What is hacking.....

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There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker’ to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.

These hackers are those who are focussed on hacking websites and leaving contentious information on such websites. This is to spread political, social, religious messages. This can also take the form of targeting other nations.



Although the word hacker tends to evoke negative connotations when referred to, it is important to remember that all hackers are not created equal. If we didn’t have white hat hackers diligently seeking out threats and vulnerabilities before the black hats can find them, then there would probably be a lot more activity involving cybercriminals exploiting vulnerabilities and collecting sensitive data than there is now.



A few years ago, a hacker stole the Twitter ID @N (which is apparently valued at $50,000) through some clever phone calls. Basically, the hacker called Paypal and used social engineering tactics to obtain the victim’s last four credit card digits. He then called the victim’s website hosting company, GoDaddy, and used the credit card information to reset passwords. The hacker then held the victim’s business website hostage until the victim was forced to give up @N.

One of the worst messages anyone can see on their computer is a sudden screen take-over telling them all their data is encrypted and asking for a payment to unlock it. Ransomware is huge! After a slight decrease in activity in 2017, ransom-asking programs have come roaring back. Billions of dollars in productivity is being lost and billions in ransom are being paid. Small businesses, large businesses, hospitals, police stations and entire cities are being brought to a halt by ransomware. About 50% of the victims pay the ransom, ensuring that it isn’t going away anytime soon.

Any individual, organization – small or large, across all verticals, and in any country—can be vulnerable.  Motives for these attacks can involve espionage—stealing secrets–or be monetary. A prime target for cyber thieves are an organization’s servers–that’s where the data is stored, and where the pot of gold lies in the form of sensitive data. And sadly, the latest statistics in the 2014 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), Verizon’s annual survey of hacking, indicate that the time it takes for IT to detect a digital break-in can be measured in months rather than days or hours.

Many hackers hack simply because they can. For some people, hacking is like a hobby—as with most pursuits, it’s another reason to connect with a community of like-minded individuals.

Most malware programs will be found embedded in the much larger list of legitimate running programs. The hard part can be determining what is and what isn't legitimate. You can enable the “Check VirusTotal.com” options, and the programs, along with Google’s Virustotal.com web site, will tell you which ones it thinks are malware. When in doubt, disable the unrecognized program, reboot the PC, and re-enable the program only if some needed functionality is no longer working.

The three types of hackers are the white hat hacker, the grey hat hacker, and the black hat hacker. Each type of hacker hacks for a different reason, a cause, or both. All have the required skills needed to accomplish their mission. At one end of the spectrum is the black hat, who hacks for evil and malicious intent and without permission. On the other end of the spectrum is the white hat, who hacks against a black hat in order to protect computer and network access and has the company's permission to do so. In the middle is the grey hat, who hacks not for evil and not for good; they are neutral in their cause and usually try to sell their skills for monetary gain, like a mercenary