History of Hacking

Is Hacking Always Bad?

Although the history of hacking is relatively unknown to most of the public, it's quite interesting to read about it. It doesn't matter if you aren't a computer expert or a system administrator of a big corporation.

Computers are as much part of our history as airplanes and cars, and it should be common knowledge to know how they came to be. It's the only way you can understand the effects of computer hacking in our life.

History of Hacking

Hacking is not limited to computers. The real meaning of hacking is to expand the capabilities of any electronic device; to use them beyond the original intentions of the manufacturer. As a matter of fact, the first hackers appeared in the 1960's at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and their first victims were electric trains. They wanted them to perform faster and more efficiently. So, is hacking always bad? Not really. It only depends on how to use it. But it wasn't until a group of these hackers decided to exert their knowledge in the computer mainframes of the MIT.

During the 1970's, a different kind of hacker appeared: the phreaks or phone hackers. They learned ways to hack the telephonic system and make phone calls for free. Within these group of people, a phreaker became famous because a simple discovery. John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, found that he could make long distance calls with a whistle. He built a blue box that could do this and the Esquire magazine published an article on how to build them. Fascinated by this discovery, two kids, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, decided to sell these blue boxes, starting a business friendship which resulted in the founding of Apple.

By the 1980's, phreaks started to migrate to computers, and the first Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) appeared. BBS are like the yahoo groups of today, were people posted messages of any kind of topics. The BBS used by hackers specialized in tips on how to break into computers, how to use stolen credit card numbers and share stolen computer passwords.

It wasn't until 1986 that the US government realized the danger that hackers represented to the national security. As a way to counteract this menace, the Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, making computer breaking a crime across the nation.

During the 1990's, when the use of the internet widespread around the world, hackers multiplied, but it wasn't until the end of the decade that system's security became mainstream among the public.

Today, we are accustomed to hackers, crackers, viruses, Trojans, worms and all of the techniques we need to follow to combat them.

Credit Card Hacking

Credit Card Hackers Are Here - Have You Checked Your Credit Report Lately?

Credit card hacking has become one of the new security headaches of consumers. Although in face to face transactions the percentage of credit card fraud is almost a tenth of a percent, in online transactions it's as high as two or three percent.

That means that for every one hundred transactions you may do in the internet, you may suffer two or three breaches in your private information. Stopping credit card number hacking is, nowadays, one of the priorities of credit card brands around the world. Online companies with secure merchant accounts are less likely to get hacked therefore you can feel confident to shop online at such stores.

One funny thing about many of these hackers; free credit card numbers are posted at the internet. Some of them don't want the potential money that can be acquired from this information, only the fame.

How Are Credit Cards Gained By Hackers?

A hacker has many ways to gain a credit card number from an innocent user. The most common one is known as phishing. In this technique, the hacker poses as an officer within an organization, let's say VISA. The hacker sends to a group of email accounts an alert, instructing the receiver to follow determined set of instructions before his credit card is cancelled.

If the user is not aware of this kind of fraud, he will insert his credit card number, his name and expiration date without knowing he is going to be a victim of an online crime.



Another way for hacking credit card numbers is through a website. The hacker only needs to hack the systems of an online retailer, let's say, Costco, and search for the database where the retailer stores the information of all of the users who have made recent transactions.

The third way is through the online process of buying. Let's say an adult finds a website with adult content that he or she finds attractive. It's quite probable that the website is only a masquerade for acquiring credit card information from you.

What Is A Carder?

A carder is a criminal who specializes in stealing information from credit cards. Although the majority of them buy the information from online vendors, some of them are quite savvy on how to access that information by themselves.

In the physical world, a carder will steal the information from a user while doing a face to face transaction. The criminal only needs to pass the card through a special scanner. This device will read from the magnetic strip all of the credit card information. Afterwards, the carder will trespass that information to a blank card available in many identity card stores.

In the virtual world, credit card hacking is a bit more sophisticated and automatized. A hacker could install inside your system a credit card hacking software known as Bugbear. This program is a keystroke logger; it captures the keys that you have pressed in your keyboard and after some time, it transmits this information to the hacker. The criminal will navigate through this data, searching for any private information that can give him access to your credit card.

Besides Bugbear, there is also the IRC bot. This automated software is used for determined functions, like a moderator for a chat room. But if it is used by a hacker, he may use it for stealing your credit card information. The IRC bot will pose as an official from a company, asking you to insert your credit card information.

Another mean that hackers use for stealing money from your credit card is through unused ebay accounts. Once they find a possible victim, the hacker uses a program that starts bombarding the account until it breaks it. Once inside, the hacker will use it for posing as the real user, selling equipment that will never reach the buyer once he buys it.

Hacking Tutorial

Hacking Simplified - For Those Who Want to Learn Things From the Scratch

It's quite probable that you have received spam offering a hotmail hacking guide that will give you the basics on how to become a hacker. Although it sounds tempting to have the power to know the private life of other persons, most of these guides and courses are nothing but scams that are looking for new victims.

If you really want to become a hacker, you need to go to the places were they gather: a hacking facebook, a hacker's forum, free hacking tutorials or even a mailing list. The information is out there. You only need to go and find it.

Where Can You Get Material on Hacking and Information on Hacking

There are two main sources. The first one is the Internet. You will have to make a basic query in your favorite search engine with the word hacker and start looking each one of the suggested sites. Most of them will only offer you limited tutorials on how to hack (like the Hacker's Black book or the Happy Hacker book, which are outdated). Other's will give you an useful insight on this world. After some time, you will find forums were people from around the world share their experiences.

Do not expect to enter an easy world. The jargon used by a group of hackers can be quite confusing for any beginner. So don't feel that you will never be part of it. Start with the basics and read "How to become a hacker" from Eric S. Rymond. Although the document is five years old, it will give you an introductory crash course on were do you need to start.

The second source is face to face reunions. Get into the internet and search for any hacker's meeting in your vicinity. You will be surprised to find that they meet quite regularly. Of course, do not expect to find a Matrix kind of reunion. This is serious, professional people that pay their rent by hacking. Drop by and make some questions on hacking tutorials.

What Is The Hackers Bible?

The hacker's bible has two possible sources, depending on whom do you ask. For some people, it is none other but the magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. This magazine was created by Emmanuel Goldstein, and it focuses on aspects of different technologies. For example, it covers telecommunication devices as well as computers.

The magazine gives to its readers grey hacker's material. That means that it gives them information on how to augment the capacities of any electronic apparatus, such as a cell phone. This neutral posture is different to white hacking (were a hacker uses his abilities for a good cause, like detecting the vulnerabilities of a network) and black hacking (were a hacker uses his knowledge for selfish purposes, like creating a hotmail hacking guide).

The other Hacker's Bible is the Jargon File. This document is a glossary of hacker slang that has been collected since 1975, from the old days of the Arpanet (the precursor of the Internet).

Basics of Hacking

He can easily tweak these according to his needs and become hacker. This is the way the term was used when Bill Gates was inventing Windows.

Those who are often referred to as hackers today, should actually be called crackers - people who do not have unauthorized access, like a safe-cracker. If you doubt me, and want to know how to be a hacker then do a search on the term "professional hacker," and you will find many professional and legitimate computer training courses being offered. They are the ones learning the real hacker secrets.

What Are The Basics Needed To Become A Hacker

Everyone has heard of one individual or another that was caught while hacking computers that belonged to this or that organization. Because hacking into computers is highly illegal, it should be mentioned that this article will not mention any real specifics about the subject, and this author would rather gladly encourage you to become a real hacker - professionally.

This article, will however, give a brief overview of criminal hackers, some of their methods, and a few things you can do to make your own computer safer from hack attacks. Here are those things you need to learn on how to become a hacker.

• Learn Computers

  It should go without saying that the first thing that is needed is to learn about computers. This means study. A lot of reading is involved along with just plain old-fashioned learning how to use a computer. Then, of course, there are the special aspects of computer study. The places where the tips are learned is often two-fold: a friend who has access to a computer, and a variety of places on the Web. But this is also an interesting thing - if a young person has the ability to learn, and wants to learn can use hacking tutorials- then why not take the time to learn the right things - things that can earn him a lot of money in the legit world? Is it possibly that it could be the friend he has that turns him away from the good?