About Us
by Cruciphux cruci@hwa-security.net
about.html v1.1 Jun 2001
v1.2 Nov 2001
I guess you may be interested in some history and our origins and members
well heres a prelim run down of who and what we are.
HWA as a group was a bunch of coders and hackers that got together in the
80's initially 'meeting' on local bbses and then irl. The group was a closed
group until I decided to release a 'zine' to cover events in the security
and hacking underground 'scene' in November of 1998.
Inserted Nov 2001: Some clarity?
About being founded in 1981.
HWA the group formed in late 1980/81, HWA.hax0r.news my irreverant archive
with sardonic humour smatterings forced itself on the net in 1997/8. The
website and "security group" (we were never a 'security group, we were a
news site and a ezine, it was much later when people wanted to do more
that the 'security group' moniker was placed on us by others) birthed as
late as 2000 and is slowly moving with no intention of dying anytime soon.
The "zine" name as with the groups name was an irreverant piss-take of what
the 'visible' underground scene was like at the time (it hasnt changed much)
to this day however many people are still not sure how to take us, and that
is fine coz we dont care. If you know the story of how we got the group name
then its not such a stretch to see how the zine was named, all this besides
the point it still performed a major function and was appreciated by many
for different reasons. Whatever works, those that need to know, do - those
that dont, dont matter - you know the attitude no? >:-p
::::: cont'd
I didn't really expect it to take off since it was mainly a compilation of
reference material for my own use, however it became a popular fixture and
was mirrored on several high profile sites such as Ken William's infamous
Packetstorm site and the then new HackerNews network also gave us substantial
support, for which we thank them and the community.
During this time i've come in contact with many people of all walks of life
from security professionals to active crackers and web site defacers, many
of these people are extremely talented individuals so I came up with a plan
to help steer at least some of these souls in a direction leaning more to
the legal side such as helping to develop security applications and securing
systems.
This is the premise on which HWA Security [is founded][now operates].
: Jun 2001 - merged with the remaining members of b0f.
The fledgling b0f security group (Buffer Overflow) founded by ex-cracker
Slash from Croatia and with my backing. Unfortunately due to disorganization
and dissent among members the group fell apart and I did not have time then
to help patch it back together.
With the advent of HWA Security we have 'adopted' some of the ex-b0f members
and intend to develop applications and provide advisories under the HWA
name with kudos to the b0f legacy (b0f.freebsd.lublin.pl)
We intend with this site to provide current news, continue the zine that
was started in 1998 and expand services on a volunteer basis to the community
at large.
New comers are welcome to apply and help out if you feel you have a talent to
offer. I'll post bios on the 'Staff' and group members at a later date.
The HWA-Security site was intended initially as a news only site and for posting
new vulnerabilities but some members were interested in forming more of an active
security group, watch for code, advisories etc in future as they are developed.
Peace out.
C*:. July 23rd 2000
last minor edit (Jun 2001), Nov 2001 (may yet be expanded on read the zines)