Written by: Ashraf Hamadi
Studying IT in Thorildsplans Gymnasium Stockholm, Sweden
Its remarkable today what kind of power you have just under your fingertips. I discovered this in an early stage. As a young boy I was fascinated about how one could gain access to another one’s computer and remotely use it. That discovery opened my eyes to the real definition of the internet. The features on the internet that are visible for us are just a diminutive part I thought. Opening a webpage or calling your loved one on skype are example of those “visible” things, the things that you deliberately do. But the internet is far greater than that.
Right now there are more than 3.0 Billion people connected to each other through the Internet. This means that more than 35% of the world’s population can go out on the internet, share knowledge, learn new stuff and spend some free time, but just as the internet has opened the world for each and every one of us, it has also opened up each and every one of us to the world. That means that the price for us to pay for us to stay connected is our privacy. I discovered that recently when I was asked to work on a 100 hour high school assignment which is meant to be a proof that the student is prepared for higher education or for work in a specific occupation.
What frightened me was the thought that we are constantly leaving our names, our birthdays and even our credit card information out on the internet, whether it’s regarding Facebook, PayPal or eBay. Seeing all this gave me a thought. I thought that the people should be warned, they should be feared of leaving such information in a wide and invisible place. So I thought that the best way to demonstrate it, is by creating a Trojan virus and infecting a PC to prove that without any hacking knowledge and limited programing knowledge you can steal private information without being noticed.
This resulted in me a 18 year old IT student learning python and creating a python program that could record your keystrokes and take pictures of your screen and invisibly send all the logs to a webserver accessed by only me. I was shocked to what I had accomplished and how easy it was to find all the research necessary. Therefore I feel its my obligation to in the best way I can, spread the word, and spread the truth that the invisible must be feared, because it gathering information about you and someday that information can be used against you.
You want to hear more from Ashraf Hamadi?
Come and meet him at The Nordics & Baltics NETACAD CONFERENCE 2015
taking place at the Thorildsplans Gymnasium Assembly Hall on 28th and 29th of May 2015
