common question: How to become a hacker? Newbies | beginners

So probably its one of the most common questions being googled by newbies everyday, “how to become a hacker ! “

Most of the new comers start their search with high enthusiasm and end up on immense desperation after encountering discussions of complex technologies and terminologies. So here i am going to discuss some of the most important things with you guys which i want you to know.

i am not going to tell ya the actual definition of hacking, Most of you already know, others can google it. What i am going to tell you is that how and where you should learn it from scratch !
Hacking is not something which you could pay and learn just like your basket weaving class or horse riding school. But the truth is, over the years , this word ‘hacking’ has become so massive that no-one can cover all aspects which comes under its domain.

i am going to tell you about two ways . One is shortest , the other one is long way round. Now its up to you,which way you choose.

Shortest way

If you choose this short way to learn hacking then go and overwhelm yourself with gazillion hacking tricks on Youtube, and different forums | communities,learn some tricks and tools,  imitate them, be a script-kiddie , practice them to harvest information without even knowing whats going on in the background. This way you could be troll with skills but not a real bad ass hacker.

Long way round

The other way (which i personally prefer and chose myself) is long way round. Which is to make a hierarchical framework, design a schedule and stick to it no matter what, either world is being invaded by aliens or a huge tsunami gets you.

1. Be a problem solver

Like i said somewhere in my previous post, you must have the ability to be a real life problem solver. Only a cool and calm mind can understand things in a better way and have the ability to take proper decisions. Its good to have patience and sometimes there no other option but to retreat, and there is no shame in it . One must have the ability to implement Social.

2. Understand inter-networking

For God sake don’t confuse yourself with complex network behaviors and topologies. Start reading it from scratch. Try understand how data is generated on user-end (either on host or a server) and how it is manipulated during its journey.
You must understand different protocols, port numbers, IP addressing system . You must know how routers and servers behave to different requests and how data is routed to its destination.

Download Study Material For Cisco Ccna Ccnp And Ccie Students

The best practice i recommend is to attain a CCNA (Cisco certified networking associate) certification.
i really like their course-ware and things they teach. They have got 4 modules. In first module, all seven layers of OSI-Model have been discussed. Including TCP-IP model. which is the framework of our internet. If you don’t have enough time to get registered, then try learning yourself.

(once you would come to know the real chemistry of networking, then you would understand how horrifying it could be to be unethical from a naked IP when it could be traced with few clicks.)

3. Coding is poetry guys

Enough of the boring networking chit chat. While getting your hands over networks, you must have the ability to understand language of internet HTML5.

Trust me guys, without HTML5 you cant even think of learning php and javascript. So to offer these arsenals a challenge . you gotta go through HTML5. which is not that hard to learn.
As you know php is server side scripting language. most modern CMS and Message boards like this one we are on, are developed in php. php and Mysql makes a good pair.

Mysql is important to learn architecture of databases. its essential and fundamental to understand how databases are created and kept on servers and how scripts are used to manipulate them.
(learn CSS along with HTML5 if you later change your mind and want to appear as a web-developer )

(You can leave a message in feedback . only serious guys can PM me and ask for HTML5, php and javascript literature otherwise find something else worth doing.)

last but not least, you gotta learn a scripting language either Pearl or Python, they will prove very helpful later when gathering info and doing special tasks e.g. developing exploits for specific purposes.

4. Linux, O/S of internet

So here is the most important aspect of our daily internet life and most of us even don’t know about it. I am sad admitting that for a long time i have been avoiding working on Linux because of its boring interface and numerous commands even to fetch a glass of water.
As HTML5 is known as language on internet, Linux is called O/S of internet. 95% of web servers and super computers using Linux as their main O/S. yea yea, you got it, they eat Linux , they shit Linux and they wear Linux.
And what else be more pleasant for us guys other than Backtrack (ubuntu distro of linux).

I ll soon start a new series which will keep focus on all aspects of Backtrack. From installation to essential and beyond the basic training of Backtrack.

Backtrack is free, its extensible, its light, its rich all with countless tools and scripts and most of all its silent and sneaky, Just like my nick, you got it :p

Online Linux training

So the best approach to master Backtrack is first get some practice in ubuntu and after sometime when you feel you have got a good hand over it, get your copy of ubuntu. make a live disk, or install it on your thumb drive. and here you go.

5. Ethical Approach to achieve unethical

Years ago, when security experts fell helpless in front of bad guys, they decided to compile their syllabus and teach security experts to think the way hackers do. They derived new techniques of pen-testing so they could footprint / scan a vulnerable network in a very hacker way to find possible vulnerabilities.
So Ethical hackers and pen-testers learn hacking techniques in a controlled environment, it would be a really fruitful practice to pursue ethical hacking techniques in order to learn black hat hacking.
Long story short, most of the security companies offer pen-testing programs and if we try practicing their compiled techniques, it can help us make undetectable and undisputed kings of the rings. lol
So down below, here are some programs which would be really helpful to make an ethical approach to achieve unethical.

• EC-coucil’s CEH (certified ethical hacking version 6/7)
• Offensive Security pentesting with backtrack (pdf lab manual and 4/5 hours video training)
• Metasploit the penetration testers guide (pdf ebook).
• Backtrack 4 : Assuring security by penetration testing. (pdf ebook).

I know you guys are too smart to find all this valuable wealth of information over your all time favourite google, the almighty…