If you’re interested in learning hacking skills or pursuing a career in ethical hacking, you’re in the right place.
The field of ethical hacking, also called penetration testing or pen testing, is a dynamic and fast-paced industry. Professional hackers constantly face new problems to solve, making this an exciting, challenging, and rewarding career path. This career requires you to be continually learning and studying to keep up with advancements in technology, cybersecurity, and hacking techniques. Becoming a skilled hacker can lead to a lucrative career in cybersecurity, as many large companies now hire ethical hackers to help keep their systems secure.
The best way for beginners to start hacking is to learn computer basics and get a fundamental understanding of computer networking. When you study to become an ethical hacker, you will learn about networks and networking protocols, programming languages such as Python and C, languages used in web applications like HTML and JavaScript, and components of the cloud and online infrastructure.
To start, let’s dive into what hacking is and what it means to be a hacker.
What is hacking?
open lock in front of laptop keyboard
Hacking is gaining unauthorized access to a system. Hackers do this through a number of methods, which mainly fall into two categories: exploiting security vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the target system and exploiting the system users through social engineering. Therefore hacking can include both technical strategies and social engineering techniques — in which a hacker uses psychology to trick human users into opening malicious software or providing key information. In many cases, hacking involves a combination of the two.
Hacking can be legal or illegal, depending on the hacker’s motivations and whether they have permission from the device owner to hack it. Either way, hacking into a device is always considered “unauthorized” access, simply meaning that the hacker gained access to the system through unintended channels.
