AntiOnline Cited In Book

[tonybradley]

some may ask why do these files remain then? simple reason - know thy enemy

I agree completely. As a matter of fact, I originally came to this site specifically FOR the downloads section so I could find certain malware to try and determine what it does and how it works so we could better protect the environment I was working to secure.

Unfortunately, I found a lot of useless stuff and a lot of malware within the malware- programs that had their own viruses and trojans. So, now I stay far away from the downloads section and triple scan anything I do download from there.

On the up side, I learned that the collective knowledged of the members of AO was a more valuable tool to me than the downloads section so I hung around to share in the community and learn and hopefully help others along the way.

[BobMcFee]

i think a lot of sites that are legitimately about computer security get a bad rep from one's which claim to be about security but are geared towards breaking it instead of enforcing it. it seems to me so many sites discuss security in a wink wink knudge knudge sort of way, leaving it plain to everyone (including those in the media) that the intention is malicious. ao users joke about "how do i crack my g/f's hotmail?" and "how do i use sub7?" topics, which in here are ridiculous, but how many other "security" forums do actually discuss these topics? it's scary how many!
i like ao because it is not about malicious cracking. i don't have to backwards engineer what some cracker is talking about so i can secure my boxes. it's one of only a few places which give me direct answers. so it's all the more unfortunate when it's represented badly in the media.

[|The|Specialist]

If anything, I think that rumor or whatever it was... started back when AO used to cover more news stories and it was mainly the interviews with some less than security motivated peaple. And mostly lets not forget the old logo... that had always been a problem with kids comeing in here saying duh... "im still not sure what you peaple are really all about".

<Edited> Speaking of the old logo... before the purple one... who remembers back when the logo used to be the color red??? </Edited>

Whats really sad is even nowdays with JupM's water'ed down "suit and tie" version of AO... on rare days scumbags still manage to signup without reading a single word off of the homepage then fill the board with garbage. I mean how many times can you sit back & explain to Jane & Joe blow everyday that their dreams of becomeing zero ****ing cool will never come true?!?

[mohaughn]

You also have to realize that way back in the day AO was not a news reporting portal. It was all about gathering up files and exploits. At that time, this would have been back in like 97, maybe a little bit earlier, it was mostly people who were looking for tools to hack. It was not as much about security professionals. Regardless of how it is portrayed these days, if you were around back in the days when AO was run from Penn State, there were not many security professionals. Atleast not security professionals in the way we think of them now.

There was at one time what I guess people call a hacker war. Basically JP had a bunch of info on the people who were using his site and he came out with a new direction for AO, that of being a security news portal as well as a site for security professionals. At this time JP was running a hacker tracking database and trying to give access to this database to police, feds, etc.... I guess the main reason for the database was to garner a little bit of recognition so that he could lecture on the topic of hacker profiling. This pissed off a lot of the people that JP had been associating with as most of those people considered themselves to be part of the underground. It was during this time that JP featured articles written by C. Meinel and mostly just provided links to other news reporting agencies. Although JP did try to scoop a couple of hacking stories that some will now say got the attention of the FBI and supposedly led to JP being investigated by the feds. Of course I don't work for the feds so I can't confirm this, so take it as a rumor.

Then about 2 years ago the current PHP version of the AO website came about and it turned into being more about the forums.

[souleman]

There is always some truth in rumor. And there is never complete truth in anything. This site has changed a lot in the last 10 years, mostly in the last 5 years though. And with things like the wargames at happyhacker that AO was involved with, the "inside" news that AO had about a pentagon hack, and many other things, there will be lots of rumors. Most of what you see in bocks or by the media about this site, is in reguards to the site from 3 to 5 years ago, not the current forums.

[System_Sniper]

I actually foun a listing of this site in "Beginning Programming for Dummies" and the description reads:
Antionline provides news and hacking tool, along with a network of computers on witch hackers can safely and legally expand their skills."
Now is it me or was this author just making it up as he went along.

And befor any suggests it i was already a member of AntiOnline before i read this article.

[CXGJarrod]

Originally posted here by Limpster
I just read the book "Hacker Culture" By Douglas Thomas and I noticed that he mentioned AntiOnline In this Paragraph.

Additionaly, hackers have taken to creating thier own news sites such as the Hacker New Network and Anti-Online, both of which provide a specialized new service about events and news of interest to the hacker communtiy."

This is located on page 140 for anyone wishing to look it up. Just thought I tell some people about it.

How old was the book? The Hacker News Network has not been around since L0pht was bought out by @stake.

[fraggin]

I am only a recent user of AO, I have not seen the way things were in the past, but I would have to say that this forum is more anti-hacker than anything. All of the posts that are on here have the potential to help techs in the industry whether the posts are positve or negative. It just disapoints me a bit to know that there are people citing this forum in books and referencing it as a hacker site.

[jxrry59]

I, too< ended up here for help and at that time I thought I might have a little knowledge to share with all of you---he he he what an as*h*le I was but regarding the downloads section---There is a thread somewhere on this site where a guy downloaded and executed malicious files and had to format his machine, i think more than once~~~~i couldn't find it just now but it was a classic

[MicroBill]

exacly what is it we are calling a hacker? scriptkids and crackers ?? do they even live up to the term hacker and what do you guys putt into the word?