Who is a hacker?
A hacker is often considered as that bad guy that breaks into computers and steal people's private stuff, that isn't totally true. There are in fact, three types of hackers, and they are categorized based on "Hats".
Black Hat Hackers, White Hat Hackers, and Grey Hat Hackers.
Black hat hackers are the bad guys who can be annoying as they mess around with people's computers and steal personal information or even take your money.
Grey hat hackers are often described as the Robin Hood hackers, they are neither good nor bad guys, they usually see their selves as people who provide justice through hacking e.g the anonymous collective of hackers(Those cool guys with the Guy Fawkes' mask).
In this publication, We will be looking into the career of White Hat Hackers or Ethical Hackers as they are usually called.
Ethical hackers are hackers who keep a clean record and usually work for governmental agencies and companies to secure their systems. They hack into systems to evaluate their security and prevent malicious hackers from breaking in. To catch a hacker, you have to be a hacker ~ Ethical hackers' quote.
How to be an Ethical Hacker.
There are certain steps to take if you have an interest in Ethical Hacking.
Networking: Taking a Cisco Certified Network Associate Course is a great step to become an Ethical Hacker as it is required to understand basic network setups.
Databases: Learning to work with MySql databases and know-how to build your own databases
Operating Systems: The Linux Kernel created by Linus Torvalds has given birth to a lot of distributions that are used for hacking. Examples of Hacking OS built based on the Linux Kernel are Kali Linux, Parrot Os, Ubuntu, Fedora, ArchLinux, etc.
Programming: A lot of hacking requires you to reverse engineer programs, or build programs to crack passwords using languages like Python, C# C, and C++.
Cryptography: Understanding the art of data Encryption is very important as the goal of an Ethical Hacker is to secure data.
Owning Hacking Hardware: There are certain hardware tools that you to hack into physical systems, You can find some of them at
concise-courses.com/hacking-tools/top-ten, tindie.com, spygoodies.com, shop.hak5.org, hackerwarehouse.com,
Books: I have curated a couple of hacking books for you to read drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MFiz0QMmvLh..
Take Hacking Courses: Learn from expert hackers, You can learn at your pace from
youtube.com, Securitytube.net, pentesteracademy.com, Hackeracademy.com, cybrary.it
Apply for Certifications: There are widely recognized organizations where you can apply for ethical hacking certifications like the cecouncil. Some of the Ethical hackers' certifications include: CEH — (Certified Ethical Hacker), CHFI — (Computer Hacking and Forensic investigator), OSCP — (Offensive Security Certified Professional), OSCE — (Offensive Security Certified Certified Expert), OSWP — (Offensive Security Wireless Professional), CISM — (Certified Information Security Manager), CISSP — (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CompTIA Security+.
Practice in safe environments: There are safe environments where you can practice how to hack. Burb Suite, Ettercap, Wireshark, DVWA (Dam Vulnerable Web Application), Metasploitable2, Samurai WTF, Linux Security Distro Tools, and hackthebox.eu.
Attend hackers' conferences and read blogs. One of the most popular hackers' conferences is defcon.org and Blog is thehackernews.com.
Welcome to the end of my TedTalk.
Please share your thoughts in the comment sections, Let's discuss.
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