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)