:06:02
Hackers are people who enjoy
playful cleverness.
:06:06
Well, it first started going wrong
:06:09
as the outside world started pressuring us
to have passwords.
:06:14
We didn't have any passwords
on our computer.
:06:18
And the reason was that the hackers
:06:20
who'd originally designed the system
:06:23
realized that passwords were a way
the administrators could control all the users.
:06:30
And they didn't want to build tools
:06:33
you know, locks and keys for
the administrators to control them,
:06:38
so they just didn't do it.
They left that out
:06:41
And we had the philosophy
that whoever sitting at the computer
:06:45
should be able to do whatever he wants
:06:49
and somebody else who was there yesterday
shouldn't be controlling what you do today
:06:55
When they put passwords onto one of
the machines at MIT
:07:01
I and bunch of other hackers didn't like it,
:07:03
I decided to try a subversive sort of hack.
[clears throat]
:07:09
I figured out how to decode the passwords,
:07:12
so by looking at the database of encoded passwords
:07:16
I could figure out what each person
would actually type to login
:07:20
And so I sent messages to people, saying,
:07:24
"Hello? I see that you've
chosen the password mumble,
:07:28
whatever it was.
How about if you do as I do
:07:31
just type Enter for your password
:07:33
it's much shorter, much easier to type".
:07:37
And... of course with this message I was
:07:42
implicitly telling them
the security was really just a joke.
:07:46
Anyway, but in addition
I was letting them in on this hack.
:07:52
And eventually, A fifth of all the
users on that computer joined me
:07:56
in using just Enter as their passwords.