Midterm Course Coverage
UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION & TYPES OF HACKING
1. What is hacking?
2. Types of hackers
3. Cybercrime and its type
4. Definition of ethical hacking
5. Why ethical hacking?
6. Legality of ethical hacking
UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION AND TYPES OF HACKING
Introduction
Recent years have seen a massive growth in demand and interest in cyber security. Of which
“penetration testing” (essentially a more formal phrase for hacking) is at the heart. This increased
interest in information assurance, as well as fixation with finding vulnerabilities in our most
important systems before the “bad guys” do. In business and government agencies, computers
have become mandatory to perform everyday task, deals and operations. It is not enough to have
isolated computer systems in both business and government agency; they need to be networked
to facilitate communication with external businesses and clients. This exposes the information
resources of a business and government agency to the outside world and hacking.
In this unit you will learn what is hacking and its types, as well as their role in the society and in the
computing world.
At the end of the unit, students will be able to:
1. discuss hacking and its legality;
2. compare and contrast the types of hackers;
3. realized the importance of hacking in the computing world.
Topic: Introduction and Types of Hacking
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the topic, students will be able to:
1. explain the difference between hacker and cracker;
2. enumerate the advantage and disadvantage of hacking;
3. explain the purpose of hacking;
4. identify the different types of hackers;
5. identify cybercrime and its type;
6. differentiate hacker to cracker;
Activating Prior Knowledge
What is Hacking?
What comes to your mind when you hear the word hacking? Write your ideas on the blanks provided
below.
Hacking
Presentation of Content
Hacking has been a part of computing for almost five decades and it is a very broad discipline, which
covers a wide range of topics. The first known event of hacking had taken place in 1960 at MIT and
at the same time, the term "Hacker" was originated.
Hacking is the act of finding the possible entry points that exist in a computer system or a computer
network and finally entering into them. Hacking is usually done to gain unauthorized access to a
computer system or a computer network, either to harm the systems or to steal sensitive
information available on the computer.
Hacking is usually legal as long as it is being done to find weaknesses in a computer or network
system for testing purpose. This sort of hacking is what we call Ethical Hacking.
A computer expert who does the act of hacking is called a "Hacker". Hackers are those who seek
knowledge, to understand how systems operate, how they are designed, and then attempt to play
with these systems.
Advantage and Disadvantage of Hacking
Hacking is quite useful in the following scenarios −
1. To recover lost information, especially in case you lost your password.
2. To perform penetration testing to strengthen computer and network security.
3. To put adequate preventative measures in place to prevent security breaches.
4. To have a computer system that prevents malicious hackers from gaining access.
Hacking is quite dangerous if it is done with harmful intent. It can cause –
1. Massive security breach.
2. Unauthorized system access on private information.
3. Privacy violation.
4. Hampering system operation.
5. Denial of service attacks.
6. Malicious attack on the system.
Purpose of Hacking:
There could be various positive and negative intentions behind performing hacking activities. Here
is a list of some probable reasons why people indulge in hacking activities –
1. Just for fun
2. Show-off
3. Steal important information
4. Damaging the system
5. Hampering privacy
6. Money extortion
7. System security testing
8. To break policy compliance
Types of Hackers
Hackers can be classified into different categories such as white hat, black hat, and grey hat, based
on their intent of hacking a system. These different terms come from old Spaghetti Westerns,
where the bad guy wears a black cowboy hat and the good guy wears a white hat.
White Hat Hackers
They are also known as Ethical Hackers. They never intent to harm a system, rather they try to find
out weaknesses in a computer or a network system as a part of penetration testing and vulnerability
assessments. Ethical hacking is not illegal and it is one of the demanding jobs available in the IT
industry. There are numerous companies that hire ethical hackers for penetration testing and
vulnerability assessments.
Black Hat Hackers
They are known as crackers. They are those who hack in order to gain unauthorized access to a
system and harm its operations or steal sensitive information. Black Hat hacking is always illegal
because of its bad intent which includes stealing corporate data, violating privacy, damaging the
system, blocking network communication, etc.
Grey Hat Hackers
Grey hat hackers are a blend of both black hat and white hat hackers. They act without malicious
intent but for their fun, they exploit a security weakness in a computer system or network without
the owner’s permission or knowledge. Their intent is to bring the weakness to the attention of the
owners and getting appreciation or a little bounty from the owners.
Miscellaneous Hackers
Apart from the above well-known classes of hackers, we have the following categories of hackers
based on what they hack and how they do it.
Red Hat Hackers
Red hat hackers are again a blend of both black hat and white hat hackers. They are usually on the
level of hacking government agencies, top-secret information hubs, and generally anything that
falls under the category of sensitive information.
Blue Hat Hackers
A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms who is used to bug-test a
system prior to its launch. They look for loopholes that can be exploited and try to close these gaps.
Microsoft also uses the term BlueHat to represent a series of security briefing events.
Elite Hackers
This is a social status among hackers, which is used to describe the most skilled. Newly discovered
exploits will circulate among these hackers.
Script Kiddie
A script kiddie is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged automated
tools written by others, usually with little understanding of the underlying concept, hence the term
Kiddie.
Neophyte
A neophyte, "n00b", or "newbie" or "Green Hat Hacker" is someone who is new to hacking or
phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of the workings of technology and hacking.
Hacktivist
A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a social, ideological, religious, or
political message. In general, most hacktivism involves website defacement or denial of-service
attacks.
Phreaker
A hacker who identifies and exploits weaknesses in telephones instead of computers.
Cybercrime and its type
Cyber-crime is the use of computers and networks to perform illegal activities such as spreading
computer viruses, online bullying, performing unauthorized electronic fund transfers, etc.
Type of Cybercrime
• Computer Fraud: Intentional deception for personal gain via the use of computer systems.
• Privacy violation: Exposing personal information such as email addresses, phone number,
account details, etc. on social media, websites, etc.
• Identity Theft: Stealing personal information from somebody and impersonating that
person.
• Sharing copyrighted files/information: This involves distributing copyright protected files
such as eBooks and computer programs etc.
• Electronic funds transfer: This involves gaining an un-authorized access to bank computer
networks and making illegal fund transfers.
• Electronic money laundering: This involves the use of the computer to launder money.
• ATM Fraud: This involves intercepting ATM card details such as account number and PIN
numbers. These details are then used to withdraw funds from the intercepted accounts.
• Denial of Service Attacks: This involves the use of computers in multiple locations to attack
servers with a view of shutting them down.
• Spam: Sending unauthorized emails. These emails usually contain advertisements.
Ethical Hacking
Ethical Hacking is identifying weakness in computer systems and/or computer networks and coming
with countermeasures that protect the weaknesses. Ethical hackers must abide by the following
rules.
• Get written permission from the owner of the computer system and/or computer network
before hacking.
• Protect the privacy of the organization been hacked.
• Transparently report all the identified weaknesses in the computer system to the
organization.
• Inform hardware and software vendors of the identified weaknesses
Why Ethical Hacking?
Information is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Keeping information secure can
protect an organization’s image and save an organization a lot of money.
Hacking can lead to loss of business for organizations that deal in finance such as PayPal. Ethical
hacking puts them a step ahead of the cyber criminals who would otherwise lead to loss of business.
Legality of Ethical Hacking
Ethical Hacking is legal if the hacker abides by the rules stipulated in the above section on the
definition of ethical hacking. The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council)
provides a certification program that tests individual’s skills. Those who pass the examination are
awarded with certificates. The certificates are supposed to be renewed after some time.
APPLICATION
Using the Venn Diagram below, write down the similarities and differences of a Hacker and a
Cracker. At the center circle, write things that are alike. In the outer part of the circle, write things
about them that are different.
Hacker Cracker
REFLECTION
After studying hacking and its advantage and disadvantages as well as its types, identify what type
of hacker do you want to be and explain in not more than 100 words why do you want to be this
type of hacker.
Summary
Hacking is identifying and exploiting weaknesses in computer systems and/or computer networks.
Cybercrime is committing a crime with the aid of computers and information technology infrastructure.
Ethical Hacking is about improving the security of computer systems and/or computer networks.
Ethical Hacking is legal
https://www.computersciencezone.org/intro-course-for-hacking-and-cyber-security/
https://www.guru99.com/ethical-hacking-tutorials.html
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/ethical_hacking/ethical_hacking_tutorial.pdf
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