How to Become a Hacker: Computer Hacking Beginners Guide

by Moaml Mohmmed

How to Become a Hacker
Computer Hacking Beginners Guide
The term “hacker” today has garnered a negative connotation. You’ve heard about hackers breaking
into computer systems and looking at or even stealing some very sensitive and very private
information. Millions of computer users worldwide have felt the effects of hacking activity. That
includes virus attacks, spyware, and other forms of malware that slow down, break into, or even
cripple your computer system.
However, not all hackers are dubious and unscrupulous souls who have nothing better to do in life. In
fact, the term “hacker” originally had a very positive and beneficial meaning to it. Traditionally, a
hacker is someone who likes to tinker with computers and other forms of electronics. They enjoy
figuring out how current systems work and find ways to improve them.
In other words, he used to be the guy who had to figure out how to make computers faster and better.
Nowadays, a hacker is just someone who steals electronic information for their own self-interest.
Nevertheless, there are still good hackers (white hat hackers) and bad hackers (black hat hackers).
It basically takes a hacker to catch a hacker and the good news is that a lot of them are on your side of
the playing field. The premise of this book is to help you learn the basics of ethical hacking (the stuff
that white hat hackers do). But in order to know what to look out for, you will have to catch a glimpse
of what black hat hackers do.
The bottom line here is that hacking is no more than a set of computer skills that can be used for either
good or bad. How one uses those skills will clearly define whether one is a white hat or a black hat
hacker. The skills and tools are always neutral; only when they are used for malicious purposes do
they take a turn for the worse.

What are the Objectives of Ethical Hacking?
If hacking per se today is bent on stealing valuable information, ethical hacking on the other hand is
used to identify possible weak points in your computer system or network and making them secure
before the bad guys (aka the black hat hackers) use them against you. It’s the objective of white hat
hackers or ethical hackers to do security checks and keep everything secure.
That is also the reason why some professional white hat hackers are called penetration testing
specialists. One rule of thumb to help distinguish penetration testing versus malicious hacking is that
white hat hackers have the permission of the system’s owner to try and break their security.
In the process, if the penetration testing is successful, the owner of the system will end up with a more
secure computer system or network system. After all the penetration testing is completed, the ethical
hacker, the one who’s doing the legal hacking, will recommend security solutions and may even help
implement them.
It is the goal of ethical hackers to hack into a system (the one where they were permitted and hired to
hack, specifically by the system’s owner) but they should do so in a non-destructive way. This means

that even though they did hack into the system, they should not tamper with the system’s operations.
Part of their goal is to discover as much vulnerability as they can. They should also be able to
enumerate them and report back to the owner of the system that they hacked. It is also their job to
prove each piece of vulnerability they discover. This may entail a demonstration or any other kind of
evidence that they can present.

18 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2019