The Linux Ninja

Johnny Long has launched his new site and initiative Hackers for Charity. Johnny is the author of  security books (including Google Hacking for Penetration Testers), security conference presenter (including my personal favorites “Hacking Hollywood” and “No-Tech Hacking“), creator and maintainer of the Google Hacking Database (GHDB) and an all around great guy.

Johnny documented the leadup to the launch of the new site and his charity work in Africa on his twitter feed for @ihackstuff and a longer form version is available on his site here. His goal is to get hackers to donate their time and money for things like food programs for children in East Africa, help with technology-related “microprojects” to help charities that cannot afford it and also donating hardware to help in building technology training centers in Africa. He and his family are planning to move to Uganda in June for a year to spearhead charity and humanitarian efforts and can use any support that you can give. Johnny has also discussed this initiative on the Pauldotcom Security Weekly Podcast Episode 139 and the Pauldotcom crew also did a special edition interview where he discusses why he got into security and how he became who he is today that can be directly downloaded here.

Johnny has been a great source of knowledge for me with his constant reminders to look at things from all angles whether it be crafting queries on google or someone leaving useful information prominently displayed on the seat of their car, and I applaud his efforts to give back in a really meaningful way. If you can help Johnny out at all (and it’s entirely possible that you cannot in tough times like these) with even a few dollars for his trip or donating your time to help charities or money to help buy food I’m sure he will be extremely thankful.

My short article cannot do Johnny’s intiative justice so please go over to his site to read more and do anything that you can, even if that is just spreading the word to more people.

Links:

• Hackers for Charitiy Forums Where to go to find out how you can help
• Hackers for Charity Store Buy awesome shirts and stickers to help out, I just put my order in
• Google Hacking for Penetration Testers, Volume 2 by Johnny Long on Amazon.com

• No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving, and Shoulder Surfing by Johnny Long on Amazon.com