Many people have asked me “Can you teach me to be a hacker?”. My answer to most people is “You are already a hacker.”. No one can teach anyone how to be a hacker, depending on what category you fit in, you’re probably already defined as one. This is going to be written of the top of my head so please bear with me.

First we should look at the definition of the word “hacker”.
Dictionary.com defines hacker as :
a. a computer enthusiast.
b. a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.

Because most people that ask me the question “Can you teach me to be a hacker?” are usually computer enthusiasts of some sort, I usually point them to this definition. Most people’s intentions however are not of the computer enthusiast, but of definition b above. They want to learn how to break into someone’s computer. For most people pure curiosity is what drives them into these actions.

Being a hacker of the security type usually requires knowledge of programming, assembly, networking and general computer administration. If security is what you are looking for, it’s time to start surfing the web. There are a ton of online tutorials on networking and programming. Most security related programs are written in C/CPP so you’ll probably want to pick up a Programming in C for Dummies book somewhere.

If your goal is to hack into someone’s computer you’re going to want to know all about their operating system. If they are running Windows, you’ll want to learn Windows inside and out to include previous exploits and security flaws.

It’s not as simple a reading a book and “poof” you’re a hacker. Most hacks these days happen by chance or are of a web nature. I’ve seen literally 1000’s of news headlines on how some banks website got hacked. 90% of all website hacks are due to what’s called a SQL Injection which is where the URL of a site is modified to include arbitrary SQL statements to modify the database to give access. There are actually programs out there that will scan a site for potential SQL injection flaws.

Social Engineering
Social Engineering is probably the most used method of hacking today. It involves either some research or some trickery to accomplish your goal. If you’re trying to hack a yahoo email account you’ll simply need to get the answers to the targets security questions. If you know the target personally, you’ll probably already know the answer. Many people use the “What is your mother’s maiden name?” as their security question. With a little research you can probably find this answer on the Internet. Or, if you want to go the traditional Social Engineering route you can call the person up from a payphone pretending to be someone else and trick the person into giving you the answer.

Stay tuned for part 2 of how to be a hacker.