Thoughts about hacking.

[AndrewZeCat]

What do you guys think about hacking?
I don't mean hacking in call of duty and other games. I am talking about the real heavy stuff.
I think it's both cool and scary.
It's not okay to hack but it's very interesting and I want to know what you guys think about it.
I go to a IT school so we learn a lot about computer safety and other stuff.

[saph the sergal]

hacking lets see you havent said what type and really there is 3 types of hacking


as for the one you are learning about if i find out about someone hacking i will get you and trust me i hate it with a passion
im a grey one i dont take over systems i tinker and toy and make things work with each other that souldnt normaly be able to


(defenition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(term) )
People committed to circumvention of computer security. This primarily concerns unauthorized remote computer break-ins via a communication networks such as the Internet (Black hats), but also includes those who debug or fix security problems (White hats), and the morally ambiguous Grey hats.

• 
  

[anoni]

If you want to learn how to hack I can show you the way~.

First thing, a disclaimer.
DO NOT use knowledge of hacking for evil, you may get caught and hackers who are caught are basically unemployable in the IT industry. Doing unethical hacking is bad, so don't do it! You learn hacking in order to better understand the enemy, to better defend your system and to socialize with little problem solving games, not for evil!

STEP 1: Install Linux
The first thing you'll need is Linux, because if you're not using Linux to program you're doing it wrong! There are a few ways to put Linux (which is free btw) on your computer!

Way A (The best way): Use a virtual computer
  If you're a windows or Mac user you may not want to have to reboot your computer to go into Linux to program, luckily there is a way you can run both the Linux operating system and Windows or Mac OS at the same time! You can create what's called a Virtual computer, which is basically when your computer sets some virtualized memory aside in it's own partition, this memory is then used to run an operating system which acts as a completely separate computer to your original computer, it's like a computer inside your computer, computerception! There are SO MANY AWESOME THINGS you can do with a virtual computer, not sure if a file is a virus? DOWNLOAD IT on the virtual computer, there's almost no way the virus can spread to your real computer and if it infects the virtual computer you can restore it to a point before you downloaded the virus, or you can simply delete the virtual computer and create a new one! For our purposes we'll use it to run Linux.

  Now there are two programs you can use, VMWare and VirtualBox, I had trouble with VMWare so I'll only talk about VirtualBox. You can download virtual box here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ you can also download Linux (Ubuntu to be specific) here: http://www.ubuntu.com/ there are many different versions of Linux and you're free to use whichever one looks the best, but Ubuntu is the most supported. And finally, here's a tutorial to get Virtual Box and Linux set up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK-oggHEetc (there are many more tutorials if you don't like that one, just google "Install linux on virtual box").

Way B: Duel Boot your system
   Your system may be slow, or you may find that the virtual box simply isn't working or not your cup of tea. There is another method you can use but unfortunately via this method you would not be able to run both operating systems at the same time, you'd have to boot into one or the other per restart. Duel booting is a bit more complicated than virtual box, but a tutorial can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgJ8FeZA570 (Just replace "redhat linux" with ubuntu if you want to use Ubuntu".

Step 2: Learn how to use Linux
  Well great, you're in Linux, but it's so different from windows! Where's the start menu? What's the terminal? So forth. In Ubuntu you don't have any of these, unless you want them (Linux is insanely customizable, so if you want something chances are you can get it) but have no fear, the core of Linux is the terminal, you can find it by clicking the top left icon (it should be pop up as terminal). Your terminal acts as basically everything, you'll should learn how to navigate the unix system with JUST the terminal alone, as many terminal commands can be very useful in learning how to hack. The basic commands that will get you started are:

  ls = Show contents of current directory (Will show all the files and sub-directories, the special ls -l command is useful cause it also shows you the permissions of each file)
  cd = Change Directory (cd home would change to the home directory (if it was a sub directory you were currently in). cd home/foo/bar would go three directories down. cd .. would go UP a directory)
  mkdir = Create directory (example is mkdir hello, creates a directory called hello).
  gedit <filename> = Opens a textdocument with name filename (you can use many editors like emacs, sublime text, nano or vi, it's really your choice, I just use gedit though).

  There are thousands of more commands and shell scripts to use, but you'll learn them in time, just get used to creating directories and files using the terminal alone.

Step 3: Learn how to program C
  Wow! That's a big step, we went from installing Linux, getting familiar with Linux, to learning an entire programming language! Alas, there really isn't much room for anything else, quite simply C is the best language to do any sort of hacking in because the language lets you do SO MUCH. Some people say "C is the hardest language" and this is only true in some cases, hacking in languages other than C would be MUCH harder, C is just low level which means you have to do a lot of stuff to do stuff you could do in one line in other languages. For example, pointer manipulation in Perl is really difficult, possible but really long and complicated, while sorting is very easy and is just one line. In C, pointer manipulation is super easy and is basically one line, which sorting is very difficult and requires an entire program basically (unless you import it!) So don't let people say "C is the hardest language" cause it only is in SOME respects and the respects we'll be using it for are not those, C is the easiest language for hacking so it's the best language to learn if you want to hack!

  Now learning an entire language will take you a long time, in fact, it'll probably take you about three months, but you won't be doing it without any resources. I say three months because there's a FREE ONLINE COURSE done by the same lecturer who taught me (one of the best lecturers I've ever had btw) and this course is completely free and open to the public (online). In this course you'll learn not just how to program C, but what programming is all about and how to be better at problem solving. The course is on this website: www.openlearning.com you'll need to make an account. The course is called "The Art of Programming" and is found here: https://www.openlearning.com/courses/unsw/computing1 I totally recommend this course, it's truly fantastic!

Step 4: Do a hacking course
  So three months has passed and you've come in a computing novice and come out a programmer! Well, there's still a lot to learn in programming, but hey at least you got the basics! You now have enough knowledge to do an elementary hacking course, a good friend of mine Sarah Bennette just so happens to be running a free hacking course on openlearning. The course is called "Hack the Planet" and is a very fun and educational course and is a good introduction for security! The course is found here: https://www.openlearning.com/courses/hacktheplanet and is good to do if you want to learn hacking. It has fun wargames and some really cool interactive activities, so have fun with that

Step 5: You're on your own
  That's all I can give you for the moment, but now you have the skills to begin learning for yourself. So get out there and make the world yours!