What is Computer hacking? and what does it take to be a hacker?
Hacking nowadays refers to techniques that seek to compromise electronic devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets, servers, networks and even the people. Hacking can be done by cybercriminals to crack information and information systems for financial gain, credential theft and so on motives. Moreover it may be dome by ethical hackers to provide recommendation on vulnerabilities and exploitations to organizations. The difference between the two types of hacking is that the cybercriminals unlawfully target organizations and commit cybercrime whereas ethical hackers seek written permission before lawfully starting to hack. This is the only difference between the cybercriminals and ethical hackers. The rest, both apply same procedures, techniques and tools and further attack targets depending on their skillsets.
Cybercriminals hack organizations motivated by financial gains, spying, theft, protesting, fun, fame, brainwashing and the like. Whereas, the ethical hackers enter into contractual agreements and permit the penetration tester to find vulnerabilities in personnel, systems, infrastructures, networks, server and storage areas. And they further relentlessly exploit those vulnerabilities discovered during the hacking process before the bad guys do so.
Both cybercriminals and ethical hackers may employ different attack techniques such as social engineering, phishing, malwares, botnets, session hijacking, DDoS and so on to gain unauthorized access to information and information systems.
Computer hacking mainly involves the following major phases:
– Planning
– Reconnaissance
– Scanning and Discovery
– Gaining Access
– Maintaining Access
– Clearing Tracks (logs)