How do hackers learn

Driving a car is a specialized skill. A bank robber uses a car in a robbery. Bank robbers are criminals. You drive a car so you are a criminal. It is easy to see how shallow thinking, fear, and logical fallacies has lead mass media to portray hacking as always being a crime.

Is it possible to defend without knowing the methods used by your adversary? How would police officers catch criminals if they did not know how they think and what methods they used?

How would our military protect us if they did not know the enemies tactics and have the skills to repel them? The SANS Institute is one of the premier information security training and certification organizations. They are famous for saying " your offense should inform your defense. My skills were acquired through a lifetime of training on my own, with the United States Navy, and as an information security professional.

I use them daily to defend systems from both criminals and state actors and I am actively training the next generation of hackers to do the same. If you think all hackers are criminals, then see " Why Teach Hacking " before continuing. I am often asked, "How do I learn to hack? Many hackers today define themselves based on the roots of hacking , which you can read about in "A Brief History of Hackerdom" and the Hacker Wikipedia article.

However, the word hacker has morphed and mass media uses it to mean a person who uses specialized technical skills to commit a crime. For more on this see " Why Teach Hacking. Therefore, the simplest definition of hacking is the process by which you discover the difference between what something was designed to do and what it is capable of doing. Many would argue that this definition is too broad and would include endeavors outside the scope of technology, computers, and networks.

I have come to see that the same quest for knowledge and skill prosecuted by the old school hackers is the same process used by those mastering other fields of endeavor from astrophysics to knitting. Hacking is as much about the journey as it is the destination. I will be focusing on hacking as it applies to technology, computers, and networks. Our knowledge and skills are like a block of Swiss cheese, which appears solid but is full of holes.

Hacking is not just about applying your knowledge and skills but also the process by which you fill in the holes. Figuring out the best place to start can be difficult because we often are not aware of what we do not know, so I am providing a framework to get started. It will then be up to you to follow the breadcrumbs, find the holes in your knowledge and skills, and fill them in. During this process, you will find more holes to fill in and during that, even more holes.

It is a lifelong, never-ending pursuit. The " hacker ethic ", just like the term hacker, has morphed over time. Originally , hacking was driven by a thirst to understand how things work and was conducted on systems that the hackers had a right to access. Mix the ideals of hacking with a bit of anarchy and you end up with hackers that prize ideas and exploration over personal property rights. Mass media has camped on this idea and do not recognize that most of the hacking going on today is by people who do believe in property rights and are using their hacking skills to defend those who can't defend themselves.

In the non-fiction book " The Cuckoo's Egg ", Clifford Stoll encounters a new systems administrator who adheres to the anarchistic version of the hacker ethic. Clifford underwent a change in his thinking during his experiences chronicled in the book and knew the systems administrator's philosophy was wrong but could not articulate it. By the time Clifford reaches the end of the book, he provides an excellent rebuttal.

Based on Clifford's rebuttal I have formed one of my own. Property ownership is a cornerstone of society and built using a fabric of trust. In many cases that trust is an unspoken agreement and in others the trust is codified in law. More often than not, the trust is not enforced until after the fact.

The dashed white line on the freeway reminds the drivers of that trust but it does not prevent another driver from making a left hand turn in front of me at 80 miles per hour. Likewise, when I get a drink out of the vending machine I trust that it will not kill me. If it does, my family will be rich after the lawsuit, but I will still be dead. If we cannot trust one another in any circumstance then the fabric of trust unravels and people stop building the very systems we want to explore.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too. As hackers, we have a choice we can explore without regard to property rights and destroy the fabric of trust or we can repair and reinforce property rights and the fabric of trust.

With great power comes great responsibility. You have to choose. I too had to make this choice. Through providence, I was led away from the "dark side" and have spent a lifetime defending others. My hope is that you will join me in this endeavor. You will find that everyone's background and skills are a little different so there is no best place to start see How Do I Learn to Hack. I recommend reading through this page to get the big picture and see which area interests you the most and just jump in.

No matter what you start with it will eventually lead to all the other areas. You do not have to break the law to get systems to play with. It is possible to get lots of equipment to play with at little to no cost.

Tell everyone you know that you will take any old electronics they no longer want. You can also pickup systems alongside the curb on trash day. Sift through the equipment and keep the useful stuff, scavenge the rest for parts, and then recycle what is left. Power supplies are particularly useful when building Raspberry Pi and Arduino based systems. This relieves them of the burden of recycling but you might have to pay to recycle the TV's and CRTs; thankfully, they are becoming less common.

The treasure trove of free useful equipment I have gotten over the years more than offset the small cost of recycling the occasional TV or CRT. The best way to go through a minefield is to follow someone. I highly recommend finding local like-minded people with which to trade ideas. I am located in Atlanta Georgia so I will list examples from here. I will also provide some links to help find similar resources where you live.

Article Summary. Part 1. For this reason, the hacker culture today is pretty strongly UNIX-centered. There are many types of UNIX-like operating systems, the most popular being Linux, which you can run alongside Microsoft Windows on the same machine. Download Linux online or find a local Linux user group to help you with installation. A way to get a look at the possibilities without having to do anything drastic.

All are open source just like Linux. However, it's important to remember that they are BSD and not Linux. You can get those programs with a package manager like homebrew, fink or MacPorts. Alternatively, you can just run Linux on a Mac alongside macOS. If you want to get super niche, you can even run an operating system like Open Indiana, which is based on the open source release of the Solaris operating system before it was acquired by Oracle and made closed source.

That said, there are many ports of Linux applications. You're probably better off just using macOS, BSD or Linux because they are much more popular and have many more programs available for them. Write HTML. What you see when you look at a website of pictures, images, and design components is all coded using HTML. For a project, set out to learn how to make a basic home page and work your way up from there. HTML " so you can upload them to a browser and see your work translated. Learn the language of programming.

Before you start writing poems, you have to learn basic grammar. Before you break the rules, you have to learn the rules.

But if your ultimate goal is to become a hacker, you're going to need more than basic English to write your masterpiece. Despite being a good first language, it is not just a toy; it is compelling, flexible, and well-suited for large projects.

Unlike Java, Javascript is very similar to Python as they are both a C-based language and extremely new user-friendly. C is very efficient with your machine's resources but will soak up huge amounts of your time on debugging and is often avoided for that reason, unless the efficiency of your computer is especially important.

It is probably a good idea to use a good starting platform such as Backtrack 5 R3, Kali or Ubuntu Part 2. Think creatively. Now that you've got the basic skills in place, you can start thinking artistically. Hackers are like artists, philosophers, and engineers all rolled up into one. They believe in freedom and mutual responsibility.

The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved. Hackers take a special delight in solving problems, sharpening their skills, and exercising their intelligence. Work as intensely as you play, and play as intensely as you work.

For true hackers, the boundaries between "play," "work," "science," and "art" all tend to disappear or to merge into a high-level creative playfulness. Read science fiction. Go to science fiction conventions, which is a great way to meet hackers and proto-hackers. Consider training in a martial art. The kind of mental discipline required for martial arts seems to be similar in important ways to what hackers do.

The most hacker-ly martial arts are those which emphasize mental discipline, relaxed awareness, and control, rather than raw strength, athleticism, or physical toughness. Tai Chi is a good martial art for hackers. Learn to love solving problems. No problem should ever have to be solved twice. Think of it as a community in which the time of everyone is hackers is precious.

Hackers believe sharing information is a moral responsibility. When you solve problems, make the information public to help everyone solve the same issue. It's consistent with hacker values to sell enough of it to keep you in food and rent and computers. They may be out of date regarding technical issues, but the attitude and spirit are just as timely. Learn to recognize and fight authority. The enemy of the hacker is boredom, drudgery, and authoritarian figures who use censorship and secrecy to strangle the freedom of information.

Monotonous work keeps the hacker from hacking. Be competent. So, anyone who spends time on Reddit can write up a ridiculous cyberpunk username and pose as a hacker. But the Internet is a great equalizer and values competence over ego and posture. Spend time working on your craft and not your image, and you'll more quickly gain respect than modeling yourself on the superficial things we think of "hacking" in popular culture.

Before becoming a hacker, one will have to understand the basics of networking, such as the following:. Learn how to hack computers — It is obvious that to become a hacker you need some basic computer skills.

These skills go beyond the potential to develop a Word document or cruise all over the Internet. You should be capable of using the command line in Windows, set up your networking parameters, and edit the registry. In recent years, web applications are undoubtedly the most productive ground for hackers.

Hackers become more and more successful in their attacks when they increase their understanding of how web applications work and the databases behind these applications. An individual planning to become a hacker will need to learn about programming, which is considered to be a vital step.

A variety of software programs are now available that make hacking easier, however, if you want to know how it is done, you will definitely need to have basic knowledge about programming. To become a hacker, you need to become an expert in using a virtualization software package.

You will need a safe environment to practice your hacks prior to launching them out in the real world. A virtual environment provides you with a safe environment that is ideal for testing and refining your hacks before going live with them. A good hacker will be able to understand security concepts and technologies. The only way to overcome the obstructions established by the security admins is to become familiar with them. By equipping themselves with the basic knowledge and skills necessary for hacking , hackers now possess the potential to develop sophisticated hacking techniques to destroy your websites and steal all your personal and sensitive data like credit card details, user passwords, confidential business data, etc.

To protect your website from hackers you thus need a good web security tool capable of detecting and even preventing hacking attacks through malware etc. You will have to invest in a Managed Security Service MSS that has the potential to maximize the value of integration, thus enabling companies to detect issues quicker, lower their operational costs, and strengthen their security position. One reliable and efficient MSS is Comodo cWatch Web, which is a web application tool perfect for websites and web applications.

This web security tool is an excellent hacking prevention solution as it offers the following security features:. Detects malware, provides the methods and tools to remove it, and prevents future malware attacks. Powerful, real-time edge protection for websites and web applications providing advanced security, filtering, and intrusion protection. A global system of distributed servers to improve the performance of websites and web applications. Protect Website Now. Website Safety Check.

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