PANIK

Since last week we've been hearing rumors of a hack being executed on Taguspark, and today we finally got detailed information on the incident.

The authors of this hack may be reached at ist.panik _ a t _gmail [dot] com . Comments are welcome at comments _ a t _isthacks [dot] net .

When this project began, we weren't so sure of the interest of the IST student community and we had no idea how many (if any) hacks we were going to receive. A week after this event, and having the privilege of being the first to see the pictures and read the story, we can assure you the future of this project is no longer a doubt.

Imagination, execution and very good documentation of the procedure were the factors which made us grade this hack very high. It proved the academic spirit isn't dead, and that there really are students with the intelligence and sense of humor to do something of this size.

Now here's what you've all been waiting for, a description of the event, straight from the email we've been sent (with pictures!) and through our translator.

This hack was thought of a long time ago, and it occurred to us after a class in which the projector wouldn't stop beeping. At the time, we imagined a class where instead of a beeping projector there were several alarms firing at the same time. It would be very funny, to say the least. And that's how it happened :P.

We had an objective and so began our market analysis.
As you can probably guess, we weren't given a scholarship to do this (though we tried), and so all of the money came out of our own pockets. Our first task was to find watches and alarms at a price which allowed us to build a large quantity (the more, the merrier). After some research we found exactly what we wanted: (pretty) analog watches, 1€ each (IKEA). We also found double alarm packs at 1€. We were ready to start hacking, at a price of 1,5€ per unit.

The next stage was applying our (wide) knowledge of electronics to disassemble the units. We bought one of each (one watch and one alarm) and put ourselves to the task ahead of us

A few simple calculation and a lot of hammering later (as the good engineers we are), we managed to make some progress and not only knew the circuit as found a way to feed the clock and the alarm with only the three LR batteries included in the alarm (hooray, extra LR batteries are expensive!). Bug v1.0 was born.

We only got to the brilliant conclusion that we would have saved a LOT of hours if we'd bought digital clocks (at a slightly higher price) after we returned to IKEA and (to the surprise of the checkout girl!) bought 34 other bedside clocks. At that time, and after going to Carrefour and Jumbo to get more of our beloved alarms, we redrafted the scheme to make it more stable. Hopefully this would help the Bugs survive being thrown to their attack positions ;).

We then go to the boring part, assembling all the Bugs. We're going to skip through the process and leave you with the images and a note that it was an incredible amount of work involved.

A lot of suffering and it was done. There were 30 Bugs ready to be placed at the most absurd and inconvenient spots (Bug v2.3 at the time). We rejoiced for a second and got back to work, planning the P (from Panik) day.

We got to that oh-so-important time of deciding the day when the fat lady would sing (or play in this case). We agreed on doing it during the annual Job Shop (larger audience). With the help of a couple of IST maps and our vast experience with the campus layout, we decided the main strategic points.

Then there was the time of day. We were thinking of firing them all at the same time but reached the conclusion that it would be funnier if they were more spread along the time window (first the auditoriums, then the rest).

Customizing was the next stage. Besides pissing off professors, security guards, students and the birds which made IST-Taguspark their new home we also wanted to send messages to certain specific people who were important to us during the years of our life devoted to the Institute. We wrote short messages with custom made, individually targeted messages that would made steal a laugh from whoever found them

Prior to the launch we thought maybe the messages wouldn't get to their destinations (they could be intercepted by the security, doormen or The Projector Man) and came up with a plan for an additional target. Sticking some watches (and messages) to specific targets was the solution, and it would increase the probability that their addressees would read them. Places such as an office door or a car glass.

The big P day arrived and we were nervous. When we started distributing the gifts by the chosen locations (just like Santa) that initial anxiety faded and turned into a growing excitement and finally an enormous expectation. How would the student react? Better yet, how would the guards react?

The best word to describe the P day (Wednesday, 21st of March 2007) is BRUTAL. Security guards running around, alarms firing everywhere, professors coming out of the classrooms and students laughing (this would make a great poem intro). It was worth all the effort and will get us through the semester happy. Everything went even better than we expected. This might sound a bit corny, but it was an unforgettable day.

The only negative point was the fact most students thought it was a fire alarm and not a prank (it is truly sad). Maybe if you publish this in your site they will finally come around to adding 1+1 (it's 3 btw), and link everything.

As a conclusion, we should have used this as a portfolio project. It was an ambitious project during which we learned a lot on both personal and criminal levels. Using gloves to leave no fingerprints and the removal of all serial numbers were just some of the details we took in account (thank you Grissom!). It was a tiring but worthwhile activity. It's possible we won't be doing anything else over the next months, but we wanted to be the first to open the way for future generations.

We hope we didn't break any rule of the code (we tried not to), and that this can be published as the first of many IST Hacks.

We also wanted to thank the security team of IST-Taguspark for their professionalism and the moments of pure pleasure they allowed us. It's been proved that a man runs faster when there are alarms firing all around him.

Regards,
The IST Panik creators

Now that we answered the usual questions - when, who, how and Where - there is the why.

We founded ISTHacks hoping to wake people up, to make them think about what they're doing instead of treating college as an obligation or a "needed evil". We wanted to do it to fight the inertia that keeps our fellow students prisoners.

We agree this hack as presented follows all the rules of our Code of Conduct and so qualifies as an IST Hack. If you know of any rule that's been broken, please contact us at abuse _ a t _isthacks [dot] net

Finally we'd like to thank the students who did it. We hope you keep up with this high standard. This activity was a far better use of a future IST engineer than any project involving SUBAs or train simulators.

ISTHACKS – Because we can.