Hackers computer

Hackers

hacker is generic term for a computer criminal, often with a specific specialty in computer intrusion.While other definitions peculiar to the computer enthusiast community exist, they are rarely used in mainstream context. Computer hacking subculture is often referred to as the network hacker subculture or simply the computer underground.[citation needed] According to its adherents, cultural values center around the idea of creative and extraordinary computer usage.[citation needed] Proponents claim to be motivated by artistic and political ends, but are often unconcerned about the use of criminal means to achieve them.

Paul A Taylor defines a hack as being simple but impressive; involving sophisticated technical knowledge; and having the illicitness of being against the rules.
Contents


History
Hacking developed directly from Phone Phreaking, a group which explore the phone network without authorization; and there remains an overlap between both technology and group members.

More legitimate forms of hacking are derived from early computer users in academic institutions, especially the MIT hacks.
Bruce Sterling traces the roots of the hacker underground to the Yippies, an 1960s counterculture movement which published the Technological Assistance Program newsletter


Artifacts and customs
Hacker subculture[1] is heavily dependent on technology. It has produced its own slang and various forms of unusual alphabet use, for example l33tspeak. Such things are usually seen as an especially silly aspect by the academic hacker subculture.[citation needed] In part due to this, the slangs of the two subcultures differ substantially.[citation needed] Political attitude usually includes views for freedom of information, freedom of speech, a right for anonymity and most have a strong opposition against copyright.[citation needed] Writing programs and performing other activities to support these views is referred to as hacktivism by the subculture. Some go as far as seeing illegal cracking ethically justified for this goal; the most common form is website defacement.[citation needed]

Hacker culture is frequently compared to the Wild West: a male-dominated Frontier to conquer.

Hacker groups
The network hacking subculture is supported by regular real-world gatherings called hacker conventions or "hacker cons". These have drawn more people every year including SummerCon (Summer), DEF CON, HoHoCon (Christmas), PumpCon (Halloween), H.O.P.E. (Hackers on Planet Earth) and HEU (Hacking at the End of the Universe).[citation needed] They have helped expand the definition and solidify the importance of the network hacker subculture.[citation needed]


Hackers in fiction
Hackers from the network hacking subculture often show an interest in fictional cyberpunk and cyberculture literature and movies. Absorption of fictional pseudonyms, symbols, values, and metaphors from these fictional works is very common.[citation needed]

Books portraying hackers:

* The cyberpunk novels of William Gibson novels — especially the Sprawl Trilogy — are very popular with hackers.[6]
* Hackers (short stories)
* Snow Crash
* Helba from the dot .hack manga and anime series.

Films also portray hackers:

* WarGames
* The Matrix series
* Hackers
* Live Free or Die Hard
* Swordfish
* The Net
* The Net 2.0
* Antitrust
* Enemy of the State
* Sneakers
* Untraceable

Hacker attitudes

The term "hacker" has a number of different meanings. Several subgroups with different attitudes and aims use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other, or try to exclude some specific group with which they do not agree. In a computer security context, it is often synonymous with a computer intruder.

Paul A. Taylor quotes Steven Levy when describing the hacker ethic as:[7]

1. All information should be free;
2. Mistrust authority--promote decentralization;
3. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position;
4. You can create art and beauty on a computer; and
5. Computers can change your life for the better.

It is common among hackers to use aliases for the purpose of concealing identity, rather than revealing their real names. Members of the network hacking scene are often being stereotypically described as crackers by the academic hacker subculture, yet see themselves as hackers and even try to include academic hackers in what they see as one wider hacker culture, a view harshly rejected by the academic hacker subculture itself. Instead of a hacker – cracker dichotomy, they give more emphasis to a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat (“ethical hacking”), grey hat, black hat and script kiddie. In contrast to the academic hackers, they usually reserve the term cracker to refer to black hat hackers, or more generally hackers with unlawful intentions.

Common methods

Computer security
Secure operating systems
Security architecture
Security by design
Secure coding
Computer insecurity
Vulnerability Social engineering
Eavesdropping
Exploit Trojan
viruses and worms
Denial of service
Payload Backdoor
Rootkit
Keylogger
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A typical approach in an attack an Internet-connected system is:

1. Network enumeration: Discovering information about the intended target.
2. Vulnerability analysis: Identifying potential ways of attack.
3. Exploitation: Attempting to compromise the system by employing the vulnerabilities found trough the vulnerability analysis.

In order to do so, there are several recurring tools of the trade and techniques used by computer criminals and security experts.

Security exploit
A security exploit is a prepared application that takes advantage of a known weakness.

Vulnerability scanner
A vulnerability scanner is a tool used to quickly check computers on a network for known weaknesses. Hackers also commonly use port scanners. These check to see which ports on a specified computer are "open" or available to access the computer, and sometimes will detect what program or service is listening on that port, and its version number. (Note that firewalls defend computers from intruders by limiting access to ports/machines both inbound and outbound, but can still be circumvented.)

Packet Sniffer
A packet sniffer is an application that captures data packets, which can be used to capture passwords and other data in transit over the network.

Spoofing attack
A spoofing attack involves one program, system, or website successfully masquerading as another by falsifying data and thereby being treated as a trusted system by a user or another program.

Rootkit
A rootkit is designed to conceal the compromise of a computer's security, and can represent any of a set of programs which work to subvert control of an operating system from its legitimate operators. Usually, a rootkit will obscure its installation and attempt to prevent its removal through a subversion of standard system security. Rootkits may include replacements for system binaries so that it becomes impossible for the legitimate user to detect the presence of the intruder on the system by looking at process tables.

Social engineering
Social Engineering is the art of getting persons to reveal sensitive information about a system. This is usually done by impersonating someone or by convincing people to believe you have permissions to obtain such information.

Trojan horse
A Trojan horse is a program which seems to be doing one thing, but is actually doing another. A trojan horse can be used to set up a back door in a computer system such that the intruder can gain access later. (The name refers to the horse from the Trojan War, with conceptually similar function of deceiving defenders into bringing an intruder inside.)

Virus
A virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells.

Worm
Like a virus, a worm is also a self-replicating program. A worm differs from a virus in that it propagates through computer networks without user intervention. Many people conflate the terms "virus" and "worm", using them both to describe any self-propagating program.

Key loggers
A keylogger is a tool designed to record ('log') every keystroke on an affected machine for later retrieval. Often uses virus-, trojan-, and rootkit-like methods to remain active and hidden.