I don't usually write much about computing, but today was "momentous" in that respect. There is a new breed of mujaheed fii sabilillah (Holy Warriors)- a new creature- the cyber-mujaheed. And the cross hairs are set on this web site. Too bad they only have the hacking equivalent of a Super Soaker water gun.
Today 7-27-00, after being bombarded by e-mails from the very Gulf where the blessed Prophet walked on earth (see http://www.al-atheer.com/ mostly in Arabic), I received an e-mail pretending to be from Yahoo! Support ([email protected]). The subject header asked for my ID and password, and at the top of the letter was written the following "Our Members .. Please confirm your Yahoo ID and Password in Yahoo Server Because we have some problems in our server." Needless to say, the Yahoo ID I sent back was KafirMurtadMushrikZindiq1421 and my password was Try$Again#Newbiez*al+Hakerz8. I must admit it was cute, though, despite their 5 word vocabulary, they tried to send a copy of a yahoo web page.
Our hacker "mastermind," who uses a free Arabic e-mail service: proxy2.naseej.com.sa tried a fairly common method, so he or she doesn't score any points for originality. But it's the thought that counts.
Right now he is probably wracking his brains trying a brute force method of opening up our account, so maybe I should just savor the time he is wasting. Unless Allah answers his prayers by du'a, I suggest he pick up the satanic invention of the calculator and do the following calculation: 36*36*36*36*36*37*37... It's a veritable combinatory explosion! And yet it doesn't begin to plum the possibilities of the passwords we might have chosen for Freethought Mecca.
I guess he could try dictionary password stealing programs, but somehow I doubt it would pass without notice on the Yahoo! server...Somehow he'd have to circumvent the Yahoo firewall by his very own lonesome.
Perhaps if he succeeds in a few years, our modern day mujaheed will be martyred (shaheed) by carpal-tunnel syndrome from his striving fi sabil-il-kumpotoor, or perhaps he will develop eyesight problems from glaring at Freethought Mecca. (Yes, that explains it folks! An intentional eyesore, that's why our webpage looks like crud after a year or more...:-) More likely he'll get tired of the struggle, and go surfing for the hard-core porn he can't find in Saudi Arabia. Then using his technical savvy,
he'll probably go on to IPO haraamheavenlyhourisonline.sa.com , taking in caboodles of riyals. :-0