In the mind of a Hacker

January 13, 2022. No. 126

Hacker: "is any individual who dedicates himself to programming enthusiastically, that is, an enthusiastic expert of any kind" or "person who is an expert in handling computers, who deals with the security of systems and developing improvement techniques".

If you are surprised to read this end and it does not match the one you had in mind until the moment when you heard this word, it is simple, the word you are looking for is "Cracker". The main difference is that crackers do it illegally. For many, many years, the word "Hacker" has been misrepresented and attributed to anyone who tries to bypass a system and exploit its vulnerabilities for personal gain or perhaps simply harm.

A little history

Since 1961 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the PDP-1 microcomputer captured the curiosity of a group of students who were part of the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC), and with it, they began to experiment. They even created the video game Spacewar. Sometime later some of these same students began to play pranks on each other and they called these "hacks". These were the first to be called “hackers”.

Hacker ethics

Steven Levy published the book entitled "Hackers: heroes of the computer revolution" where the hacker ethic is raised for the first time, proclaiming and promoting an ethic of free access to the source code of the software and free access to all information.

According to Levy, these are the 6 fundamentals of the hacker:

• Access to computers must be unlimited and total.

• All information should be free.

• It is necessary to promote decentralization and distrust the authorities.

• Hackers should be judged on their work and not on things like their race, age, or their social position.

• You can create art and beauty on a computer.

• Computers can change your life for the better.

• Best hacking software.

There are a good variety of operating system distributions that come with a set of tools that perform dissimilar types of attacks. Currently, anyone on the internet can download and install them on their computers and through various tutorials on YouTube to be able to access your computer or cell phone in an extremely easy way (as long as you are an easy target). There are people who don't take security seriously enough. Passwords are birthdays, pet names, or even "admin" or even some make it more complex even with "123".

Kali Linux

We could easily say that Kali Linux is the best operating system for Hacking. Kali is a real hacker hammer for any computer scientist. It includes more than 600 pentesting (penetration testing) tools, uses the default root account, and is open source. It is compatible with x86 computers and ARM architectures and it is also compatible with smartphones including devices from Nexus, One Plus One, and others.

There are others like Black Arch Linux, Parrot Sec, Backbox, CAINE, just to name a few. All of them are free and available on the internet so that you can make use of them.

These operating systems with their tools allow you to check your own security in your company or at home. Whenever you watch a tutorial, it will alert you that hacking another person without their consent has legal repercussions and that these methods they teach you are for personal use and in order to improve your own security, finding vulnerabilities in your system to be able to correct them.

Advice

The main thing is to have an antivirus and always updated. In addition, always avoid entering pages of dubious origin that generate little confidence, especially when you are going to download some software, always do it from official websites and not from third parties.

Whenever you download software and install it, you can introduce a virus to your computer or cell phone, which can establish a back door from your computer to the attacker's computer. At this time, all your documents are exposed. Imagine that that person now has access to your entire computer or cell phone. You can even copy all the information and then erase everything or format your pc or cell phone if you wish. Activate the camera or microphone and monitor you constantly. The best thing to do for this is to always keep the camera covered when you are not using it. In addition, as a general rule, I have never liked leaving the cell phone idle and that the camera is looking at me at that moment.

There are variants to enter your computer or cell phone without even requiring your interaction! This is because operating systems have bugs and if you don't have them updated, they are easy to break.

Avoid replying to emails that are questionable. Even those that take you to an external link. There are several pages on the Internet that allow you to configure an email and send it as if the sender were as real as possible. You can even receive an email from Facebook or another company, and the characteristics are 99.9% identical. So you always have to be aware of what you are doing. In the URL of the browser, check previously that it is the address of the page you are entering and not another. They may have created a new domain and simply changed one letter and you wouldn't realize it until the damage is done.

The saddest thing that could happen to you is that they install a keylogger on your computer and be checking it daily remotely. If at some point you put the 12 words of your wallet in MetaMask to restore it, you can forget that capital.

You always have to be active and think that through Social Engineering they can do you a lot of harm. They disguise themselves as lambs and are wolves eager to enter your virtual life. Don't let them in. Keep them away. Keep alert!

Thanks to @CoquiCoin for renewing their sponsorship. Excuse some if you have renewed your sponsorship and I have not mentioned you, but these days I have not been myself. Sorry. But I always keep them all of you in mind. Thanks for the support!

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