Hacking

Table of Contents

  1. Why?
  2. News
  3. Capture The Flag (CTF)
  4. Linux
  5. Privacy and personal security
  6. Software Tools
  7. Radio Frequency
  8. Hackable systems
  9. Resources
  10. Defensive Measures

Why?

I think there's a few reasons why I'm interested in this topic - some simple and some more complicated. To start, I'm just curious and it is simply in me to tinker with things I'm interested in - and computers are something I've worked with since I was young. That is where it started. However, the interest has grown over time as I've watched the world go online head first without any knowledge of the consequences of that shift.

Whether it is as a victim of credit card fraud, one's data being witlessly leaked from a corporation, or a trojan horse that lets someone into a computer, we're all living with the consequences of the connectivity thrust upon us. Unfortunately, these threats are increasing rapidly62 Compelling Hacking Statistics 2023: Data on Common Attacks. Hackers in movies might seem powerful or mysterious but the real events involving nation-state sponsored hacker groups (the US included) are stranger than the fiction. Cyber warfare between governments is now commonplaceJames Risen; Eric Lichtblau (December 16, 2005). "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts". The New York Times.Davi E. Sanger (June 01 2012). Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran. The New York Times. Andy Greenberg (September 12, 2023). China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid-Again. Wired. and many governments use these tactics against their own citizensCarly Page, Zack Whittaker (March 29 2020). Saudi spies tracked phones using flaws the FCC failed to fix for years. TechCrunch.NATALIA KRAPIVA, RAND (September 13 2023). Hacking Meduza: Pegasus spyware used to target Putin's critic. Access Now.JOHN SCOTT-RAILTON, BILL MARCZAK, BAHR ABDUL RAZZAK, MASASHI CRETE-NISHIHATA, RON DEIBERT (July 10 2017). Investigation into Mexican Mass Disappearance Targeted with NSO Spyware. Citizen Lab.RONAN FARROW (Sept 25 2022). How Democracies Spy on their Citizens. The New Yorker.. This did not start with the internet eitherProject SHAMROCK involved the interception of telegraph communications to and from the US..

More than 507 million records have been leaked from government, financial firms, telecoms, and other corporations in 2023 aloneVarious, "List of Data Breaches", Wikipedia.. There is a new privacy disaster every other week. Hell, the CIA can't keep a hold of its data. The decisions of others who are, at best, indifferent to us have lasting consequences in our lives. Everyone has a relationship to this reality. Even a luddite with no computer has their data leaking out of corporations, intentionally or not.

Ethical hacking is an attempt to understand how it is possible to break into systems.

Understanding this is so much more important for anyone who wants to go on to design anything 'enterprise'. Security through obscurity is not a valid stance. One cannot hide the holes in a system and and hope it will go well. Before a website, app, or medical device is released to the world, one should know what risks they are taking. To secure a computer system is to understand the attacks that can be made against it.

I want to know how the locks work and what weaknesses they have. This does not make me a thief. I do not endorse or practice breaking into any device unless you own it or obtain express permission beforehand. This is not just a legal caveat to save my ass. I follow this. If you are not sure where the lines are, find out what they are before you try anything.

Ethical Hacking

Hacking is becoming increasingly widespread, but most hackers insist they are not out to terrorize companies or governments by deleting files or crashing servers. Instead they are dedicated to what they call “ethical hacking”. This involves finding ways into computer systems for the pure intellectual excitement of it. At the same time, a hacker can show the owners of the system that their security can be breached.

News

See Hacking news to see what the nefarious parts of cyberspace look like.

Vulnerabilities and exploits

A vulnerability is a weakness in design, implementation, operation, or internal control. An exploit is a method of attack exists using a known vulnerability. Vulnerabilities are researched, reverse-engineered, hunted, or exploited using automated tools or customized scripts. The categories these attacks fall into are listed here.

See also: Software Vulnerabilities

Capture the Flag (CTF)

Capture The Flags, or CTFs, are a kind of computer security competition. Teams of competitors (or just individuals) are pitted against each other in a test of computer security skill. Challenges involve knowledge of networking, cryptography, reverse engineering, forensics, etc. CTF's are great for people learning about cyber security.

Other games

Linux

Most of the infrastructure of the world (all of the fastest supercomputers, NASA, smart TVs, game consoles, cars, spacecraft, etc.) runs on Linux of some kind so knowing how to use it is necessary for many professionals.

Both Kali and Parrot are Debian-derived Linux distributions designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. They are preinstalled with numerous penetration-testing programs, including nmap (a port scanner), Wireshark (a packet analyzer), John the Ripper (a password cracker), and Aircrack-ng (a software suite for penetration-testing wireless LANs), and many others.

Privacy and personal security

Software Tools

See more at Hacking Software Techniques

Hardware Tools

See Hacking Hardware Tools

Hackable systems

Lists and Resources

Lists

Courses

Other sites

Books

Technical

Historical

Defensive Measures

For basic defensive security practices, see Basic Computer Security Practices

A bit more advanced

History

Textfiles.com is a repository of text files from 1980 - 1995. During this time, text files were written and shared about computer hacking techniques, phone phreaking.

References