HACKERS WANTED

If you haven't already, take a look at a book called Underground by Suelette Dreyfus. It's older (first published in 1997), but gives a fairly authentic portrayal of the psychological and social aspects of hacking. Also, consider reading the (even older) The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, once again for psychological reasons - this time for insight into exactly how the activities of regular computer users can create vulnerabilities. Although the technical details in both books are going to be out-of-date, the human side of it would be a lot more consistent. Plus, if you're feeling scholarly you could probably dig up a lot more useful info by digging into the discussions around either one of those books.

(Note: Underground is out of print, but available for free download: http://www.underground-book.net/.)

I would suggest looking up Level 1 tech news and DEFCON talks. This is all on YouTube and is a great resource for scary stuff going on in tech right now and DEFCON is great for hacking stories, etc.

Emdee said:

As much as I love Ready Player One, Snow Crash, Dark Web documentaries, and Mr. Robot, I'm completely illiterate when it comes to computer science. There's a chapter I'm working on that involves hacking, and I want to make sure everything is believable. I'm looking for anyone who can answer some of my questions or direct me to any resources.

Some background on the scene:
Set in a dystopian future where internet is scarce
Deals with multiple intranets, hacking into one secure one from another one
Deals with tor or something similar

What I have right now is the product of a deep dive down into Wikipedia, and I would love some more resources!

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The best methods of hacking depend to various extent on social engineering; that is, getting your target's humans to give up login or related data voluntarily.

A large number of hacks involve a secondary system with a vulnerability being used to infiltrate/take over a primary system.

Hacking is like any technical activity in modern life, including autos and airplanes, air conditioning, sky scrapers, and garbage collection and disposal. Why would you bother going into any detail unless it directly impacted character or plot development? And even there why bother going into any technical detail? Just say something like this.

Joely hacked into the AstroCorp management website and immediately got the scare of her life. An automatic guardian program spotted her right away and began tracing back toward her. She slammed the PROTECT key on the computer and waited, sweating and her stomach quivering, until she was sure she was safe.

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You need neither be expert in any technical area of your SF nor explain it. Just be aware of the broader issues, such as the need to refuel the car (or starship) your character's traveling in. Even there you need not go into any detail; just describe the effect of the tech on your people, whether it made them happy or sad or healthy or sick or whatever.

Laer Carroll said:

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You need neither be expert in any technical area of your SF nor explain it. Just be aware of the broader issues, such as the need to refuel the car (or starship) your character's traveling in. Even there you need not go into any detail; just describe the effect of the tech on your people, whether it made them happy or sad or healthy or sick or whatever.

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Agreed - but on the flip side, beware of using technical terms where you're not 100% sure of the usage. Devotees of the genre and aficionados will not take kindly to it.

For instance, it annoys the crap out of me when I read in a book (or watch a movie) where some tech-y person is directed to "enhance" an image and it instantly becomes clear as a bell. I've been using Photoshop and was a beta tester for Adobe for several years - I can tell you with 100% certainty that you cannot with just click a button and make a blurry, out of focus image sharp.... We're getting closer, but it's just not there yet - it's called content-aware fill, but is not always right and a lot of clone stamping is usually needed though still never completely accurate.

+1 on the DEFCON talks.

If there is one thing I have learned from my IT Sec professors, it's that nine times out of ten, the humans are the weakest link. Social engineering is a huge aspect of hacking. Of course it also depends on what exactly you are trying to achieve.

Consider that Neuromancer was written on a typewriter by a non-technical non-programmer whilst listening to Steely Dan. Honestly, when extrapolating forwards, my technical skills have helped me a bit, but I really don't feel like understanding how the Internet fits together on a fairly deep level makes me better at visualizing some near-future network construction thing.

And yeah, software is about people. The personalities of the people involved matter more than what actually happened and the technology is too hard to predict anyway. As a person in tech, Sneakers was a great movie, IMHO, not because they did anything other than have a very hand-wave answer to what they were trying to do, but because I knew people like the characters.

I am an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student who worked as a software developer in the past, and also studied in a Cybernetics program in high-school, which dealt with a lot of hacking techniques. Moreover, Computer Science is a passion of mine, so I study it after-hours as well.

Regarding general resources, I don't think I can provide something better than the resources previously suggested. Regarding your story, if you need specific questions answered, or any clarification, I believe I will be able to answer most of them (I studied and programmed a lot of things related to networking). Feel free to ask.

But I wanted to raise one more point: this is SciFi, and presumably, your world is a fictional one. While it is nice to include real-world mechanisms, I find it especially helpful to acknowledge that this is SciFi. You can invent new (or partially-new) systems, ones that you will have a complete understanding of. This is what I like to do in my novels, personally. IMO, The most important thing is consistency, so just stay true to whatever you end up doing.

Good luck with your story, sounds great!