What is Hacking ?

          I have been planning to blog on this topic since I saw a movie in which a Hacker hacks a computer for stealing information. Speaking of which, many of you would have seen something like this in a movie:

          The Hacker, alone, in a place completely isolated from it’s surroundings. He sits in front of a huge computer screen which is the only source of light in the dark room and starts typing furiously. A hundred windows keep opening and closing. The Hacker mutters something in an indecipherable language under his breath. Suddenly, a window pops open, saying “HACKING…”, the status bar starts ascending from 0%. The Hacker catches his breath. The status bar reaches 100%. It says “ACCESS GRANTED”. The Hacker stands up and cheers.

What you have witnessed is a drama called “HOLLYWOOD HACKING”. This is far from the truth.

What is Hacking?

Actually, a “Hack” is a creative solution to a problem. You should know that if you watch “Life Hacks” on YouTube. But here, we refer it to the process of finding loopholes and vulnerabilities in a system or database to enter into it and steal data, hold it for ransom, or simply cause mischief.

How is Hacking done?

For that, let’s take a real world example.

There was a new bank called BASICBANK. It had managed to draw a lot of customers, but it did not have a security system tight enough. All it had was a single security officer and two CCTV cameras. One day, a Hacker came to this bank. He saw that it indeed had poor security. He decided to take advantage of it. On his way out, he noted that the cameras were recording to a PC. The Hacker, being a professional, knew that there was a hack (also known as ‘exploit’) to access the software without the password, but it was repaired (or patched) in the newer versions. But, he noted that this software was running a version that was there before the patched version came out. He used the vulnerability to his advantage. He bribed the security, got into the bank, stole the money, and hacked into the CCTVs and deleted the proof of his visit.

Now, let me get this clear, this is only the very basic bottom-level example. No one will be foolish enough to put such a little security in a bank (but it can happen). Actual Hacking is even harder, involving more steps and more wits.

ENTERING INTO A COMPUTER OR DATABASE WITHOUT PERMISSION IS ILLEGAL.

Different types of Hackers:

There are basically 3 different types of Hackers:

Black Hat Hackers

          They are the hackers we are most familiar with. They hack computers and databases for their personal profit. This is ILLEGAL.

White Hat Hackers

          White Hat Hackers (or Penetration testers) are employed by companies to test the integrity and security of their software. This is perfectly legal, and they get paid for it

Grey Hat Hackers

          They hack computers and databases for a good cause (like Robin Hood). But remember, this is NOT legal.

How to prevent Hacking?

          There is no definite way to prevent hacking. Every system has vulnerabilities. But that doesn’t mean that every hacker knows every vulnerability in every software. Whenever a vulnerability is spotted, an update is released (these updates are sometimes called “Software Patches”). Our best shot is to keep updating software in order to rid those vulnerabilities. As we talked about in that example of BASICBANK, if they had updated their CCTV software, they would have had proof against the Hacker who burgled the bank.

          Also, keep a good Antivirus software, since viruses are sometimes created by Hackers to steal data.

Well, that’s all.

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Cheers,

Nikhil