I have seen a lot of members asking for a tutorial on "where to begin with hacking". So here is my opinion about how they should get around starting.
There are three types of hackers:
White Hats:
The White Hat hacker has dedicated himself to fight malware and help others with their computer problems. He is a person you can trust, and he will most likely end up in a good paying job as a computer programmer or a security consultant. He will most certainly not end up in jail.
Grey Hats:
The Grey Hat hacker are in between white Hats and Black Hats. He will most likely commit pranks at people that he thinks is harmless, but it can also be illegal. He can at one time be helpful and help you with a computer problem, but at the same time infect you with his own virus. There is a chance that the grey hat will end up in prison.
Black Hats:
The Black hat hacker also known as a cracker is the one who deface websites, steal private information and such illegal activity. It is very time consuming to become a black hat. It can be very hard for them to get a job because of the illegal activity. If law enforcements gets you, you can expect jail time.
So where to start?
You should know the answer to these questions before you start your hacking career.
- Which type of hacker do you want to be (white hat, grey hat or black hat)?
- Which type of hacking do you want to work with (website hacking, system exploits, pentesting etc.)?
- What is your end-goal?
You should meet these requirements to become a successful hacker.
- You shall be patient.
- You shall dedicate a lot of time to hacking. You will never stop learning, since hacking is a lifestyle.
- You should have a computer (I expect you to have one since you are reading this).
- You shall be interested in how the different computer systems works, and how to control them.
Now that you have an idea of what kind of hacker, you want to be we will look closer into the different topics you can work with as a hacker.
Website Hacking:
You properly already guessed it, but website hacking is about hacking websites. You use your skills to find exploits and vulnerabilities in websites and web applications. Almost all major hacking stories in the news are about websites and databases that have been hacked. Once you have enough experience in website security you will be amazed about how easy it is to find vulnerabilities in websites. However, it will take a lot of effort and time to reach that level of skills. You will need to know a large amount of server-side languages and website construction languages like PHP, HTML, JavaScript, SQL, ASP, ASP.NET and Perl. This was just some of the languages you should know about. I will recommend you to take JavaScript, SQL and PHP very serious since it is in those languages you will find the most vulnerabilities.
Pen testing and Forensics:
Pen testing and forensics can earn you big money. It is these guys the company’s call when they have been hacked. They are experts in operating systems, wireless connections and exploiting computers. This way will take A LOT of time and effort since there is so much you should know about. You shall know about how the different operating systems works, which exploit there is to them, how to exploit them, routers, encryption, malware etc. the list is almost endless.
Code exploiting:
Not many people know about this. This will require you to be a complete expert at programming. You shall be at least as good at these programming languages as your main language like English. This kind of hacking is taking a lot of time, and will require you to be patient. Do not get me wrong, every company that releases software like Symantec, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle have hackers with these skills employed to check their software for vulnerabilities. Sadly, they cannot find every security hole and therefore some very smart black hat hackers are able to find them, and exploit them before the companies get the vulnerability patched. You should know the most popular languages like C++, Java and C etc.
Computer security:
The work these people do looks a lot like the pentesters. These people is able to detect and analyze new viruses and malware. They are working for companies like Symantec, KasperSky and Avira etc. Some of them are also working on labs that tests AV’s and new viruses. They are experts in how viruses works and how they infect systems.
You should now have an idea on where to start and in which direction you want to go. If you found any errors or typos feel free to contact me, and I will look into it. I will be updating this thread recently and add more details. I will soon add a dictionary, which explains the most basic hacking terms. I have putted a lot of effort in this tutorial and my goal with this tutorial is to give computer-interested people an idea of where they should start.
To the so-called “noobs”, who reads this:
I hope I have inspired you to begin at hacking. I hope that I have cleared things up a little bit, so it does not seem so messy anymore. If you have any questions or something you did not understand, I would gladly explain it to you again. Welcome to the hacker’s world, a new world will open up for you and you will never regret that you chose to become a hacker.
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