Wednesday, 3 April 2013

How to Learn Hacking - The Most Asked Question

07:04 By No comments



How to learn hacking??? This is the most asked question in the mails i receive and also in the web... Actually, this is not that easy to answer because i know what it takes. Most often people think that learning hacking means to hack in to someones computer with/without their knowledge and steel stuff. But in reality that's not what hacking is all about.
Actually, I think this is going to be pretty long post so please be bare with me.


What Is Hacking???

From a long time there is a misconception like saying that hacking means steeling stuff and hackers are ruthless thieves and mad mindless fellows(of-course, intelligent :) ), thanks to media.
But in actual sense hacking means respecting freedom, respecting your fellow people, exploring, enthusiasm,  dare to be new, dare to try new, make things work the way we want, ability to deal with, inspiration, curiosity, dedication, patience, problem solving.
See, this is what hacking is.

Is Hacking Fancy???

If you think so... Just snap out of it because, in reality sometimes(mostly) its like working in dark mine with a dim head light and sometimes its like the time we enjoy our time in beach or in a dog park.
If you are the one who got inspired by movies like Die Hard 4.0, Sword Fish etc.., where hackers are real fancy and doing stuff just like a piece of cake then its time to get in to reality.

Things To Do Before Starting

As i said before, this is not that easy to answer because it depends form person to person and the way he/she approaches. So, here i'm sharing my way of approach and how i became CEH[Certified Ethical Hacker].

Even before thinking about 'How to Learn Hacking' be ready for a long, dedicated drive which includes lots and lots of patience.

## First of all, this is not any spoon feeding tutorial. so if you are here for that then this is a bad place for you and i'm not going in to much detail as i think you are good at grasping things.

## So now you are ready, Before going in to big thing like hacking, evaluate yourself.... know how much do you know about computers, operating systems, networking, hardware stuff, problem solving ability etc..., drill down in to basics, as basics are the foundation and if you are not good at basics, you are not good at nothing.

## To start, get a good grip of operating systems and how they work. To improve your knowledge try different types of operating sytems like windows, or linux distros like ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, etc. I suggest that you start using linux distros because they are fun and they'll make you do things and will also bend as you want.
If you are an absolute beginner in using linux distros then my suggestion is that you start with some easy linux distros like Ubuntu or Puppy linux.

## The next thing you need to be good is networking basics like routers, switches, topologies  models, TCP/IP, other protocols, etc..,

## Get familiar with the computer terminology because you don't want to panic when you see some thing like 'foot printing or Cryptography' ;)

## Go learn your favorite programming language, If you are an absolute beginner who have no intraction with coding then better start with HTML & CSS(actually these are not programming languages) because these are a better way to introduce you to the coding world. If you have some knowledge of programming languages and don't know where to start then my suggestion would be to go with Python Programming language which is pretty easy and user friendly(Again its up to you to what to choose to learn).

## The other most important basic thing you need to learn is to be calm and patient. Last but not least is not to complain too much about things as the more you complain the more you loose the ability to solve the problem, concentration and pace.

Sources to Learn Basics
If you are the who can self though then you can  go for online tutorials, reading PDF's about the basics, participating in forums, sharing what you know or even having some video classes.
If you are an absolute beginner, I recommend you to have interactive video classes because they help you shape and the other thing is that we can learn quickly this way than by reading lots of PDFs.
When it comes to video classes there are lots of free sites which offer you free video classes but most of them are not qualitative, updated and are not in specific order. So, if you don't mind some bucks then go for premium video classes from CBT Nuggets or Lynda.

If you think you need assistance then you can go join some institutions near by you to learn basics which will really help you to learn and to deal with the problems in real life.

How to Learn Hacking???

Now here we are, When ever you are good at the basics you will have a clear view of what and how to do the things. Actually from here the journey will be pretty happy and safe.
There are lots of reputed institutions like Innobuzz, ECouncil, Infosec Institute, etc. These institutes here provide you classes in-person or you can apply for distance learning. The thing with this institutes is that they provide you with the hacking environment, tools, knowledge and also assistance.

By the way there are lots of Ebooks which teach you how to hack, how to pen test, etc.., So its up to you to choose the way to learn. But all i'm saying is that never back down on basics and you should never have a doubt when it comes to basics.

Final Words

If you are good at the basic level you are half way through and you can achieve almost anything. Just concentrate only of one task at a time like, while you are learning networking just do that, don't peek in to programming languages as this my dilute you concentration - end result - only half knowledge.
As per some old saying 'Half knowledge is worse than no knowledge'. Finally what i say is..... Explore, Learn, Share & Gain.

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