Hacking is a method which generally refers to an illegal way of getting inside someone else’s computer, cell phone or network without the owner’s permission. The person, be it anyone of any age who engages in such activities is termed as a hacker- one who hacks the system.
Hacking is a deep malicious method or an activity as a whole involving illegal or unwanted alterations and manipulation to data stored, equipment in general and personal data leak as well. In today’s world, most of the generalizations for hacking are characterized as being an unlawful activity for the gain of finance, information collection and sometimes even just for the sake of fun.
Hackers come under the criteria of cyber criminals and are treated in the same way as other criminals. Hacking is a very interesting and sort of an easy way in today’s world to get information. It seems a lot to be technical in nature requiring in-depth programming knowledge and also network software, but a new method or field used by hackers is by figuring out the psychological aspects of human minds.
They trick the normal users into pressing or clicking on any malicious message, advertisement or attachment which can eventually lead to either their data being leaked or loss of data over network software. Various tactics are into play which helps them to fulfill their aim and desires into getting what they want, when they want and how they want it.
General overview
Not always hacking is a process being used for illegal purposes. It has a positive side as well which shows that hackers also need and employed for the use of their skill in overcoming illegal hacking problems, where some unlawful hacker has hacked your network, and in solving programming problems.
They are way too skilled experts that use their technical computer knowledge to solve any problem. A lot of times when hackers use their hacking tactics they are termed as crackers. But nowadays due to increased cybercrime, the mainstream word used is a hacker for such criminals in general.
This is a fast-growing world which is most of the time dependent on technology, need computers, cell phones and all the type of digital gadgets upon which our dependency is day by day increasing. We can’t always have isolated computer systems.
In every company nowadays, be a big one or a small one, networking and communication between the computer systems are needed to be established to facilitate the process of working in an easy and a hassle-free way. But on the other side, this exposes the system to hacking. Leading companies appoint information technology and computer software specialists and programmers for the sole purpose of looking out for their company’s confidential data and maintaining the authenticity of the institution.
Tons and tons of financial losses are faced by companies all around the globe just because of hacking and most of the times it happens so quick that is basically out of their hands to do anything about it.
Types of hackers in today’s world
- White hat hackers
These are those hackers who gain or tries to gain access to the network for the sole purpose of identifying and fixing the unidentified problems. They do all sort of testing to check for the vulnerability of the device so as to how much vulnerable it is and how easily it can be accessed. White hat hackers are also called ethical hackers because they work according to ethics and do not cheat with their clients.
- Black hat hackers
These are those hackers who try to first find the weakness of a computer or any other digital device security and then exploit them for the purpose of financial gain, fraud or other malicious reasons. These hackers are also known as crackers.
- Grey hat hackers
These are those hackers who sometimes might break the law by accessing a network without permission but not with the intention of that of a black hat hacker.
- Script kiddies
These are those type of hackers who uses existing computer scripts or codes to hack into the computers, lacking the expertise to write their own.
- Hacktivist
These are those who hack for the purpose of social, religious and political message relaying process. They hijack websites to leave messages and all.
- Phreaker
These are those hackers who utilize their hacking knowledge for exploiting a weakness in the telecommunication technology like telephones, mobile phones, etc.
- Red hat hackers
These are those hackers who are like white hat one’s in which they halt the Black hat hackers. In place of reporting the illegal hacker, they shut them down by sending a virus or destroying the network.
Steganography: Hacker’s paradise
Steganography is the practice of concealing a file, a message, image or video under another file, message, image or video. Already hacking is dangerous, now imagine a hidden virus to be under a superficial one. How scaring could it be?
This method is being commonly used by the hacker. This method allows the hackers to fool the internet users, antivirus and firewalls. Cryptography is something different which means obscuring content so that it can not be understood.
Steganography’s goal is to disguise itself as real content, but actually, it does not exist and it is like a knife hidden from you. Since this concept does not follow the process of data delivery and receiving to maintain confidentiality between the sender and receiver, it can easily launch attacks without even you knowing about it.
This does not mean we can not discover attacks that use this method. Many institutions like financial or social one, are increasing the involvement with unauthorized or unauthenticated data exfiltration attempts. Possible mitigation and measures can be adopted like monitoring who is interacting with the network and restricting file adjustment.
These can be effective defense strategies, but they have their flaws as well. They don’t directly deal with the detection or addressing of the steganography techniques attackers are using. A method which is way old being used for something else, is now being manipulated and materialized to do something which is unethical and both socially and politically unlawful and also against anyone’s privacy.
Hacking is a major issue for today’s generation and needs to be checked properly so that data loss, fraud or any other type of malicious incident does not happen.
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