About NMRC
NMRC was formed by Simple Nomad, namely because he felt compelled to put something in the Organization header field in his newsreader. Nomad Mobile Research Centre. Where ever you are, that is the hacker lab. Be it work, home, consulting, even in the car or in the shower -- just keep the brain working. Most of the stuff here deals with computer security, and is the result of working in this large virtual lab (although most NMRC members have fairly nice dedicated labs for security research).
NMRC gives its members a chance to hide behind the anonymity of an alias and an email address to provide reverse engineering, analysis, and investigation into computer security issues without fear of personal retribution from others.
We have been contacted by Novell, Microsoft, the U. S. Government, and others who simply wish we would shut up. All this does is tell us that NMRC is on the right track. We plan on continuing this trend. We will continue to do what we have been doing in spite of the actions of such groups as WIPO and such knee-jerk reactionary legislation as proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in the form of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. We strongly feel that the truth cannot be legislated. If the truth is outlawed, only outlaws will have the truth.
Many of our projects and papers are written from the perspective of the unwanted intruder. Why? Because it is simply much more interesting. It's the same mentality that gets us to watch spy movies, and movies about those "rebel" cops who break a few rules to get the job done. Next time you're watching one of those movies or TV shows notice how many times either a law is broken or a civil liberty is stepped on "for the greater good". And remember hackers are no different. They just get the bad press.
What is the goal of NMRC? To continue the search for bugs and holes in commercial networking software, to make these large companies fix the crap they give us, and to build and provide solutions that offer alternatives to these solutions. All of NMRC's hacks and cracks will bring forth the idea that you cannot secure a system for long -- sooner or later someone will find a way around the obstacle. And we find that between the U.S. Government's demands that they can monitor its citizens, the lack of security in most government systems, and the lack of true security in most commercial software solutions, NMRC will be very very busy for years to come.
What happens if the government at least tries for regional control of the Internet and/or mandates government controlled encryption key escrow? Well, the hackers of the world are preparing for that. Work is being done by hackers for a communication network independent from the Internet, and between cypherpunks and mad hackers software to run over this network will be available. To help further this effort, NMRC will be working to provide free software solutions that can run on virtually ANY computer hardware that offer privacy AND access to information. So if the government tries to stop the freeflow of privacy and information, hackers will provide low-cost (if not free) alternatives for all.
So where does hacking come in? That controversial subject -- penetration of computer systems. Well, if the time comes when We The People are cut off from information, guess what? ;-) Hackers are where We The People will turn to, for access to information and for ways to communicate between each other in a secure fashion.
We believe in truth. We believe in full disclosure. We (at least the NMRC members in the U.S.) believe that the Constitution of the United States is one of the grandest documents ever written. God/Goddess bless all of us hackers. So mote it be.