Book of D: Obfuscation: To Obfuscate or Not to Obfuscate

To explain obfuscation in simple terms, it means to make something difficult to understand. For instance, programming code is often obfuscated (via encrypting) to protect intellectual property or trade secrets in attempts to prevent an attacker from reverse engineering a proprietary software program. Okay, that being said, maybe you're wondering why I am writing about obfuscation in today's post. Oh, that's simple: I have students enrolled in computer science courses who are having issues with last semester's courses and are dealing with SAP (satisfactory academic program) issues. I have been working with the students to make sure they do not fail or get dropped from this semester's courses. Other staff members are helping to create a safety net, per se, for said students. The term obfuscation came up in our weekly BIT (Behavioral Intervention Team) meeting. One of BIT members asked what obfuscation meant because one of the students brought it up, and he had to pretend he knew what it meant. 

I tried to explain it in layman's terms, sans a condescending manner, but I was rudely interrupted by another BIT member. This guy is immensely obnoxious; he self-monikered himself "infinite wisdom," after his attempt at wanting to be known as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" failed - because he is no Voldemort. That dreadful guy tried to be all smart, showy, and patronizing, but his explanation quickly went downhill. I was loving his crash-course in verbal crashing. LOL. The guy completely quashed the meaning of obfuscation, which sent the meeting of obfuscation into obfuscation - which I quickly noted. LOL. I stepped in (again) and explained obfuscation as something that black hackers a.k.a. cybercriminals (sometimes even white hackers) use to conceal information to make things difficult to understand. 

After the BIT meeting ended, I went back to my (cold and lonely) office and thought about obfuscation, which led me to think about how much I love programming. It is beautiful to learn different computer languages; it's an artform. It helps society with so many different facets of life. If your electronic devices are working properly, you can thank a computer coder for creating a beautiful line of e-communication. Electronic devices like cell phones, laptops, and tablets require code to function properly, and coding allows humans to communicate with these devices. Anyway, I love teaching the younger gen to code. Well, I used to, but these days, they are learning it at school in far more advanced manners than what I know. I thought about how my now 19-year-old nephew thought I was a genius because I knew JAVA, HTML, etc.... I taught him how to code at a beginners level several years ago when he was just 13 years old. He loved it and surpassed my abilities, that is for certain. When he was mostly into coding, he could have talked coding and VR prototyping alongside the experts. I also introduced my nephew to ALICE, and he loved it. The late, great Randy Pausch would have loved talking to my nephew. This brilliant nephew of mine knows PYTHON, C#, and C++ better than me. He uses his abilities to create games in his spare time when he is not acting in one of the Shakespearean plays (of which he adores the tragedies, comedies, and histories) with his schoolmates. Yeah, he wants to be an actor, but he still codes a little, that is when he is not on Twitch or Discord with his gaming community. Although I am not a gamer, I have no qualms with those who game and those who partake in extreme gaming. I have several family members and friends who fall into the latter category. Bring on all things MMORPG, and they are totally and completely into it. I have seen the outcome of days playing World of Warcraft (all games W.O.W. related), Albion, Tower of Fantasy, DnD (online and the OG), etcetera. I don't have the patience to play RPG or MUD background games. It took time for me to learn the difference between an RPG player and a video gamer. LOL. Kidding. The types of gaming genre just didn't captivate me. I did, however, like the coding and algorithms asociated with gaming. Anything that was behind closed doors and didn't incite too much attention is what enchanted me and being able to speak the language and slang. Differentiating between RPG and MUD was kind of like knowing the difference between anime and manga. Well, maybe not exactly like that. I must admit that I did/do enjoy reading manga and watching anime. As for manga, I subscibe to how one reads from right to left, top to bottom, and back to front. I always read books in that manner - even as a child I started reading from the end of the novel. I think it somehow quelled my need to know the outcome, which would posit the book worthy of reading. I guess all this is derrived from my love of building things. I also attribute my hobbies to my need to take things apart and reassemble them in hopes of improving the way they work. Not in real-life, per se, I like taking apart websites and apps using source codes and such in order to recreate something better. I will admit that I like using other people's codes once in a while especially when the codes make things run so well and unabashed like a finely tuned instrument; it makes for such a beautiful quality that I just cannot explain. I am sure others who love coding and such understand what I mean. I am sure many can explain the love of coding better than me. It's like math for me: I adore math, and sometimes I partake in solving mathematical equations to relax and to exercise my creativity. Most often, I prefer to write or read to chill and be creative, though. I even love formulating excel spreadsheets, which is also coding. Actually, MS Excel is the world's most widely used programming language. All these things are activities I love, and I am grateful that even when I am not always able to utilize the tools for work, I can still use them during my personal time. Although I am more into white hacking, if I had to chose a type of hacking, I do understand that obfuscation has its time and place. Well, except for in a BIT meeting with that one guy who thinks he knows everything. By the way, Voldemort called, he says you're still not worthy!😁