Because of movies, hackers are the most misunderstood people of all time. We often see them as bad people who gain unauthorized access into systems and do some damage. In reality, most of them are just enthusiasts who look for vulnerabilities in systems and try to learn from it. There's also ethical hacking, where hackers are paid to hack the system and report where the security is lacking.
There are two main types of hacking:
Hacking is not done only by criminals, as shown in movies. It is a way of life. The curiosity, creativity and knowledge of computers helps you in the long term. In movies, hacking is shown to be incredibly glamorous. But in real life, protecting systems against hackers is equally glamorous and more challenging.
There are two main types of hacking:
- Hardware
- Software
Hardware hacking
In this type, you take apart an actual piece of hardware (e.g. a cell phone) and do something that will compromise its functioning in some way (e.g. installing a bug). We will not be discussing this type, mainly because I know very little about it.
Software hacking
In this type, you hack whatever is virtual (i.e. non tangible). This includes software, websites, computers, networks and many more. This is one we'll be talking about. You need to study a system carefully to evaluate the weak points and exploit them.
The following things are required to kick start your hacking endeavor:
- Learn programming. Not only logic, but also some languages.
- Learn C and C++. They are responsible for almost all the systems programming done today. In that, many find pointers tedious (I personally don't know why). Make it a point to learn it well. Pointers (if improperly used) are one of the many weak points C and C++ scripts have.
- In case of websites, learn server side scripting languages like Python and PHP.
- For exploiting networks, you need to learn how they function. Read about routers, bridges, gateways, subnets, masks, IP spoofing and much more.
- Learn SQL and databases. Most of the times the vulnerabilities you will be exploiting in software and websites are in the databases.
- Be creative. Technologies constantly evolve to keep miscreants from exploiting them.
Once you are done with all this, start designing your own software, website etc. Try to protect them from all the vulnerabilities you learnt from the aforementioned theory. Go to Github (github.com), get source codes of projects you find interesting and try looking for bugs in that code. If you do find one, report it and if possible, fix it.
Hacking is not done only by criminals, as shown in movies. It is a way of life. The curiosity, creativity and knowledge of computers helps you in the long term. In movies, hacking is shown to be incredibly glamorous. But in real life, protecting systems against hackers is equally glamorous and more challenging.
That's all for now!
Cheers!
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