[ULTIM ATE B EGINNER HANDB OOK TO COM PUTER HACKING ESSENTIALS: LEARN

ETHICAL HACKING, PENETRATION TESTING AND B ASIC SECURITY: 50+ FREE

RESOURCES TO HELP YOU M ASTER THE ART OF HACKING]

BY
[NEIL W. CARSON]

What is a Hacker?
Originally Hackers Were Not Computer Based
So What Is a Hacker Now
Why are hackers important?
Differences: Black, White, Grey, and Red Hacker?
Black Hat Hacker : Bad Guy
White Hat Hacker: Good Guy
Grey Hat Hacker: The I do it for fun guy
Red Hat Hacker: The I do it for legal money guy
Neophyte: The Noob
Definition and Importance: Ethical Hacker
Guidelines of an Ethical Hacker
Importance of an Ethical Hacker
The Tools: Ethical Hacker
Why Un-Ethical Hackers?
Whats the Difference?
Some People Just like to watch it Burn
Another Get-Rich Quick Scheme

The Tools: Un-Ethical Hacker

Beware the DEEP WEB (and ironically made by the Navy)
Developed by the Navy
How it works
Browser Beware
They are Watching
Preventive Security and Reactive Security
Preventive Security
What do we Detect? A lot. When do we Detect it? All the time.
Reactive Security
SSH, HTTPS, HTTP, SSL and FTP: Web Safety
SSH and FTP are Server Side Transfer, While HTTP and HTTPS are Web Side
Transfer
How Blindingly Simple: Hack Your Windows Password
How to Hack Someone Else on Your Group Network
A Blunt Guide: Become an Ethical Hacker

WHAT IS A HACKER?
ORIGINALLY HACKERS WERE NOT COMP UTER BASED

Hacker literally means to break to your benefit, which means that when you used
something in manner that it was originally not intended to be used; you have become a
hacker. Originally, when you decided to optimize or make something better by taking it
a part and then putting it back together in a more efficient way, sometimes even adding
something to make it better, this in it of itself was what it meant to be a hacker. If you
took a toaster and changed the quality of the heating coils so that it would take less
power but cook faster, you were a hardware hacker. If you chose to wake up early every
morning and brushed your teeth while you took a shower, you were a life hacker. If you
decided to make a method that allowed you to do work faster, you were a efficiency
hacker. You could have literally been a hacker for anything you decided to improve.

SO WHAT IS A HACKER NOW

Hackers are now often associated with computers and while terms like Life Hacker are
still popular terminology, a term that directly describes an action, the general meaning
of a hacker is within a computer. A hacker is a person who programs, navigates, or
develops a method that allows them access into an area that they are not normally
allowed to have access inside of. This means that a person who can view source and
then read the language the website is developed in so that they can manually remove the
code that pops up those annoying advertisements is a hacker.

WHY ARE HACKERS IMP ORTANT?

Hackers make the world go around in the cyber world and the main cause for
improvements in technology in general. Whenever a person is able to gain access they
are not supposed to gain access to, the person who runs security must now come up with
a new and improved way to protect the company. The same goes for the advertisement
and media industry, because people are blocking advertisements and downloading
media all of the time. It is so simplistic to download a YouTube video that the music
industry focuses heavily on live events for money instead of the actual music album
itself. Artists have to put intricate watermarks on their photos in order to ensure that
hackers do not just simply download the pictures from the source and sell them. If it
were not for hackers, the development of technology would be a lot slower and the
world would not benefit.
After all, its not just security hackers improve, but technology itself. We will discuss
how they do it later, but hackers can download information in mid-process if it is not
fast enough and unsecure. This has lead to developing methods that let web browser
provide a fast connection to their users and a direct line to not only make it difficult for
hackers, but also makes it faster for the consumers of the internet. Not all of the
technology improvements are accredited to these hackers, but a good portion of good
practices can be and thats why, as much of a problem hackers are, hackers are actually
beneficial to the internet.

DIFFERENCES: B LACK, WHITE, GREY, AND RED HACKER?

There are several types of hackers in the world and they all have reasons of why they
chose to do it like they do. We will put these in a chronological order from when they
were first coined to the final color of the Hat Hacker family. The reason why they are
given a color is to help people identify which hackers are good and which hackers are
bad, and, just like in the world, not everyone is strictly good or bad. The Hat Hacker
part refers to an old style of changing identity in theatres, which was simply to put on a
different hat and this let the audience know that you were in a different character.
BLACK HAT HACKER : BAD GUY

A black hat hacker is a literal cyber bad person that only wants to make as much trouble
as possible just because they can. These hackers normally do this for egotistical reasons
and are usually only show themselves where a new security system has come out, and
these individuals feel challenged. While they are the classical bad guy, they do have
their benefits for existing. Without Black Hat Hackers, there would be no need for all of
the other hackers to exist, or security for that reason, and they are actually the reason
why jobs are generated for Ethical Hackers.
WHITE HAT HACKER: GOOD GUY

Just because they are a White Hat Hacker, does not mean they are an Ethical Hacker. A
White Hat Hacker only hacks when they feel like they need to, but strictly go out of their
way to make sure that they do not hurt anyone in the process. This type of hacker is
generally associated with the individuals who provide personalized bug fixers for
software and generally try to improve upon software issues that the company seems to
be ignoring. You can usually find them on forums, helping people solve issues with their
code and just being the good guy for the general public. They dont do anything for
profit, they do it because they feel that it is need, and they are almost always happy to
help out someone they dont even know to help improve that persons life.

GREY HAT HACKER: THE I DO IT FOR FUN GUY

The Grey Hat Hacker is usually the person who hacks video games and tests their skills
against varying levels of security because they find it fun. These hackers are
problematic because they dont often care whether they harm someone, but they also
dont really even think about whether they are hurting someone or not. This is similar to
a person who wants to hack into a credit card company because they feel like it would
be an interesting adventure.

RED HAT HACKER: THE I DO IT FOR LEGAL MONEY GUY

Red Hat Hackers are usually a mix on Ethical and Un-Ethical Hackers. The reason why
they are called Red Hat Hackers is for the terminology of Red Tape. That is right,
Red Hat Hackers are usually on the level of hacking government institutions,
information hubs, and generally anything that falls underneath the category of sensitive
information. The FBI and CIA hold a list of the worlds Red Hat Hackers to keep track
of what they do, where they go, and what jobs they are working on as a preventative
measure against being hacked themselves. A really big example of this is when the
group Anonymous and LulzSec managed to Hack the CIA and cause them a lot of issues
for, not only their employees, but also the security companies that place their trust in the
CIA.
NEOP HYTE: THE NOOB

A Neophyte is literally a New Convert, which is to say that this is a person who is
new to the hacking world and the term came about for hackers to represent the fact that
being hacker is similar to a religious practice.

DEFINITION AND IM PORTANCE: ETHICAL HACKER

An Ethical Hacker only hacks to prevent others from being able to do things that are
morally improper to users of the technology. That is essentially their purpose, but they
have to follow specific guidelines that normal hackers do not have to follow.
GUIDELINES OF AN ETHICAL HACKER

An Ethical Hacker has to do a couple of things that a normal hacker does not have to do
in order to fulfill their purpose.
THEY MUST RECORD EVERYTHING

Ethical Hackers must record their screen, their keyboard, their mouse, their emotions,
and even their heart rate and sometimes their brain waves. All of this information is
used to determine the strength of the security and what it will be like for the person on
the other end of the screen that is doing the hacking.

HACK VS. HACK

Often times, Ethical Hackers must go against each other to determine what a real-time
scenario would be like in the case that a hacker is cable of getting far enough to the
point where the security person must be able to protect the information by hand. This is
done so that the programmers can develop scripts to specifically protect against these
types of attacks so that the protection is faster than the hands of a hacker.
HACK FROM MORE THAN ONE DEVICE

Today, hackers can get in from multiple directions. You can hack into the mobile
network and jump from the mobile network to go into the main network. You can hack
into a persons email and gain access from the email service. You can hack a persons
phone SIM card and place a key logger for access from a remote location. There are
multiple ways to hack into a network and an Ethical Hacker must be aware of all the
different ways a network can be hacked into.

HACK PEOPLE

Another part of the process of an Ethical Hacker is to determine the social weaknesses
of an industry and how easy it can be for a person to be the source of the problem. This
may involve having lunch with a person and pickpocketing their phone while theyre no
looking, or determining whether that individual spends a lot of time surfing the internet
while they are on break. Additionally, they determine how is it is for an individual to
break the NDA that nearly everyone signs in the beginning and whether a person could
get enough information from an individual to do actual damage to the business. There
are specific key parts an Ethical Hacker must look out for in the social network that is
behind the physical network.
IMP ORTANCE OF AN ETHICAL HACKER

The importance of an Ethical Hacker cannot be stressed enough, as they serve as both a
security analyst and a technological analyst. They prevent security risks from people,
networks, and other third-party players to ensure that there is a very small chance that a
hacker is capable of getting into the network.

THE TOOLS: ETHICAL HACKER

The tools of the Ethical Hacker often reflect the capabilities of the Ethical Hacker. As
mentioned before, an Ethical Hacker must be able to have a lot of data in order to
ensure that they have a round-about understanding of what security issues they must be
dealing with.
TRACKING DATA PROGRAMS

There are several programs that track data submission and methods, and these allow
Ethical Hackers to determine the origin of a hacker, where they came in, and even how
they got in. Such programs will track IP addresses, Data Packages, Mac Address
Orgins, and even determine the speed at which the information was passed to collect
data on the speed of the internet that is being used. This allows the Ethical Hacker to
cover up those areas with additional security and also allows them to ensure that scripts
that they make to prevent entry are faster than the most likely speed of internet the other
hacker will be using.
LANGUAGE SPECIFICITY

Another large problem in it of itself is the ability to write the language that the security
issues are taking place in. If an ethical hacker has been hired to protect a specific
program and not just the computers, odds are is that the Ethical Hacker will need to
know the language of the program in order to make sure they can write their own scripts
in that same language so that their preventative protections can be put into place. A part
of this issue are the actual holes within a language. If a hacker knows what language is
being used, not only can the program be at risk, but the actual code of the program can
be altered. An example of this is a PHP based website, which is vulnerable to the
classic GET, DELETE, and POST methods, which are a part of the language. Unless
there are specific measures put into place, the hacker on the other end will have a very
easy time simple going into a comment box and pulling all of the data from a website on
to their hard drive.
HIDDEN CAMERAS

As mentioned before, an Ethical Hacker also has to look at the people behind the
physical network to determine whether they will be a problem or not. The hidden

cameras are for when the Ethical Hacker needs to do a Risk Assessment on the person
within the video and determine which factors led to a specific success, or which
questions, when asked in the right order, would pull out the most information.
Additionally, video recordings can be used by the Human Resources Department to
determine if the employee is in a stressed state and needs to be taken care of in terms of
their working conditions. Ethical Hackers are often mindful that a persons weaknesses
are not their own fault and that an average employee is not expected to be one hundred
percent fool proof. Even the janitor may look up something on his phone while being
connected to the internet at work and has no idea that someone took his phone, and
modified it, while he was on his lunch break. This process is done often to ensure that
people are mindful of what they do and how their actions can affect the business.
FORENSIC ANALYST PROGRAMS

There is a fine line between a Forensic Analyst and an Ethical Hacker because most of
what they do are extremely similar. Therefore, what will usually benefit a Forensic
Analyst will often benefit an Ethical Hacker, and vice versa. These programs will keep
log files of occurrences throughout the day on a network, track unauthorized uses,
pinpoint origin points for viruses, and are generally helpful in every step of the process.
The only problem is that not everything a Forensic Analyst can use, can also be used by
an Ethical Hacker. A Forensic Analyst can go into personal emails and sensitive
material that Ethical Hackers are told not to touch, and, in some areas, Ethical Hackers
are even told not to touch specific areas of the network because the information on that
side is too sensitive for an individual to have their hands on. However, the benefit to
this is that that section of the network is usually closed off from the rest of the network
as much as possible and often requires little to no effort when it comes to providing a
solution. Since the network remains untouched, Ethical Hackers only have to track
incoming and outgoing data from that network
SCRIPTING EFFICIENCY

Another part that has been mentioned are scripts. Scripts are simple sets of code that
automatically preform preventative security actions faster than a normal human to ensure
they shut down the attack as fast as possible. These are written in a similar language to
the actual program that naturally protects the computer and some Ethical Hackers end up
with so many scripts that they make an entirely different security program to handle them
all. This allows them to keep track of all the different scripts, determine if the scripts
need to be faster, and to find out when the scripts are conflicting with each other. These

scripts are a vital part of the protection program as a script will always be faster than
the human hand, so anything that can be written in the form of the script will be ten times
better than if the Ethical Hacker would have to do it by hand.
DRIVER DOCUMENTATION

One of the pet peeves of the entire industry is Driver Documentation and theres a very
good reason. Your computer has hundreds, if not thousands of drivers, that are needed in
order to make the computer work effectively. A driver is a binary-level software that
allows the computer to communicate with either the hardware or the software.
Documentation of those drivers tells security specialists and Ethical Hackers what
needs to be done to protect the end user from the security holes that those drivers have.
If there isnt enough or a proper form of documentation, that means the security
specialist or Ethical Hacker has to run close to a thousand tests to see all the potential
holes that the driver allows for the hackers of the world to get in through.

WHY UN-ETHICAL HACKERS?

An Un-Ethical Hacker is very similar to a Black Hat Hacker and are often associated
with them, but there are specific parts that make them different. Not all Un-Ethical
Hackers are bad, which may seem strange at first, but these hackers are equally as
important as Ethical Hackers
WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?

Un-Ethical Hackers are like the Hulk version of Ethical Hackers and will relentlessly
attack a network to find problems. They will often use tactics that are against the law,
such as kidnapping and blackmail, to accomplish their goals. The only problem is that
Un-Ethical Hackers sell the information to the highest bidder and only do it because it is
profitable. These hackers will often mutli-hack systems as well, just to get the network
to the point where they can move pasts the preventative steps that an Ethical Hacker put
into place.
SOME P EOP LE JUST LIKE TO WATCH IT BURN

Its plain and simple, for the most part. Un-Ethical Hackers often see a big business like
a giant juicy steak that needs to be cooked. If a company claims it has the best security
in the world, you can be sure that an Un-Ethical Hacker has already started to break that
security. People have a tendency to go after the things that will provide them the most
challenge and thrill, and this is the biggest way any hacker can truly determine what they
are capable of. Not only do these hackers have to get past the system, but also they will
often have to cyber fight with another hacker or a team of hackers in a cyber-gladiator
type match. It requires an intense amount of skill to do this and Un-Ethical hackers are
sought out by security businesses like trophies for hunters.
ANOTHER GET-RICH QUICK SCHEME

These Red Hat Hackers will often sell the information they steal or the tactics they used
to break a network to the highest bidder. The prices go extremely high, with some
hackers being millionaires after preforming just one hack. To put into some basic math,
lets say that each Facebook users information is worth just $0.50 each. More than a
billion people use Facebook, so thats half a billion dollars for that one hack. However,
Facebook is extremely large and has a dedicated security team to ensure that hacking

Facebook is near impossible. However, as the Tunisians proved, hacking giant

powerful companies like Facebook is not an impossibility and poses a serious threat to
the online world.
However, the process is often illegal and once the hacker manages to sell the
information, they will be put on the list and watched until the day they die. Often times,
any type of money they got from the deal will go to just making sure the company cant
get their hands on them and that they live in a place that shields them from the
government that they ran away from.

THE TOOLS: UN-ETHICAL HACKER

The Un-Ethical Hacker has quite a bit more on their plate than the Ethical Hacker and
its important to know what they have, in order to protect the businesses that they go
against. These hackers are often either employed by a competitor or just out there to get
information on businesses their local government is interested in.
MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER

They often have an entire room built with computers all interconnecting in order to
ensure that they can handle even the biggest jobs. This is why having efficient scripting
is important and why creating scripts to defeat your own scripts will improve your
scripts even further, and why you need to do this. Often times, the reason why a place is
hacked is that the Ethical Hacker did not get far enough to detect a specific type of script
that would protect against the scripts the Un-Ethical Hacker created.
Another dynamic tool that Un-Ethical Hackers have under their belts is the ability for
sheer processing power, which can run over tens of thousands of scripts at once. An
Ethical Hacker is limited to the processing power they are given to work with while the
Un-Ethical Hacker is only limited by how much money they have to purchase
processors, and how much power they can afford to have. This is why some
governments employ Un-Ethical Hackers and give them all the resources they need to
attack foreign companies for their information.
On top of this, the most important part of the entire process is to not get caught and this
is where the importance of more than one computer comes in. Each computer has its
own Mac Address, which identifies the hardware similar to the drivers license that you
use. Having more than one Mac Address along with every one of those Mac Addresses
coming from a different IP address scrambles the origin of where the hack is coming
from. This is the standard step most Un-Ethical Hackers use to hide their location.
PRE-RENDERED ADAPTABLE SCRIPTS

Another huge part of being an Un-Ethical Hacker is to develop adaptable scripts that
will continue to attack the network in a different way even if the initial script fails. This
is huge and rare, as only some of the best Red Hat Hackers in the world produce these
and these scripts are extremely difficult to beat since the code often adapts faster than

the person who is trying to keep the website secure. However, an important part to note
is that these scripts are not artificially intelligent and will continue to brute attack unless
they are stopped, and they may be flawed and backfire.
How you develop an adaptable script is through knowing the Append functions of a
language and making a ton of if/else statements that have already been thought of to
ensure that the next append will take the most likely path that the Ethical Hacker used in
order to block the script. In other words, one script may have over 1,000 if/else
statements and only one append function for failures so that it takes note of what fails,
and what looks like it worked. Then, behind that, if one of the scripts looks like it
worked, another adaptable script begins at that point to start targeting if/else parameters
to see if it can go any further. These scripts can take weeks to build, but it essentially
makes short handle of almost any network and will break through a network within a
few hours. Additionally, these scripts could run over a million if/else statements
previously scripted by those within the same line of work and were downloaded off of
the Deep Web.
SWEAT SHOPS

If you have heard anything bad about a foreign country, nine times out of ten the bad was
something involving the use of a sweat shop. These also exist for Un-Ethical Hackers
and the ones that use them, use them at their full extent. In a slight twist of irony, though,
almost any work at an Un-Ethical Hacker Sweat Shop will have enough knowledge
about computer by the time the shop is shut down, that the person who work in the sweat
shop will have something they can work with in foreign countries for money. But, why?
Sweat Shops like these are often used in government funded operations to make the
adaptable scripts we were talking about, but in droves. Essentially, the sweat shops are
taught how to write the scripts and then told they need to write a certain amount of
scripts to beat a specific algorithm. What occurs is a lot of common scripts, but, when
compiled, you also have tens, hundreds, and even thousands of if/else statements that are
not common. This also for a better versed script and, to go even further, so scripters are
then required to beat that list of scripts with another drove of scripts. The entire process
takes close to three months or even half a year depending on how much manpower they
put into. The result is an extremely large compiled list of if/else statements that will
absolutely destroy the network they are going against.
However, as mentioned before, these are rare and require a lot of dedication to make it
happen. This has only occurred a few times and they have left their mark on history,

with notable historical moments of NSA hacks, Pharmaceutical Company hacks, and
very similar world-surprising moments.
BUGS 101

The last part that Un-Ethical hackers use against Ethical Hackers is the list of bugs that
they know will work against certain securities and languages. Most people are unaware
that there are thousands, and even millions, of exploitable bugs in software and people
spend their free time to figure out where they are. The help button on software is
expectant of the average consumer and problematic for software designers, and very
exploitable. Knowing how to replace that help button on an employees computer from
an email, may give you access to the entire network. This would only be possible if
there was an exploitable bug in the software that allowed you to alter the help button
remotely.

B EWARE THE DEEP WEB (AND IRONICALLY M ADE B Y THE NAVY)

The Deep Web is referring to the portion of the internet that is not tracked by popular
search engines. Think of the search engines you use as the nice parts of the city while the
Deep Web is where all the drug deals, murders, and black market deal go down;
because thats basically what it is. The Deep Web is notorious for this and it truly is an
amazing tool if used properly.
DEVELOP ED BY THE NAVY

The Deep Web was actually a project developed by the Navy as a part of the internet.
Initially, it was just supposed to be away for special agents to be able to communicate
and hold information on the internet without their enemies being able to gain access to it
without having search an impossibly high amount of number of internet crack holes in
the Deep Web. This worked very effectively and provided a large backbone for the
internet to prosper off of, but at the same time, because it was a part of the internet,
people began to use it for personal reasons. After a while, the deeply technologically
sophisticated people in the world knew of the Deep Web and relied on the Deep Web
for a good portion of secretive services.
WHO USES IT NOW

The Navy still uses the Deep Web, but they are no longer the primary users of this form
of internet. Indeed, the primary users of the Deep Web are those within the mercenary
industry, slave trade industry, drug industry, and the dont want to know industry,
because youll have nightmares if you know they exist. It is a place where dirty business
can be done in secret, information is the currency, and no one knows anyone on the
Deep Web if they do not know them in real life.
HOW IT WORKS

The most popular method is to access the area of the net with the browser called Tor.
Tor basically pings your IP address all over the place while you are browsing so it
seems like you are everywhere at once and tracking your location is near impossible. It
is only when you decide to download something that it becomes painfully obvious
where you are because there is a dedicated line of data going straight to your computer
and no matter how much pinging you do, you simply cant hide it. While on the Deep

Web, you will have to know exactly where you are going or you will go nowhere at all.
This is because the Deep Web is so large and vast that there are no crawlers, scripts
that retrieve links, that can span even its surface. This is the place where governments
hide most of their dirty secrets, so do not expect it to be easy to navigate. So long as you
are not downloading anything, even cookies, you will not be seen while exploring. If
you have another browser up though, it can be crossed referenced with a repetitive IP
address ping location. If that happens, they know where you are and will start looking
into you, no matter whether youre there out of curiosity or not. After all, the Deep Web
is like a special club that not a lot of people know about.
BROWSER BEWARE

As mentioned before, unless you know exactly where you are going then you will go
nowhere at all. This is because you cannot simply stumble on an address like in Google
or Bing, you have to have the actual address. Additionally, if you go to a website, be
very careful and make sure youre going to appropriate websites because there is a lot
of bad things on the Deep Web.
EXAMPLES

Dissection of The Homeless No one knows who provided the information or even
how the website was found. However, this website features several different cultures
and provides not only documentation, but actual videos of people abducting the
homeless and then dissecting them just because they can.
War Crimes That is exactly what it provides and users post videos they have of War
Crimes they have committed. Many languages are used on its forums and there are a lot
of videos of cruel torture and similar war crimes.
The Russian Sleep Experiment This Deep Web website is truly disturbing and shows
the bizarre nature of the human makeup. Its basically an experiment to see what would
happen if the human body was able to deprive itself of sleep and live. The results are
truly disturbing.
picsofdeadkids Thats exactly what you think it is. It is a site that is dedicated to
pictures of dead children and not just wake pictures.
These are just a few of the gruesome and terror-inspiring websites that are on the Deep

Web, and a few good reasons why you want to be extremely careful while youre on it.
THEY ARE WATCHING

The Deep Web is literally a 24/7 watched area by the authorities of the world and if you
dont follow the protocols, you can be sure that theyre already watching everything that
you do. The reason for this is that most people going on the Deep Web are there for
reasons that authorities would put them in jail for. Even those putting the Deep Web into
their search engines are often put on the watch list as well.
WHY IT IS STILL USEFUL

While it may seem like a horror show at first, the Deep Web has its uses. Not only is it a
place where information can be shared secretly and a person can build the entire
backbone of their website on there, but you can also find someone of the really really
deep technological fixes/studies. These are areas where you purposely go to find out
about malware thats being passed around and government level spywares that you may
need to protect your company from. There are so many uses that many holding secretive
or sensitive information use the Deep Web so that it not only becomes near impossible
to track or be taken down, but so that the information is guaranteed to get to its target. It
is a crucial tool for the hacker community and is only used by those whose hacking
goals are above the average person.

PREVENTIVE SECURITY AND REACTIVE SECURITY

There are two methods of security that every Ethical Hacker is concerned with most of
the time, and thats how to prevent hackers from getting in and what to do on the
happenstance that they do manage to get in.

P REVENTIVE SECURITY

Preventive Security or Proactive security, which are really the same thing only one
sounds better to businesses, is the practice of attempting to prevent things from
tampering with the network. This involves setting up firewalls, scripts, and similar
programs to prevent hackers from getting into the network. Hackers are not the only
concern to Ethical Hackers, but they are the primary concern. There are a few other
attackers that any person, including an Ethical Hacker, must be aware of to ensure the
safety of their system.
ENCRYPTIONS AND KEY-FILES

The first bit of business to set up an encryption. There are several different types of
encryptions, too much to cover here, but it is important that you know what they are and
how they work. An encryption is literally a re-distribution of values to ensure that your
information cannot be hacked You will often use a program for your encryption and only
that program can unlock that encrypted file for you. A popular discontinued program
was Truecrypt, which is still popular for basic encryption needs, and it allowed several
different types of encryptions, including three-way encryptions. To grab a basic idea of
what an encryption is doing, we will take a word and encrypt it.
Basic = CiZ@B
If you notice, this is a rather bad encryption, but it gets the point across. Another bit that
you may need to know is the existence of a Key-file. Key files are extremely useful
and ensure that no matter what you have thats encrypted cant be accessed without the
file, as it is the key needed to open the file. Encryption is used to protect sensitive data
from not only being stolen but also broken into. Additionally, nearly everything can be
encrypted and it all runs on mathematics. The better the encryption, the more difficult it
is for others to get into it, but, most often, it can be problematic to encrypt everything.
NOTE: Employers tend to not like having to jump through holes to get into their files,
which is why encryption is really mostly used in technology businesses where the
employers actually understand why encryption is useful. This is not to say that all
businesses are like this, but you will find a lot of businesses who think this part is just
unnecessary paranoia.

PAPER OVER DATA

The biggest protection against the average hacker is paper. The problem with this is that
this is not seen as good practice inside of a business, as an account program is faster
and less likely to make calculation mistake than an actual accountant is just as a machine
is less likely to drip coffee on an important blueprint. However, the best way to utilize
this protection is to have old important files be put on paper and locked away when they
are no longer being used. This will not only save on a lot of data storage, but it will
ensure that hackers can only obtain the most recent information from a business if they
get in. Some businesses will actually just put the files on a standalone server that can
only be accessed from the computer dashboard that has been placed on top. However,
this is rare since these types of computers are expensive because they must be
customized for the business.
WHAT DO WE DETECT? A LOT. WHEN DO WE DETECT IT? ALL THE TIME.

There are four different software elements you will need to know how to detect to
prevent a compromise within the system. Often times, these software elements only get
on the computer when a user unknowingly downloads it through allowing
advertisements, going to a specific website, and theres just a whole manner of ways
they can get them.
TROJAN

A Trojan is usually packaged and hidden from the user along with whatever they have
chosen to download. These programs often hide in the registry, collect information, and
are programmed to hide themselves away until they are detected by one or several virus
programs. Once they have been detected, then they begin to damage and alter the system
to prevent its eventual removal. These are ones you will want to be out on the look for
because they will contain such things as bitcoin mining and ram collection, which can
often destroy the system they are in and are effective at stealing nearly everything in the
system. If they are a program intended to collect information, they will often push that
information to the outside world and that is where it is the easiest to detect them.
However, most virus protecting software will detect them before they do any real
damage, but you still have to watch for them in case they are not in the softwares
library yet.

MALWARE

Literally, it means Bad-Ware, and it does exactly what you think it does. You will
notice it immediately because it will try to shut down computers with the blue screen, it
will lock you out of the screen, it will make sure you can get on the internet, and it may
encrypt all of your files. Theres no end to the havoc that Malware will cause on your
computers life and they are most common viruses you will ever receive. Beware of
cookies and downloads, because Malware is practically everywhere there is a loading
screen for your internet on a website that is not run by an organization or the
government.
SPYWARE

Key loggers, Screen Capturers, and Camera Peekers galore. Spyware is extremely
difficult to detect and will even throw false flag detections to ensure that you have a
difficult time determining where it is. This type of virus is specifically built for spying
and the worst ones can hide inside of the RAM, which lets them stay there while you try
to figure out how to get them. Worst yet, they will disappear into the computer once it is
shut off and some are so horrible that you have to reinstall the entire operating system on
a different disk just to get rid of them.
PORTALS

Very difficult to put on the computer and almost impossible to detect. Portals or Worms
literally just sit there and funnel information disguised as a registered connection to
wherever they may be sending the connection. The reason why they are difficult to
detect is that they are often registered, which means they become Windows Registered
and are then inside of the Registry. They are extremely rare because only a building full
of people in the world can make them nowadays for the new Operating Systems, but
they were extremely popular before Spyware.
CHOOSE YOUR SECURITY TOOLS

When choosing how you want your system to pick up on these viruses you will need to
take a few things into consideration. Can your processors still detect the viruses and
clean them while the people are working? Does it run as a background operation or is it
strictly foreground? How often do they update their libraries? The answers you want for

these are; Yes, Background, and Every couple of Days. The reason for this is that your
protections from these viruses are often dependent on how fast it can operate, how uncumbersome it is to the business, and whether the viruses are known in its databases.

REACTIVE SECURITY

Reactive Security is when you get attacked, none of your preventive measures worked,
and now you are trying to react to it.
WHEN IN DOUBT

When you think that they have already one, its time to unplug the internet and shut
down. This has happened before, especially within popular websites or programs that
get hacked. An example of this is the recent Sony Network hack, which was shut down
in mid-process to stop the hack from fully getting in. So long as the device is off and not
connected to the internet, its almost impossible to get back into it. However, this is
only if the hackers are not part of the NSA, who have a back door into almost every
processor.
DATA BACK UP

It is always important to have whats called a RAW data back up, which is to say that
all of the raw information about projects are held on a drive that isnt connected to the
internet and is only updated in intervals. The most popular set up is USB Storage filing,
which allows the separation of information into separate USB flash drives so that even
if one of the flash drives is corrupt, not all of the flash drives will be corrupted.
Another popular consumer option s RAID, but RAID is not an Enterprise option. This
falls underneath what is known as Redundancy Back Up, which is to say that you have
another file size matching the original size that holds ghost files of the original files.
This is not an enterprise option because its twice as expensive and can take days for
just 500 GB to recover depending on how cheaply your computers are built, which they
will be the minimum unless you are working for a technical company.
The last option is Web or Wireless Back Up, which is not an Enterprise option either.
This is because it primarily relies on your internet connection and how fast it can
deposit the file into the storage area. When working on the Enterprise level, having over
a hundred files being uploaded at the same time can take up a lot of the internet.
DATA RECOVERY

Data Recovery is frighteningly easy and this is because of how hard drives are
designed. There are several ways to recover the information that has been lost from an
attack, as it will often still be on your computer. However, when the data that is
recovered from the drive looks as though it was tampered with, it is important to notify
everyone that the company has been hacked so that they can change their information and
affirm that their lives are in order. Most of the time you will be dealing with stolen
account details like standard credit card theft, but occasionally you may have to deal
with identity theft. It is important to notify the authorities when this is discovered
because a Forensic Technician will need to come in and gather all the details. Either
way, you will need to determine the source of the attack by finding the very first file that
was transferred and every file after that to see which one is the common IP address.
STUDY THE DATA

If you have the Forensic Tools from before on the computer, you will want to see what
went wrong, what simply didnt work, how long it took them to get in, and what can you
do to improve the security of the network. This is the most important part of Reactive
Security, since Preventative Security is where you will ensure that this cannot take
place again and you can only gather that information as part of your reaction. Skipping
this step could mean the entire shut down of an enterprise, so it is extremely important to
make sure that you utilize every bit of data to prevent it from happening again.
It is rare that a hacker is able to shut down an entire business and it usually deals with
the topology of the network. The topology of the network refers to how the network
interacts with itself on the hardware lines that they are provided. The most common
topologies are a ring topology and a mesh topology, which simply mean that they are
connected to each other so that when one line fails another line can still carry the
information. You will always want to have a ring or mesh topology for workstations,
but have a single entry point for your internet. This is the ideal setup but you will not get
it most of the time.

SSH, HTTPS, HTTP, SSL AND FTP: WEB SAFETY

As an Ethical Hacker, most of the issues that you will be solving will be dealing with
the internet. This means that you not only have to know the software issues and how to
protect from the computer, but you will also want to know how to safely transfer
information across the internet. There are four primary methods of transferring
information and each one has its restriction. Additionally, the more secure it is the more
selective the freedom of range the transfer module will allow you.
SSH

SSH literally stands for Secure Shell and it is extremely useful for logging into another
computer over the network, move files, and generally have control of the computer. This
comes in replacement of a lot of technology that did similar things and is almost
unbreakable. It is the current standard of web development and is expected whenever a
website is developed. It protects against DNS spoofing, which is a way that a hacker
can gain even further access into your system by creating a computer that your network
recognizes. It also prevents IP source routing so that the hacker cant use the Tracert
command to get into your website, and well show you an example of this later on so
you know how this is used.
HTTPS

HTTPS literally means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, which is similar to SSH
but with less restrictions. SSH is primarily used to transfer data over a local network
while HTTPS is used to transfer information over the web browser for consumers. This
allows for a secure connection to take place over the world wide web.
HTTP

HTTP is similar to HTTPS and has many of the same functions of the newer version, but
it is considered to be not really secure. The difference between the two really just has to
do with where the website is located and the type of server that its located on. If an
HTTP websites is located on an HTTPS server, you can just put the S in front of the
address like this;
HTTPS://www.website.com

It will work just as it would with the HTTP. However, HTTP has been around a long
time is still rather popular among businesses since upgrading their website to HTTPS is
not really a requirement at this time. The only benefit between the two is that HTTP is
actually faster and less problematic that HTTPS since it does not have to go through as
many protocols.
SSL

SSL literally means Secure Socket Layer and is a little bit different, mainly dealing with
transactions, but it is important to note that SSL is a standards-based method that
enables HTTPS and allows the connection to be encrypted. This is the software that
makes HTTPS a viable option for security and protects its users from outside attacks
that can come through the website.
FTP

FTP literally means File Transfer Protocol and it is the older method to SSH. FTP and
SSH are both ways to transfer files over the internet to the server. FTP is similar to
HTTP and is rather old technology, but it still fairly common among businesses.
SSH AND FTP ARE SERVER SIDE TRANSFER, WHILE HTTP AND HTTP S ARE WEB SIDE
TRANSFER

They all use the internet to do what they are supposed to do, but one involves
transferring files to the server over the internet and the other deals with transfer files
from the server over the internet for the consumer to see. The difference between the
effective uses of these technologies will determine how easy it is for a hacker to come
in to your network and do what they want. An open connection on an FTP server hosting
an HTTP service is the easiest way to lose control of an entire website. As an Ethical
Hacker, these choices may actually be out of your control for the company that decides
to hire you, but it is important to be aware of these to ensure that you can display your
skills at their fullest potential.

HOW B LINDINGLY SIM PLE: HACK YOUR WINDOWS PASSWORD

Your Windows is a lot less secure than you think and using encryption to protect your
files can be really important. First, you need to understand what the Safe Mode is. If you
do not know what the Safe Mode is, this will be a good guide for you. In technical
terms, this is called a Safe Boot and Safe Mode was not originally on the computer. In
fact, almost nothing was actually on the computer back in the time when people used
gold toothbrushes to clean motherboards. Initially, you had a boot file on a Floppy and
when your computer messed up, you simply restarted and pushed the Floppy back in to
the computer. Once we started having a bigger local space, Operating System
manufacturers thought it would be easier to just have a Safe Mode on the computer.
The Safe Mode is a version of the software that was the last working configuration of
the computer, which is why many of your programs will still be there when you boot up
the computer. There are several modes in Safe Mode and, generally, you will want to
use just the regular Safe Mode. However, for this exercise, we want to only have the
command prompt and not boot up the actual Operating System. This is called;
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
On Windows, when you started up the computer, it is set up by default so that when you
press F8 on your keyboard a DOS menu will show up on your computer to let you
choose the type of Safe Mode you want to use. When you select Safe Mode with
Command Prompt, you will only be booting the Command Prompt. So, what is the
Command Prompt?
The Command Prompt is actually Windows version of a CLI, or command line
interpreter, that lets you alter data within your system without using the Windows GUI,
graphical user interface. Its very important to note that the Command Prompt is not
DOS, the menu before it was a DOS menu, but the Command Prompt is just an
interpreter to tell your computer what it is that you want it to do.
We will be using too bits of data within this, one is called a command and the other is
called an identifier. A command is just that; a word that tells your computer what you
want to do. In this case, the command will be;
net

Net is a command that is literally referring to a network that you will want to access.
You have Net file, Net Config, and a lot of other nets. In this case, you will want to
type
net user
User is an identifier that literally means a User of this Computer. So far, we have told
the computer that we want to Access the Network of Users on this Computer. Next,
you will want to access an actual account. This is where the user-name comes in to
play, as this will identify which user you want to access and change. Our user will be
called Bob;
net user Bob
Therefore, what we have told the computer is that we want to Access the Network of
Users on this Computer so that we can alter the Data of Bob. Now that we have gone
this far, the next part is the password of Bob. We will change this to Y like so;
net user Bob Y
This will mean that when we boot up the computer next time, Bob will have a new
password, which we changed to Y.

HOW TO HACK SOM EONE ELSE ON YOUR GROUP NETWORK

If you plan on becoming an Ethical Hacker, It's important never to engage in "black hat"
hacking, so be sure that you ask for that persons permission. Time to head back on to
that wonderful Command Prompt for this one. The Command Prompt is where most
basic hacking takes place and will often be the primary place where one where practice
their skills on unsuspecting victims. Do note that this is only showing how to access a
computer on your own network provided you dont already have access to it.
To see if they are even on your network you have to type;
net view
This will tell you who is on the same network as you are. Do note that if you are on a
hardline connection and if they are on a wireless connection, you will not be on the
same network unless you are specifically connected through the Group Network. If you
are both using the same connection, you should be on the same network unless you have
one of the very unique modems that prevent this. However, most likely this is not one of
your modems and you will be able to do this.
You will see something similar to;
\\Bob-PC
\\Nancy-PC
These are the actual names of the computers on your network. Next you will use the
Tracert command and this command allows you to track the data to the point of
destination, which is where their IP address is. So, lets target Bob again (poor Bob);
tracert bob-pc
The command line will run this and lets say we find his IP address, which looks like
this;
Tracing route to bob-pc.lan [192.168.1.78]
With that IP address, we now begin to hack into his computer. Now, odds are well

need to Change our Directory, so then we type;

cd.. \..
This will bring us all the way to the C: drive and then we type;
cd Windows
This will allow you to access the Windows directory. Then you will want to grab so
Network Binary Statistics on the Attributes from his ip address, so you type;
nbtstat -a 192.168.1.78
This will bring you the LAN and the WAN of your network to find that individual. So
now that we have that, lets go ahead and view his stuff to see what we want to use.
net view \\192.168.1.78
What will come up are the current disks on his computer and these are folders that are
open to the internet by default. So, lets go ahead and start going through their stuff, lets
say his Documents are there.
net use x: \\192.168.1.78 \documents
The disk will now show up in your My Computer area along with your other disks, like
C:. The only way to prevent this from happening is to make sure that all the folders are
private and to disable a few ports that are not necessary for you to be on the internet, but
are there in case you ever determine you want to share information.

A B LUNT GUIDE: B ECOM E AN ETHICAL HACKER

There are a few steps to becoming an employed Ethical Hacker and you want to begin
with learning the basics of how a computer works. Youll want to see how to can hack
into other computers and learn the basics of networking. Once you have a good grasp on
the technology, youll want to head over and grab some certificates, but it does depend
on where you get your certificates as to what business will want to employ you.
CERTIFICATES

Both Windows and Cisco provide Security Certificates for their hardware/software
components. Both of these places are where youre going to want to grab your
certificates because Windows is the most popular Operating System and Cisco is the
most popular hardware industry. Both of these certificates are equally as important, but
be sure to start at the very bottom and work towards a basic security certificate. There
are companies that look to hire people with the bare minimum of certificates, so dont
feel pressured like you have to be above and beyond, but ideally youll want to work
towards those certificates as time passes.
PRACTICE

Practice, practice, and practice to get far in the industry, because the more you practice
the better you become. Learn a programming language, learn how to develop websites,
or just try and solve issues in your own community. There are a lot of way to put your
skills to use. The best part is that you learn something extra every time you practice
because no two-software configurations are ever the same, and no two computers will
have the same issue for the same reason; until you are in a massive organization and then
youll see it a lot.
CODING

Coding is not 100% crucial to being an Ethical Hacker, but you will go a lot further if
you know a single computer language compared to if you know nothing. One of the most
common to learn is C++, and its newest cousin C#, which is one of the most widely
used languages out there. The more languages you know the better off you are. However,
before you start learning code there is one crucial lesson you need to learn; ObjectOriented Languages, Functional-Oriented Languages, and Procedural-Oriented

Languages
OOL focuses on objects and will have code that is very readable by most anyone that
understands a little bit of code. Objects are simply data that has data inside of it. FOL is
a language based entirely around functions and how they interact with each other.
Procedural must be coded line-by-line so that the computer compiles the instructions
order, which the previous two could have been all over the place. Each language is
simply a style of how you interact with the computer. Test one of each out to see what
you prefer most and learn that one language. This will open a lot of doors, even if you
dont decide to become an Ethical Hacker, and the more languages to learn the more
doors you will open.

EXTRA FREE RESOURCES FOR HACKERS

Looking to secure your job as an ethical hacker? Here are highly recommended books
and resources on hacking for beginnings or advanced hackers. This list will help you
save time in looking for additional free resources to help you further your studies. We
will update this book with more resources shortly.

Books
1. The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration
Testing Made Easy (Syngress Basics Series)
2. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker All-in-One Exam Guide
3. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide
4. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition
5. BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner's Guide
6. CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide

Beginners Tutorials
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

How to learn Ethical hacking - Astalavista.com

Introduction to Penetration Testing
Penetration Testing Tutorial - Guru99.com
Cybrary This platform provides free online IT and Security training videos that
are super easy to follow.
Hacking Tutorials for Beginners - BreakTheSecurity.com
Simple How To Articles By Open Web Application Security
Information Gathering with Nmap
The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

Security-Related Articles
http://www.blackhat.com/
http://www.astalavista.com/
http://www.2600.com
http://packetstormsecurity.com/
http://www.hacking-tutorial.com/
http://hackaday.com/
http://www.hackthissite.org/
http://www.hitb.org/
http://pentestmag.com
https://www.ssllabs.com/
http://www.evilzone.org/
http://www.securitytube.net/
http://www.metasploit.com/
http://sectools.org/
http://www.breakthesecurity.com/

Videos
Defcon: How I Met your Girlfriend Defcon, a most popular hacker conference
Open Security Training- Youtube 90 hour Playlist
Cryptography Course By Dan Boneh of Stanford University
OWASP AppSec USA 2011: compilation highlights of OWASP conference .

Vulnerability Databases And Resources

http://www.exploit-db.com/
http://cvedetails.com
http://www.securiteam.com/
http://secunia.com/advisories/
http://1337day.com/
http://securityvulns.com/
http://www.securityfocus.com/
http://www.vupen.com/english/security-advisories/
http://www.vupen.com/blog/
http://oval.mitre.org/
http://www.osvdb.org/
http://insecure.org/sploits_all.html
http://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/published/

Forums For Hackers And Security Professionals

Stackoverflow for security professionals
http://www.hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=47
http://forums.securityinfowatch.com/
http://darksat.x47.net/
http://forums.cnet.com/spyware-viruses-security-forum/