Steps To Become A Hacker!

Step 1: Learn To Program In C

C programming is one of the most powerful languages in computer programming. It is necessary to really master this language. This programming language was invented by Denise Ritchie in between the years 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs. C programming will essentially help you divide the task in smaller pieces and these pieces can be expressed by a sequence of commands. Try writing some program on your own by assessing the logic.

Step 2: Learn More Than One Programming Language

When you are trying to become a hacker, it is very important to learn other modern computer programming languages such as JAVA, Perl, PHP and Python. One of the best ways to learn these is by reading books from experts.

Step 3: Learn UNIX

UNIX is a multi-tasking and multi-user computer operating system that is designed to provide good security to the systems. This operating system was developed by some employees of AT&T in Bell Labs. The best way to learn it is to get into an open-source version (e.g. centos) and install/run the same on your own. You can operate internet without learning UNIX, but it is not possible for you to be an internet hacker without understanding UNIX.

Step 4: Learn More Than One Operating Systems

There are many other operating systems apart from UNIX. Windows operating system is one of the most commonly compromised systems, hence, it is good to learn hacking Microsoft systems, which are closed-source systems.

According to the National Vulnerability Database, Microsoft operating systems have a large number of vulnerabilities.
Windows OS installers are distributed in binary, therefore, it is not easy for you to read the code. Binary code is basically the digital representation of text and data that computer understands. However, knowing how programs are written for Windows and how different applications behave on this operating system will help.

One of the recent vulnerabilities of a popular OS was that Java Web Start applications get launched automatically even if the Java plug-ins are disabled. How to be a hacker is about knowing the weaknesses of these operating systems and targeting them systematically.

Step 5: Learn Networking Concepts

The networking concept needs to be sharp when you want to be a hacker.

Understanding how the networks are created is important, however, you need to know the differences between different types are networks. Having a clear understanding of TCP/IP and UDP protocol is a must to be able to exploit the vulnerabilities on world wide web.

Understand what is subnet, LAN, WAN and VPN.
The networking commands to do a HTTP request needs to be on your fingertips. The HTTP protocol, is the gateway through which one enters the internet world. Hence, it is necessary to learn this protocol in order to break the barriers. The hackers often use the HTTP gateway to breach the security of the system and take control over it.

Apache Httpd is one of the most commonly used web servers and knowing in and out of it is going to empower you on any HTTP or other application layer protocol related endeavors.
Also Nmap is a powerful network scanning tool that is used by hackers and security professional across the world to identify vulnerable hosts. However, to effectively start using it you must understand the networking basics.

Step 6: Start Simple: Go Through Tutorials About Hacking

This is the simple and best way to start. Read as many tutorials as possible that are meant for hacking. These articles will give you insight and help you develop the attitude to be a hacker. Some tutorials will initiate you with Nmap, Nessus and SuperScan, some of the hacking programs or tools that hackers generally use. These tutorials are readily available over the internet; Both text and video tutorials are available for you to answer your question how to be a hacker.

Step 7: Learn Cryptography

As an expert hacker, you need to understand and master the art of cryptography. The technology of cryptography and encryption is very important for internet and networking. It is the practice and study of techniques that are used for secure communication in the presence of third parties. The encryption is done for various aspects of information security such as confidentiality of the data, integrity of the data and authentication. Moreover, the technology of cryptography is extensively used in ATM cards, computer passwords and e-commerce. While hacking, these encrypted codes needs to be broken, which is called decryption.
Understand various techniques used for password cracking. There are dozens of tools available to do password cracking, and using it is not hacking. To be expert at hacking its important for you to understand how to create a program that can crack a password from cypher text.

Step 8: Experiment A Lot

This is an important step for setting yourself up as an expert hacker. Setup a laboratory on your own to experiment the learning on the practical applications. A simplest lab will have your computer, however once you advance you may want to add more and more computers and required hardware for your experiments.
It is good to try experimenting on your own computers, where you can rectify if you have done any mistake. Many hackers initially start off by downloading virtual lab applications such as Oracle VirtualBox. You require at least 3 GBs of RAM and a comparatively powerful processor to carry out your hacking experiments. Setting up the virtual machine is crucial, as it will allow you to test virus, applications and different servers without affecting your own PC.
Some of the things you may need to keep in mind when doing experiments

- Keep a backup before any experiment.
- Start small and have check points.
- Know when to stop.
- Document your progress
- Keep improvising
- Automate repetitive tasks

Step 9: Read Some Good Books From Experts

Reading will always enhance your knowledge. Try to read as many books and articles as possible written by the experts in the field field of ethical hacking and enterprise security
Reading a lot about anything related is so important in the world of hacking that you must also consider enhancing your reading speed. If your reading speed is slow, then you may not be able to progress fast in this field. Practice speed reading techniques like skimming, chunk reading etc.
When it comes to reading a lot, it's also important to know that a majority of content on web is not worth your time. Many people use search engine tricks to attract traffic but have little value in it. If you skim through an article within seconds and decide not to read that is going to save you a lot of time for some really well researched content.

Step 10: Go Next Level: Write Vulnerability

Vulnerability of a program is the weakness of the program. It is a good approach to look for the vulnerability of an existing program and share the same with others. In this way you will have the option to collect varied opinions from different sources, enabling you to hone your current skill set.
The examples of computer vulnerabilities include memory safety violation, input validation error, privilege confusion bugs and user interface failure. For instance, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 11 had the vulnerability bug in its preview version which several hackers exploited.
Identifying a new weakness in any software is the real work any expert hackers would perform.

Step 11: Contribute To Open Source Security Projects

Contributing to an open-source computer security project is a great platform to test your skills. This is not everyone’s cup of tea. Many organizations like Mozilla and Apache offer these types of open source projects. Try to be a part of these projects and add a valuable contribution to the benefit of the community.
Participating in the open source security projects such as anti-spam, anti-virus, firewall and data removals help you augment your dexterity as a hacker. Contribute your vulnerability findings to the global vulnerability databases and give back to the community.
Remember that it does not matter if your contribution is small, as long as you partic

ipate and add value it helps.

Step 12: Continue Learning And Keep Listening To Security Talks

The key to success in the hacking career is continuous learning. Reading blogs for hacking available at sites such as hackerfactor blog and IKEA hacker blog; participating in the forums such as hackforums.net and elite hack are great ways to refresh your knowledge as a hacker. The online video forums like TED or TechTalk are good sources to know more about the emergent hacking techniques and technologies that are being deployed. You should also try following the posts of famous hackers such as Adrian Lamo, Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Poulsen and Robert Tappan Morris.

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Detecting and Removing Trojan Horses

Detection – How to find a Trojan.

• In this page you are going to learn about Detecting and Removing Trojan Horses. By their very nature Trojan horses are difficult to find. Unlike viruses they won’t corrupt files or delete things you might notice, they do their best to stay out of sight and avoid detection. That said, they are pieces of software and no software can run on any computer without leaving some trace of it’s existence. 
• Below I’ll cover three basic tools that will uncover the presence of the majority of Trojan horses. None of these costs any money, in fact two of them are already installed on every windows computer!

The Task List

You may be familiar with the Task List that appears if you press CTRL+ALT+DEL within windows. This is supposed to be a list of all the programs running on your computer at the second you pressed those keys – it’s not. For reasons best known to themselves Microsoft hid a great many processes from display in the task list, possibly to avoid confusing novice users. In doing this, they gave trojan writers the perfect tool to hide their own creations from your view as well.

Less well known is the System Information Utility (msinfo32.exe) that hides in the

C:\program files\common\microsoft shared\msinfo

folder on your disk. This tool can uncover almost every process that’s running on any windows system, even those that are ‘hidden’ from the task list. Better yet, on windows 98 & ME the same tool provides an easy way to selectively disable any suspect processes at the next reboot. To use this when hunting for Trojans, look down the task listings for running tasks & services for any which you don’t recognize. Check the paths and file names. Check the file properties and run the executable or .dll through your virus scanner. If you find nothing but still aren't sure, use the Start up Programs editor in the tools menu to disable the process then reboot your machine (make a backup of your system files first!). If nothing complains, leave the process disabled for now and carry on looking at the others. Eventually you’ll have only those processes you really need running on your machine which will have the benefit of not only killing off any trojans but also making your PC seem more responsive and generally quicker to start up.

Netstat

• All trojans need to communicate. If they don’t do that they are useless for their intended purpose. This is the second major weakness of most trojan horses, their communication leaves a trail you can follow.
• The Netstat command lists all the open connections to and from your PC.
• To use it, open a DOS box and enter the command netstat -an this will list all the open connections to and from your PC, along with the IP address of the machines on either side.
•  If you see a connection you don’t recognise, you need to investigate it further and track down the process that’s using it. For this you need the third tool in the armoury, 

TCPView

• TCPView is a free utility by Sysinternals which not only lists the IP addresses communicating with your computer, it tells you what program is using that connection. 
• Armed with this information you can locate whatever program is sending data out of your machine and deal with it. 
• I recommend renaming the offending file then rebooting – that way if you make a mistake you can put it right easily.

Removing a Trojan Horse

Trojans often modify the startup files of your computer, add or change lines in the system registry and even overwrite system files to make sure they are run every time you boot up. For that reason, removing them by hand takes time, patience and an understanding of what you are doing. It’s fraught with dangers, including trashing your registry or loosing the ability to run programs so it’s definatly not for everyone – even those who know exactly what they are doing often prefer to use automated tools when removing a trojan horse.
Each trojan has it’s own specific removal routine, see the Cleaners & Fixes pages for details on those. They do however all conform to the same basic patterns :

• They usually insert a line in the run, run once or run services keys in the system registry. This is the principal startup method of most trojans including Back Orifice & Sub7. Removing the line from the registry and rebooting usually stops the trojan loading.
• Some alter Win.ini, system.ini or plae themselves in the ‘Startup’ folder. Again, removing the offending line usually stops the trojan running.
• Some alter or replace system files. These need careful handling and are best left to experts or automated tools.
• One in particular can modify a certain setting in the registry, causing it to be executed before ANY program you run. removing this line stops you running ANYTHING! Again, this is best left to experts or automated tools to deal with.

The steps involved in removing a trojan are simple :

1. Identify the trojan horse file on your hard disk.
2. Find out how it is being started and take the necessary action to prevent it being restarted after a reboot.
3. Reboot your machine and delete the trojan horse.
4. See the Recovering from a System Compromise pages for more in-depth help on what else you may need to do.

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