće ukrasti, niti vlada, niti neke korporacije. Trebamo voditi sami svoje servere i razmjenjivati podatke sa osobama sa kojima vjerujemo – i samo sa njima.

Flashback: My first cybersecurity “discovery”

So, when I was 12 years old (at least I think I was) I didn’t have a functioning computer. My father contacted one of my neighbor and he had a spare laptop he didn’t use for a long time. He gave it to my family and I finally had something to amuse me.

The year was 2006. I was living in a small village located in northern Bosnia & Herzegovina, 40 kilometers away from the nearest town. Not an ideal place to live, I know. Having an internet in a place like that in that age was a privilege that not a lot of people could afford.

So, I had a laptop that was previously used, no internet connection and not a lot of games. The laptop had Windows 98 installed. Unlike my family, that neighbor that gave us that laptop had an internet access. So, I started tinkering with it to see what’s in there. I accessed system folder in that thing and after a few days I noticed a directory that sounded fun: Temporary Internet Files. That sounded like fun. I had no idea what was stored in there but I wanted to find out. So I opened a directory. It had numerous amount of subdirectories and some picture files. Hm, I wonder what kind of images were there. And then, I made my first cybersecurity discovery.

That directory was packed with porn pictures. Literally hundreds of them. I haven’t used such an old Windows system since then, but I guess my neighbor used Internet Explorer and I guess that Internet Explorer kept all of temporary pictures inside that folder back then.

At the time, I was really into command prompt. I didn’t know what it does and I didn’t know any commands on it, but I wanted to find out how to use it. So I started typing some random commands and once I typed in: help. That command gave me a list of all available cmd commands so I started to tinker with my laptop. I managed to do some basic changes to the system using cmd. I changed the time and date of the system and I couldn’t be more proud of me than I was back then.

So, to combine these two stories. I knew about that Temporary Internet Files folder and I didn’t know pretty much anything about cmd and what it does. I remember once I opened up my cmd, pressed Ctrl+Enter (keyboard shortcut that opened cmd in full screen back then). So I started typing this long text as a command. That text included my opinion about that neighbor after I discovered that directory. Yeah, you could only imagine what a 12 year old boy would think about some friend of his father after he discovered that. So I typed it and at the end I wrote a sentence that basically said: If you ever read this, stay away from John Doe! And I pressed enter. The command did nothing of course, it was just some plain text written in my native language. I know, what a dumb thing to do.

So, I never looked at that neighbor the same after that of course. I felt like a detective that found out something valuable. I remember coming to their house one day with my family, playing with his daughters, and looking for a chance to somehow get in his bedroom unnoticed so I could find out more. Yeah, I thought he was a freaking child molester or something. In the end, I didn’t get the chance to get to his bedroom unnoticed, so I gave up.

After that, that laptop got some hardware problems and it eventually stopped working. My detective story has ended there. But, six or seven years later, I started studying more about computer networks so I could protect people like my poor neighbor who just wanted to watch some porn videos unnoticed. And so, my journey into cybersecurity field has begun.