Hackers : Everything There Is To Know About

As soon as someone utter the word ‘Hacker’ we all imagine a nerdy-guy with thick spectacles, sitting before a series of computer screens and typing all that random codes which is unreadable for a normal human being. We think of them as malicious computer users, but there’s more to it than just that.

 

 

‘Hacker’ is the most misunderstood term by a long shot. They are literally geniuses. Usually they are self taught programmers with amazing logic implementation skills. A hacker need not be a person with malicious intent, he could be a computer security enthusiast or hobbyist who is just evaluating weaknesses of a system just for the sake of strengthening it.

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Hackers are divided mainly into three categories, Black-Hat Hackers, White-Hat Hackers and Grey-Hat Hackers as we call them in Internet slang.

 

White-Hat Hackers :-

This type of hackers are considered to be ethical in nature, an expert who specializes in penetration testing to ensure security of  an organization. They are hired by large companies or organizations to evaluate the security of their networks. Some white-hats also work as freelancers, finding bugs in popular softwares and websites.

Some popular White-Hat Hackers are :-

Julian Assange :

Popular website Wiki-leaks is believed to be funded by this man which publishes documents provided by whistle-blowers. Julian is a computer programmer and a journalist who started hacking at the age of 16 using the handle “Mendax”.

Steve Wozniak :

Co-Founder of Apple Inc.  who started his career by creating a device called blue box which could by-pass traditional switch mechanisms of telephones to make free long distance calls.

Linus Torvalds :

This man created the most widely used operating system by computer security enthusiasts and also normal users, LINUX. He began his career by fiddling with his own machines and launched the first version of his operating system in 1991.

 

Black-Hat Hackers :-

These are the ones which have malicious intent and hack for notorious purposes or for money making. A black-hat is a person who “violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain”.  They are also referred as ‘Crackers’ by modern programmers.

Some popular Black-Hat Hackers are :-

Kevin Mitnick :

He is an american computer security consultant who has been convicted for various computer and communications related crimes. He was the most wanted cyber criminal at the time of his arrest.

Gary McKinnon :

He’s a hacker suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and is responsible for executing the largest ever hack on United States Government networks including Army, Air Force, Navy and even NASA.

Jonathan James :

First juvenile hacker to be convicted in United States. He was arrested at the age of 16 for crimes like hacking into NASA and Department Of Defense.  He later committed suicide in fear of becoming a scapegoat for crimes he had not done.

 

Grey-Hat Hackers :-

A grey hat hacker is a combination of a black hat and a white hat hacker. A grey hat hacker may surf the internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect, for example. They may then offer to correct the defect for a fee.

 

Script Kiddies :-

With easy availability of penetration testing tools any John Doe can become a hacker – well not in true sense. They are the one’s who use ready-made tools to break into networks mainly for ‘Bragging Rights’ or for notorious means. True hackers hate them because they are just bad image for the community.

I added this additional entry because they need a mention here as the script kiddies are not knowledgeable enough to be called hackers but some of them (Only a small percentage)  are truly passionate about hacking and try to learn it.

 

In this post i tried to define Hackers in laymen’s term so as to change the misconception everyone has towards them. If you have something interesting to add, do let me know in the comments section below.

 

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