I’ve had a particular hobby my whole life, but don’t know if it has a proper name, or if there’s “hobby groups” based around it.
My hobby is this:
I have an interest in studying methods used to defeat a system that has been designed to not be defeated.
For example, I enjoy learning about things such as:
Prison escapes
Card counting
Lock picking
Code breaking (cryptography)
Heists
My hobby does not extend to puzzles that are designed to be beatable (such as sudoku or crosswords), but only to things that are theoretically designed to not be beaten.
What’s my hobby called, and are there hobby groups based on it?
Maybe one of the definitions of “hacking” (as in “computer hacking”, but I think I’ve heard some people generalize the term to more than just computers).
The more correct term would be cracker, a more specific term than hacker and which is about circumvention (of passwords, protective codes, security systems). Cracker has been used in this context for many years (safecracker, cracking code, etc).
Another term historically used in the same way is breaker, thus safe breaker, prison break, code breaker.
“Security research”. (Yeah. They’re all criminals. :rolleyes: Independent knowledge in this field must not be tolerated. People like Bruce Schneier should have never been allowed to get started and should be denounced as Mafiosi as soon as they show the first sign of interest in this stuff.)
Here’s another vote for “hacker”, in the broader sense of the word as it pertains to the meaning of someone being part of the “hacker culture” in general.
RE: Card counting. There is a small group (not in an organized sense; just that they often show up at the same times and places when opportunities are presented) of professional gamblers who call themselves “advantage seekers.”
I dont consider this as a hobby but I find myself by habit thinking about this sort of thing almost continuosly in parrallel with my more normal mundane day to day thinking.
Did you really expect an answer like “Yes we’re planning a heist” to this?
Of course it’s curiosity and the eagerness for knowledge. The desire to be part of a vigilant and well-educated populace. A knowledgeable majority, whose awareness and understanding of certain procedures is the most effective protection from another minority being able to use them against us.
Instead, you have to be afraid (or insane) to discuss security issues in public these days. The slightest suspicion suffices and another harmless bloke gets a gratuitous surprise visit from armed forces, simply because some tipster freaked out over his choice of hobbies. Don’t dabble in the “wrong” sciences, don’t appear to “know too much”, don’t even think about how someone might cause security measures to fail. Because that’s the job of evil people, isn’t it?
No offense was taken, I’m sure, though I hope it’s understandable why it isn’t helping the political climate, or the cause of honest security researchers, when a whole range of interests and activities gets jokingly pushed into the “suspicious” corner and people keep asking “Are you up to something?”.
