I thought I would make a post about my entrance into the world of Hacking. I have always had a bit of a school boy crush on the skill since I was young. I guess a lot of people do. Mass amounts of power coming from raw intellect is just my style. Just like how I imagine most people see hacking I though you have to be smart and learn a bunch of hard computer stuff. This takes time and a lot of motivation.
Since I went back to school to study engineering things changed for me a little. To complete my college work I regularly learn large amounts of information about difficult subjects. This created a problem for me. Every time the subject of hacking enter my world through a move or the internet I was so much more attracted to it. This is because I knew I now had the capability to learn the craft. I mean sometimes I stay up for 48 hours and just binge on educational Youtube videos for kicks. Still though I managed to stop myself from opening a new google tab and punch in the key word hacking. Mainly because I have christian values. Iwas starting the feel like I was being chased down by the idea. Like God, the universe or whatever you want to call it was trying to get me to walk down this path.
Then a one small piece of information changed everything… well two words… Penetration Testing(Pen Testing).
A Pen tester is like a ethical hacker. Say you own a bank. You don’t really want a hacker to steal a bunch of money. So what you do is hire a Pen Tester to come in and hack your computer system with your permission. He finds all of the security holes so the bank can fix them. These guy literally get paid to hack into banks and governments!
This made hacking, or well, Pen Testing compatible. The coolest thing about it is they have to learn how to hack just like real hackers to do their job. So I gave into temptation and started to try and learn to Pen Test. Another cool thing about it is they can’t find many people with the skills to do this job so there is a well paid future in it. I mean a lot of these guy are ex-hackers that have been arrested for it because they are that desperate to find people with the skill.
So like a kid on his first day of school I went out completely lost but eager the lean. I was lost at first not knowing where to start. This first scary thing I noticed was the term “Script Kid”. When a experience hacker find a vulnerability normally they will write a little program to automate it. Then because most hackers are into freedom of information they will give it away on the internet for free. So a script kid is someone who doesn’t really have that much technical knowledge but instead collects these bits of software. Most of the gangs that steal credit card information are using software like this.
If you don’t think that’s scary read on! Now there is this very real bit of software, I’m not naming for obvious reasons, that can take over a mobile phone. I’m taking full control. It can take pictures, listen to your calls, see your internet traffic. So if you ordered a pizza the hacker would have your bank info. I mean you could be sat playing Flappy Birds and you would have no idea a hacker was watching the live video feed from your camera and reading your email.
Anyway back to the main story. So after a few days I kind of got my grounding and knew at least what I should be learning first. The videos on youtube from this big american hacker conference blew my mind. In this one video this guy was demonstrating exactly how the hacker group Anonymous were taking down corporate websites. Then if you can believe it he said “They were lucky Anonymous didn’t use this technique” the he showed us how to do that as well. LOL. and this information is just a youtube search away!
Another cool thing is the websites setup with hacking challenges. They basically have all these small little sandbox websites and each time complete a challenge and hack one you get a badge on your profile. What I like about these websites is they won’t tell you exactly how to do it. Instead they give you a few hints of subjects to read up on. This way people actually learn what they’re doing. Also you get to practice without breaking any laws.
So that brings me to where I am now. I found a video series I’m about halfway through and I’m kind of dangerous now. You know I really enjoy thinking that. It might sound ridiculous but I enjoy in some strange way that with the information I have I could do some real damage.
The way I see things now is… everyone has a large knife in their kitchen but they’re not going to stab a stranger on the street with it. Ok maybe in this example what I can do is a more like a small homemade bomb but hey… you know whats funny… I’m still nothing close some most of the guys I’m learning from. What’s nice is I still haven’t crossed the line with the information I have. Everything I have done so far has been with peoples permission let along against the law. After the things I have been searching for I am 100% on some kind of government list and I don’t know how I feel about that.
It was nice to write this because I haven’t told anyone I have been learning all this. Its better that way. I know one friend in particular who would 100% test attacks out on our college network or a coffy show if I told him how. On the brighter side most of the thing most of the things I have been learning about cross over with what I’m going to be learning when I start at university in september.
whitetekk 