What is Hacking? Definition and Types





What is Hacking ?


Definition - 


Hacking is an attempt to exploit a system, network, or a device using some tools or techniques to gain unauthorized access in a system to manipulate, corrupt, destroy the data for its own need or to seek a revenge.

Most people think hacking is illegal, well that depends on an intent of a hacker. Hacking can be legal or illegal, If a hacker has a permission to penetrate into a system it's said to be a legal practice because he/she is only securing a system by informing the vulnerabilities to the organization, which is known as ethical hacking








If you are caught performing some illegal activities you will have to face the consequences because the result is going to be drastic, which is known as unethical hacking.


Now that you got to learn what does hacking mean, let's see what are the types of hackers

  • Black Hat Hacker : Black Hat Hackers are also known as crackers. These are the types of hackers who perform illegal activities by exploiting a vulnerability if found in a system.

  • White Hat Hacker : These are pen testers also known as ethical hackers who perform penetration testing by taking legal permission from authorized entity and finding the flaws and reporting to the organization to patch the flaw.

  • Grey Hat Hacker : They are a blend of both black hat and white hat hackers. They exploit a security weakness in a computer system just for fun without the intent of harming the system. There intention is to bring the weakness to the attention of the owners and getting appreciation.

  • Green Hat Hacker : These are called as Script Kiddie or noobs, who are new to the field of hacking and breaks into a computer by using automated tools.

  • Blue Hat Hacker : Blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security firm. Who is used to bug-test prior to its launch. They look for loopholes that can be exploited and tries to close these gaps.

  • Red Hat Hacker : These hackers destroy the black hat hackers using malware, trojan, viruses Dos attacks. They are like white hat hackers but they halt black hat hackers.

  • Hacktivist : These hackers utilizes technology to announce social, ideology, religious, or political message.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Ethical hacking terminologies

Image
Ethical Hacking Terminologies  Following is the list of terms that are frequently used in the field of ethical hacking . If you are not aware of these terms then it would be difficult for you to understand the concept of ethical hacking properly. Thus knowing this will ease your process of going further in this domain. Vulnerability -  A weakness, flaw or loophole in a system, network or any device that can be exploited. Threat -  A danger that can exploit an existing bug or vulnerability to compromise the security of a network system. Attack - An action that is done to extract a sensitive data by getting unauthorized access of a system. Phishing - A process where an attacker creates fake website or url which looks like a legit page but it's to trap the user to get sensitive data. Backdoor -  A hidden entry point which can bypass the authentication process i.e logins and passwords also known as trapdoor. Brute
Read more

OSI model

Image
OSI model OSI model is an acronym for Open Systems Interconnection is used to define how data is transferred from one system to another system in a computer network. Now you may ask how a network is formed? If two computers are connected to each other with LAN cables, connectors and Network Interface Card forms a network. Since the designing and infrastructure won't be similar of two computers the OSI model was introduced by ISO(International Organization for Standardization) in 1984 for a successful communication between computers or networks. OSI model consists of  7 different layers 1. Application layer 2. Presentation layer 3. Session layer 4. Transport layer 5. Network layer 6. Data link layer 7. Physical layer Now I'm going to give a mnemonic to remember the OSI model Please-Do-Not-Throw-Sausage-Pizza-Away, easy right? Application layer - Application layer does not include applications like chrome, firefox instead it incl
Read more

Phases of ethical hacking

Image
Phases of Ethical Hacking  In order to be successful in hacking, a hacker needs to follow some steps or you can say phases which involves 5 crucial stages which helps hackers to make a structured ethical hacking attack. Reconnaissance : This is the first phase of hacking   where an attacker gathers as much information as possible. It is also called as footprinting or information gathering. Information that we collect is divided in three groups - network, host, people. There are two types of reconnaissance  - Active & Passive. Active - Direct communication is involved to gather information about the target. Information can be regarding an individual or an organization so anytime if somebody is taking too much interest on you or your background - Be alert! Tools used to scan a network can be Nmap , Hping , etc Passive - Here indirect communication takes place. Information can be gathered using social media websites or public websites. Scanning :  Here an
Read more