Hacking basics

Black, white or sometimes a blackish shade of grey. The darker it is, the more fun you have — MakMan. First off, let's start by saying that a career in cybersecurity is kind of like a career in banking. It's an umbrella term that incorporates lots of niches within the industry. Each of those fields deserves a blog on their own, but let's focus solely on the most important generic requirements to embark on a successful career in IT security.

If you've zero experience, don't worry. We all have to start somewhere, and we all need help to get to our goal. Since you have no experience at all, I highly suggest that you teach yourself some basics and fundamentals. In essence, hacking is identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a system and gain access using it. There are two types of hackers: Ethical and black-hat hackers. The black-hat gets unauthorized access by targeting systems. On the other hand, the ethical hacker has official permission in a lawful, legitimate manner to assess the security posture of a target system.

Feeling overwhelming? No worries here is our top recommendation on courses that will take you from absolute beginner to a real hacker in no time:. This course will grant you fundamental knowledge about Cybersecurity, which is a massive subject in today's programming world. It's an area with a lot of demand, which means you'll have a higher chance of finding a job in this industry.

This course from John Academy is perfect for those that have some knowledge within the area to brighten their understanding further and push your career forward.

It's also an excellent course for those that have no experience with programming but has the drive and interest to learn professional skills to land your first job in a relevant market. By enrolling in this course from Coursera, you'll learn the basics of Software Security and will be able to apply for junior jobs within the area. The instructor is Michael Hicks, a professor from the University of Maryland.

If you want to be in the Software Security market, enrolling in this course is a significant first step. As an ethical hacker, you'll be helping companies to gain more security in their computer systems and help the organization protect their data further. This Ethical Hacking course will kick-start your career or further improve your knowledge to raise your income or land a job in the field. In essence, the goal of an ethical hacker is to reveal system weaknesses and show it to the company in order to fix it.

Also, he documents everything he did. The primary skill that is required is to be willing to learn new things on the fly continually or quickly at home. This is essential to be good at hacking. Second, you need a strong foundational understanding of at least one coding or scripting language.

Hacking is an activity that involves breaking into computer systems or networks by exploiting bugs, weaknesses, or vulnerabilities with bad intent or nefarious purposes. The term hacker can also mean a person who is capable enough to overcome a problem. But usually, when we hear the word hacker, we assume it is someone who is an expert in the art and science of hacking.

Black hat hacking is probably the most famous type of hacking. Before we learn more about black hat hacking, you should know that it is illegal. You can face a hefty monetary fine and serve prison time for small misdemeanors.

Black hat hackers do not follow the law or have any ethics. They are bad people, and you want to steer clear of any black hat activities. These hackers break into computer systems and compromise integrity, confidentiality, and availability or personal or corporate data and or systems to do harm.

White hat hackers, on the other hand, are the heroes. They work with companies and organizations and help expose and fix any vulnerabilities in the computer systems and networks. The need for cybersecurity professionals who specialize in white hat techniques will continue to rise in demand. If you have a genuine interest in hacking and cybersecurity as a field, you should seriously consider becoming a white hat hacker. They then bring this information into the knowledge of people who govern or own the system.

But there is an issue. If the vulnerability is exposed in an insecure way and to the public, it could result in bad actors taking advantage of the situation and stage a hacking attempt. Also, grey hat hacking is considered illegal.

This is because the weaknesses in the system are exposed without the permission of the owner. Here are some major areas where you need to be proficient in becoming a competent, ethical hacker. A background in computer science or programming will help you significantly as a beginner hacker. Thanks to the internet, there are several programming resources available for absolute beginners. If you learn best by watching videos, you can refer to YouTube.

Several channels have dedicated themselves to producing tutorials and content for new programmers. If you prefer to enroll in an online course site like Edx, Coursera and Udemy will help you greatly. Learning a new programming language becomes easy if you have prior experience. So, start by learning Python and then progress to other languages. Coding is an essential skill for a hacker. Not only does programming improve your technical skills, but it also makes trains your brain to become proficient in problem-solving.

One of the best books to start learning about networking is Data Communication and Networking by Behrouz A. For network security, you should start by reading Cryptography and Network Security by William Stallings. Cryptography, cryptanalysis, cryptographic primitives are all areas you need to have a firm grasp over.

One thing that you have to keep in mind while reading this book is not to skim through it. If you want to become a competent professional, you will need to know these concepts by heart. Another thing that you can do to increase your networking knowledge is to get some experience working as a network administrator or stick with someone who is. If you have only used one operating system until now, you will need to start using and learning about other operating systems as soon as possible.

Ethical Hacking is a method of identifying weaknesses in computer systems and computer networks to develop countermeasures that protect the weaknesses. An Ethical hacker must get written permission from the owner of the computer system, protect the privacy of the organization been hacked, transparently report all the identified weaknesses in the computer system to the organization, and inform hardware and software vendors of the identified weaknesses. You can search on the web for free ethical hacking courses.

Some courses are paid while some courses are completely free. You just need to choose an ethical hacking course that is completely free and start learning. In this ethical hacking tutorial for beginners, you will learn how to hack for beginners free by learning concepts like Ethical hacking introduction, security threats, ethical hacking skills, Social engineering, Cryptography, Wireshark, DoS attack, SQL injection, Digital forensics, hacking tools, web security vulnerabilities, Kali Linux, and many more interesting ethical hacking concepts.

Information is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many organizations and government agencies require ethical hackers to secure their resources and systems from cybercriminals. So, there are vast opportunities and ethical hackers jobs around the world.