Bell - Hacking: Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners

Hacking

Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners

Alexander Bell

Copyright 2020 Alexander Bell - All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

One night I was coming home from college. The day had been a calm and cold one as compared to the rest of the days in that December. The fall had reached in the middle of the tenure and autumn had been showing its true colors in the form of dropping leaves from the trees in the gardens and along the roadsides. The trees appeared just like a bald man who has just got rid of his hair. It was madness when the wind started blowing the leaves away from the pavement onto the streets. When I was crossing a lake, I was thinking about a bright future ahead in finance. I loved it. I loved the way a financial wizard pushed a company to new heights by doing uncanny mathematical magic. When I took a right turn at the first square that came to me on my home, it started raining like it never rained before. The sky was filled up with countless clouds and the wind smashed at the faces of people. I had to cover my head with my books as I didnt expect rain and had no umbrella to cover my head.

Everyone started running to take safety from the rain. I had to take cover at a bus stand where I had found some shelter. After a few minutes of downpour, the rain stopped, and the sun peeked through thick black clouds. I continued on my way to my house and rushed to the basement once I got home. I had to make sure my laptop was safe from any water due to the rain. Thankfully, my laptop was safe. But, wait! It wasnt that much safer, not because of the rain but because of a hacking attack. Well, I got scared to see that sight. There was a frightful skull on the screen of my laptop, and I couldnt explain what was happening. I couldnt do anything about it. I couldnt open the laptop and access my data. It was a disturbing situation as I did not understand what had been done to my laptop.

I flipped the lid and picked it up to take it to my computer professor. He examined it and reached the conclusion that the laptop had suffered a big security breach that lasted for a few hours and after that everything went back to normal. Later on, it turned out that the hacking attack was a massive one that infected around a thousand computers across the state. I was one unlucky owner out of 1,000 computers. Yes, you are right! The hacking episode was the reason I changed my mind and switched to Information Technology instead of pursuing the finance sector. I pursued this profession vigorously and went on to help organizations that suffered from hacking attacks. I have made it the means of my living and I am really enjoying it now.

Ethical hacking turned out to be just like a dream come true. I loved the way it enabled me to help different organizations secure their systems in the wake of hacking attacks. I can recall how scary a hacking attack can be. The attack on Sony Pictures by North Korean hackers was a good example to feel the heat of what hackers can do. It was just a normal day for the employees of Sony Pictures Entertainment, but the day turned into an abnormal one when they found a mysterious message on the screen of their computer systems. They tried to decipher it and when they couldnt, a wave of fear swept through the cabins in the Sony Office. The hackers based in North Korea dubbed the attack as an act of revenge because of Sony Pictures attempt to the make a movie that mocked the assassination attempt at Kim Jong Un. The North Korean government denied the attack, but President Obama condemned it in open words linking it to the state of North Korea. It was the first of its kind of cyberattack that affected interstate relationships. The second attack of that magnitude is the cyberattack of Russian hackers on the presidential elections in the United States of America that was dubbed as Russian meddling in US elections.

What This Book Has to Offer?

This book focuses on the basics of hacking for beginners to understand what hacking is and how it is used for a good cause and what the repercussions are for not securing your cyberspace. I have tried to cover all the important topics that I considered crucial for your knowledge. Lets break down different sections of this book to understand what this book has to offer to you.

The first chapter of this book will introduce you to the basics of hacking. You will get to know what hacking is and what are its objectives. I will explain the different types of hackers that you will come across. I will attempt at debunking the myth that hackers are always bad guys. I will give you a general overview of ethical hacking and then I will give an overview of the dangers that computer systems across the world face. I will explain the nature of some non-technical attacks and some operating system attacks. I will go on to explain the commandments of ethical hacking such as the need for establishing goals, planning, the importance of ethics, the use of the scientific process, the use of the right tools, and the importance of report writing. At the end of the chapter, I will give a general overview of the ethical hacking plan. I will explain the importance of the plan, the tools, and the execution of the plan.

The second chapter explains the importance of an ethical hacking plan. In this chapter, you will learn what it means to have established clear goals. Then I will move on to give you the details about certain systems that you need to test. I will then go on to explain why is it important to set a schedule for an attack. I will shed light on certain hacking tools that you will find online for free or for commercial purchases. The chapter ends with an explanation of the skills you need to become an ethical hacker.

The third chapter of the book revolves around the subject of social engineering which is one of the most important elements in the world of hacking. I will explain why hackers use social engineering to intrude into a system. I will shed light on how to perform a social engineering attack against an organization. I will also explain what methods a social engineer has to apply to the employees of an organization to get past the security layers that surround the organization. In a particular section of this chapter, I will explain the different methods of social engineering such as phishing and surfing the internet to gather information about the employees of an organization to get to know them better and then manipulating them to retrieve the information you need. I will explain what does dumpster diving mean and why is it one of the most important things to take into consideration while planning a social engineering attack. I will explain how an ignored trash can on your computer can turn the tables on your organization. I will explain in detail the method to befriend any person for the sake of collecting information. Then I will move on to explain certain countermeasures to tackle social engineering attacks. The most important of them is securing the entrances and also keeping in view the importance of scanning the trash you are going to push outside.