What does hacking actually LOOK like? For example, what interface is the hacker using, what’s their goal, and are they typing in a bunch of passwords like in the movies?
In: Technology
From the purely visual side? Your average hacker is almost certainly using a command line terminal to do most of the work, so it’s probably a lot like what you are picturing, but without the intense music and with less flashy visuals.
*Not including social engineering, which is a major part of actual attacks*, most hacking can be boiled down to 3 activities:
* Manually investigating: typing and reading stuff at the command line (most hacker-esque part).
* Finding or coding tools/scripts that detect and exploit weaknesses: combination of command line, text editors and some kind of online chat or reference (preferably with tight anonymity if you don’t want to ever be traced).
* Waiting for the tools to run: have a second monitor with command line output and play some video games (“sec I’m just downloading the mainframe”)
It’s much easier to write scripts and do things in a controlled and predictable way on the command line, and the tools that you’ll want to use probably don’t have GUIs (with the notable exception of advanced tools that have a **lot** of information and are painful without, such as network sniffing tools, decompilers and debuggers.)
Most hacking is going to involve gaining entry to another system or server, and you won’t have the luxury of being able to set up a remote desktop (unless you are hacking via an incorrectly secured remote desktop service) so you’ll be limited to a remote command line there (SSH).
Also, if you can’t use the command line, you probably don’t have enough knowledge to do any practical hacking, it’s mostly about knowing about how the system and software actually works, and therefore how you can gain access in an unintended way. The alternative is just getting someone’s password, which is much easier via phishing or other social engineering, but that’s boring (although what you do once you have it is more interesting).
EDIT: I’d like to tack on that I think there should a far more serious level of education in computing from a young age nowadays, it’s not rocket science and you use computers everyday.
Plus, this was mostly about remote hacking, which is what most people would think about (some kid in their bedroom hacking into FBI computers) but another incredibly fun and interesting side is hardware hacking and reverse engineering. Probably the best-known example is hacking games consoles. The challenges here are far more diverse and interactive, much safer and not massively illegal like remote hacking.
Latest Answers