The Cyberthief and the samurai

The title of my blog today is sort of a play on words. I have been reading the paperback book by the same name. It is about two men. Kevin Mitnick and Tsutomu Shimomura. Kevin was an 'hacker' who seemed to have made enough enemies that he back infamous and was one of the most wanted cyber criminals just as the WWW was kicking off. Tsutomu was the computer expert (and that is a very broad definition) who helped the authorities to finally track Kevin down. The play on words comes from my fondness for working on computer networks and my self reference as a samurai. I have a facination for computer networks, things like hacking or cracking, and cyber security. But for many reasons I will not begin to compare myself to Kevin, let alone Tsutomu. I am an adequate router jockey that has been blessed by God so that my supervisor has given me very favorable ratings for many, many years; however, I am honest enough with myself to know that I am just not in the same league as those who prefess to be hackers (or whatever the current slang may be). Those that are serious about hacking, and those dedicated to the defense of their computer systems are the true experts. Computer networks today are so vastly different than they were 20-30 years ago. I person can be an expert in say PC's, or routers, or firewalls, and know very little about the other areas. To be a true computer network expert one must be at least familiar with each component on a network, what it does, how it works, and how it interacts with the other pieces to the puzzle. And well, the samurai portion... my affinity for the samurai has very little to do with my computer part of my life. As I've mentioned before it has to do with how I see my relationship with Jesus Christ. I would love to learn more on how modern hackers operate, but I could just see my company's admin coming to me and saying, "Mr. 'samurai', why were you visiting hackers.com and crackers.org (note: i just made up those site names - I don't even know if they are real sites). I see you were visiting them for the past several weeks. What exactly were you doing there?" Or worse yet having a few people knock on my door at home... Anyway, ramblings are done for today. Verse for today: Proverbs 6:6-19 esv Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summerand gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.