Basic Skills Required to Become a Ethical Hacker

-

Skills allow you to achieve your desired goals within the available time and resources. As a hacker, you will need to develop skills that will help you get the job done. These skills include learning how to program, use the internet, good at solving problems, and taking advantage of existing security tools. Common programming languages and skills that you must know as a hacker.

What is a programming language?

A programming language is a language that is used to develop computer programs. The programs developed can range from operating systems; data based applications through to networking solutions.  
Learn everything about ethical hacking tools and skills

Why should you learn how to program?

  • Hackers are the problem solver and tool builders, learning how to program will help you implement solutions to problems. It also differentiates you from script kiddies.
  • Writing programs as a hacker will help you to automate many tasks which would usually take lots of time to complete.
  • Writing programs can also help you identify and exploit programming errors in applications that you will be targeting.
  • You don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time, and there are a number of open source programs that are readily usable. You can customize the already existing applications and add your methods to suit your needs.

What languages should I learn?

The answer to this question depends on your target computer systems and platforms. Some programming languages are used to develop for only specific platforms. As an example, Visual Basic Classic (3, 4, 5, and 6.0) is used to write applications that run on Windows operating system. It would, therefore, be illogical for you to learn how to program in Visual Basic 6.0 when your target is hacking Linux based systems.

Programming languages that are useful to hackers

SR NO.COMPUTER
LANGUAGES		DESCRIPTIONPLATFORMPURPOSE
1HTML
Language used to write web pages.*Cross platformWeb hacking

 Login forms and other data entry methods on the web use HTML forms to get data. Been able to write and interpret HTML, makes it easy for you to identify and exploit weaknesses in the code.
2JavaScript
Client side scripting language*Cross platformWeb Hacking

 JavaScript code is executed on the client browse. You can use it to read saved cookies and perform cross site scripting etc.
3PHP
Server side scripting language*Cross platformWeb Hacking

 PHP is one of the most used web programming languages. It is used to process HTML forms and performs other custom tasks. You could write a custom application in PHP that modifies settings on a web server and makes the server vulnerable to attacks.
4SQL
Language used to communicate with database*Cross platformWeb Hacking

 Using SQL injection, to by-pass web application login algorithms that are weak, delete data from the database, etc.
5Python

 Ruby

 Bash

 Perl		High level programming languages*Cross platformBuilding tools & scripts

 They come in handy when you need to develop automation tools and scripts. The knowledge gained can also be used in understand and customization the already available tools.
6C & C++
High level programming*Cross platformWriting exploits, shell codes, etc.

 They come in handy when you need to write your own shell codes, exploits, root kits or understanding and expanding on existing ones.  
7Java 

 CSharp

 Visual Basic

 VBScript		Other languagesJava & CSharp are *cross platform. Visual Basic is specific to WindowsOther uses

 The usefulness of these languages depends on your scenario.

 * Cross platform means programs developed using the particular language can be deployed on different operating systems such as Windows, Linux based, MAC etc.

Other skills

In addition to programming skills, a good hacker should also have the following skills:
  • Know how to use the internet and search engines effectively to gather information.
  • Get a Linux-based operating system and the know the basics commands that every Linux user should know.
  • Practice makes perfect, a good hacker should be hard working and positively contribute to the hacker community. He/she can contribute by developing open source programs, answering questions in hacking forums, etc.
and will need to understand various hacking techniques such as −
  • Password guessing and cracking
  • Session hijacking
  • Session spoofing
  • Network traffic sniffing
  • Denial of Service attacks
  • Exploiting buffer overflow vulnerabilities
  • SQL injection
Summary
  • Programming skills are essential to becoming an effective hacker.
  • Network skills are essential to becoming an effective hacker
  • SQL skills are essential to becoming an effective hacker.
  • Hacking tools are programs that simplify the process of identifying and exploiting weaknesses in computer systems.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make an Effective Presentations

-
Image
Ø   How can you make a good presentation even more effective? This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’. By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas. Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve. 1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous. But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through. Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters. Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond. 2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going
Read more

Information systems (IS)

-
Image
Information systems  ( IS ) are formal, sociotechnical, organizational systems designed to collect, process, store, and distribute  information .   In a  sociotechnical  perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people, structure (or roles), and technology. A  computer information system  is a system composed of people and computers that processes or interprets information.The term is also sometimes used in more restricted senses to refer to only the software used to run a computerized database or to refer to only a  computer system . Information Systems  is an academic study of systems with a specific reference to information and the complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and also distribute  data . An emphasis is placed on an information system having a definitive boundary, users, processors, storage, inputs, outputs and the aforementioned communication networks.
Read more

What is Hacking?

-
Image
Hacking is identifying weakness in computer systems or networks to exploit its weakness to gain access. Example of Hacking: Using password cracking algorithm to gain access to a system. Computers have become mandatory to run a successful businesses. It is not enough to have isolated computers systems; they need to be networked to facilitate communication with external businesses. This exposes them to the outside world and hackin g. Hacking means using computers to commit fraudulent acts such as fraud, privacy invasion, stealing corporate/personal data, etc. Cyber crimes cost many organizations millions of dollars every year. Businesses need to protect themselves against such attacks. Hacking has been a part of computing for almost five decades and it is a very broad discipline, which covers a wide range of topics. The first known event of hacking had taken place in 1960 at MIT and at the same time, the term "Hacker" was originated. Hacking is the act of finding the
Read more