HiP'98 - Belchatow (Poland)
This year's "Hacking in Poland 98" brought together hundreds of hackers, phreakers, coders, carders and others from the h/p/a/v/c scene.
History and organization of HiP
This was the 4th HiP, but it was really nothing like the others. In past years, crowds rarely topped 50, and security concerns kept publicity low. Everything is changing now. By September of 97, hacking was becoming so popular in Poland that the main organizers (morbius and wiedzmin) decided to completely change the way this year's HiP would be run. After they announced some of the changes, hackers started to come to them and offer to lecture on what they knew. Of course, there were still a lot of problems to resolve, like how to provide hardware, accommodations, and an area for mass media.
Fortunately they found a sponsor early on.
Coach station in Belchatow. Very small and very dishevelled. It is very typical for small polish towns. Many guests couldn't believed that HiP was organized in this town which doesn't have even railway station. The most of guests had to use car transport because buses from Belchatow to Warsow go only once a day (without weekend).
Optimus S.A - the biggest private computer company in Eastern Europe, agreed to provide the hardware (20 computers Pentium MMX) while Telekomunikacja Polska S.A (a large Polish telecommunication monopoly) wanted to become the primary sponsor. Even though it meant a lot less money to work with, organizers decided to turn down TPSA's offer. In addition to being hated in Poland, (its services were the worst in all Europe, AND the most expensive) TPSA had said that they would not support the event if phreakers were allowed to lecture.
Many people asked, "why have it in Belchatow? It's so small." The reasons were simple. Renting the space there was cheap, and security wasn't a problem (local police don't know anything about hacking and phreaking). Some people wanted the event to be in Warsaw, in "Piwnica" - the most popular pub there, but everything would have been a lot more expensive. Although the space in Belchatow was a little small, (it usually holds 100 people but crowds reached 200 during speeches) it felt more cozy than cramped.
The main events
HiP was the first time that Polish hackers got a chance to meet each other and share their experiences. In my opinion that was the most important aspect of the party. Many hackers met each other for the first time at HiP, but I'm sure a lot of people will meet again soon.
Lectures were another important aspect of HiP. The general schedule was: 11oo - 18oo lectures, presentations, practice, and 20oo - ???? private meetings of different hackers, practice. Most speeches discussed either Windows 95/NT or Unix/Linux systems.
Some of the topics included: "How to obviate firewall in Windows 95/NT system," "Sites sniffing," "Finding new bugs in fresh protect-system patches," "Scanning Linux source by own algorithms," "Hacking Domestic nets and intranets," "Carding - how to not be caught," "Carding - protect your credit card," "Phreaking on public phones using silver box or spoon," "Phreaking from house - forget about boxes," "How to hack without practice knowledge - social engineering," etc....
HiP had great reviews in press and TV. All journalist had really good play on HiP. People from different mass media were authorized to go on the most of HiP meetings, lectures and parties. Special for journalist HiP organizers prepared small bar. Every journalist had one beer for free ;) Due to the most of journalists were quite young (20-30 years) they wanted to play. Special for them HiP organizers installed Quake2, Need for Speed 2 and other games. Of course all of games were original ;)
All of them were very interesting and even professional hackers and phreakers heard new things.
The day before HiP, Polish journalists had been saying, "with so many hackers together, they're bound to hack something." They were right. None of the incidents were planned by HiP organizers, but hackers are always looking for a new challenge.
Belchatow is very small town and its telecommunication service is one of the lowest in Poland. Calling for free from public phones is easy (I checked it ;) ). A lot of people spent the day calling distant nations and 0-700-xxxx numbers, wasting at least $2,000 a day in phone service. Later, a few hackers, using a Laptop and a public phone, hacked TPSA's internet server. TPSA workers and police arrived and interrogated many guests (not just the hackers). Nobody found anything, probably because most of the hackers stayed in hotel rooms they'd booked for the event.
Hackers were happy to talk with journalists, but only at HiP. Outside the con, they wanted to be away from the media. The hacking community is a lot like the warez scene. They don't want to be "too famous." If everybody knows who you are, it's dangerous, and fame isn't really necessary amyway. The media did a pretty good job reporting on HiP. Most of the articles were fairly unbiased, and some of them were pretty interesting.
Party results and future plans
Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. head quorter in Warsaw. Big percent of polish people hate this company. Our phone bills are highest in all Europe and the telecommunication services are the worst. On the other hand Poland is the paradise for phreakers. It is very easy to call for free from our public phones. Hip guests had nice play with TPSA's public phones ;)
A lot of important things happened at this year's HiP. Organizers announced that because of the huge turnout they got this year, HiP '99 will be held in a bigger city, with a bigger space, and be even more well publicized. The most important thing was that people got a chance to meet face to face people they'd known for a long time only as irc nicks. The party also helped expose young people to the h/p/a/v/c/s scene. In my opinion, HiP'98 was a special event in Polish scene history. There have been other parties, like "Intel Outside" or "Proba Generalna," but they were only connected to the demoscene. HiP'98 was the first big, public party for people hackers.
Polish h/p/a/v/c scene - general reflection after HiP
Main entrance to Piwnica Pub (the biggest club in Belchatow but generally quite small). Very inconspicuous but very comfortable for parties like HiP. Usually it is meeting place for skates. Logo of Optimus S.A. the biggest Eastern European computer firm. This company is very friendly and very often sponsorize parties like HiP (e.g. Intel Outside - demoscene party). Optimus chief Roman Kluska was a hacker in his youth.
During the lectures readers were presenting their topic in practice very often. It mades lectures very interesting. Unfortunatelly people from police and TPSA who were in the hall then had different opinion. It was real luck that the most of lectures were "invite-only" without people from outside. Lecture hall. Although it wasn't so big (about 100 sitting places) but lectures was very interesting and people prefer stand about 1 hour than left lecture. It provide that it was 200 auditors at average. Chairs were rent from nearby secondary school.
HiP was important for a lot of people. Even people that didn't consider themselves hackers enjoyed being a part of the event. There's been talk about organizing more events like HiP, not just for hackers, but for phreakers, crackers and carders.
Although Poland and other Eastern Europe countries have ancient telecommunication services, internet services are quickly catching up with Western Europe. By 1999 it's estimated that 10% of Polish people will have internet connections through Cable TV (fast and quite cheap). Faster, and more available connections will naturally effect the scene a great deal. More people will have access to the scene, and meetings like HiP will help introduce them. On the other hand, more people will mean more attention from the police. In Poland, a lot of people think of a hacker as a person who spends all their time searching for free XXX sites and destroying servers. Changing this stereotype is just one more reason for organizing more meetings like HiP.

In summary I can say that the future of hacking in Poland looks pretty good. Advances in computers and the internet will help, but what happens to hacking in the future is more about people than technology.
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