Mckinnon - Hacking : ultimate hacking for beginners, how to hack

Hacking of computer systems and networks is considered as the biggest national threat by the security services and the intelligence agencies of many countries. Hacking was once considered as a harmless prank. But now hacking is no less of a crime than any other. In some countries hacking is considered on the same level as terrorism. It is condemned large by the world governments.

In simple words hacking is breaking into someone's network or system without permission by compromising their security and stealing their information or damaging their entire system in the worst case.

Way back in the 1960s and 70s members of the youth international party made street pranks by tapping telephone lines. This group mainly comprised of youth. At its initial stages it was countercultural. Gradually this developed into hacking. The pliers and telephone lines were replaced by multifunctional screens and mega core processors.

The goofy nature of hacking was slowly replaced. Hacking, which was once started as a prank by the peace loving activists is now being used by terrorist organizations. They use it for many reasons such as gathering information on military movements, fundraising and for spreading their propaganda.

In this chapter you will get a general idea on what hacking really is and later on the classification of hackers.

In general, hacking is the process of ascertaining and subsequent exploitation of various weaknesses and shortfalls in the network of computer systems or a single computer system. This exploitation can be in the form of changing the structural picture of the computer system, altering the configuration, stealing information etc. But sometimes hacking is used for displaying the system flaws and weak spots.

The wide spectrum of hacking is not just found in developed countries. In the last two decades, with the large development in the area of information technology, it may surprise you that most of the hackers are from developing countries of Southeast Asia and some part of South Asia.

It is extremely difficult for a particular activity to be considered as hacking or not. This is because of the ambiguity in the world of hackers. Due to this inexactness, the term hacker is hard to explain and has always been a subject of a lot of controversies. The term hacker, in some contexts is used as reference to an individual who has command over the networks and computer systems.

A computer security specialist who finds and fixes the loopholes in the system is also considered as a hacker in some contexts. These people are also sometimes called as crackers. We will learn more about the classification of practicing detail in the second part of this chapter.

There can be many reasons behind hacking. Some hackers do it for the simple reason of money making. These hackers steal and retrieve information from a computer and use it for their monetary gains. Some hackers take it as a mere challenge for doing things that are prohibited and retrieving forbidden information.

While some do it just for fun by accessing a network or a computer system and adding a message. Some do it to disrupt a company or an organizations business and create chaos. Some hack to protest against the government or an organization. They do it by sneaking into the network systems of the authorities instead of raising their voice against them.