Romanticism and Hacking

I loved what Professor Zappalla said in his blog post about Romanticism and Hacking.
"Hacking really is about beauty...Hackers at heart are idealists. They write code to create beauty. They pursue freedom because proprietary code creates an unaesthetic inefficiency. They believe that they should not have to waste time on trivialities, but devote their full attention to solving hard problems and making the world a better place. They value the authentic achievement over the cheap imitation."

I believe that hackers don't have to be code writers to create this beauty or achieve this freedom. A very important and popular form of hacking is called 'Social Engineering.' No matter how much precautions you put into place around some type of information, the weakest link is the person guarding it. You. This is when you get the information you need from a person, not through hacking the system.

Social Engineering at its best...from here

Kevin Mitnick is considered to be one of the greatest social engineers, and hackers, of the modern era. He used the art of deception, and the weakness of people, to gain access to numerous systems. At the time of his arrest, he was the most wanted computer criminal in the US.

After he served his time, he has become a security consultant and lecturer around the world. Here is a quick video explaing Social engineering. After a short introduction, Kevin himself describes a time he hacked into a Hollywood telephone company central office with a friend.