How Computer Hackers Work
If you have ever had your computer or an account hacked
, you will know how invasive this crime can be. Some "hackers" use their computer skills to spread viruses, send spam, or steal files from computers-however, some of them use their skills to better understand how computers work, to improve our systems.
Whether for good or evil, computer manipulating is a very interesting skill, that requires intelligence and computer savvy. While there are many of these people out there using this for bad purposes, they only make up a small percentage of the hacking community, according to those who track and study this profession.
The term computer hacker first showed up in the mid-1960s. Essentially this person was a programmer -- someone who worked with and manipulated computer code.
These people were visionaries who could see new ways to use computers, creating programs that no one else could conceive. They were the pioneers of the computer industry, building everything from small applications to operating systems.
In this sense, people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak were all hackers -- they saw the potential of what computers could do and created ways to achieve that potential. A unifying trait among these individuals was a strong sense of curiosity, sometimes bordering on obsession.
These professionals prided themselves on not only their ability to create new programs, but also to learn how other programs and systems worked. When a program had a bug, a section of bad code that prevented the program from working properly, hackers would often create and distribute small sections of code called patches to fix the problem.
In this way, this is actually how computer technical support first began. Jobs began to be created, solving problems and creating software as an answer to these issues.
Soon, this computer probing profession had a new meaning -- a person using computers to explore a network to which he or she didn't belong. This is when this once positive job began to cross the line to becoming more invasive and malicious.
To understand how these people operate and what exactly they do to infiltrate systems, we will need to look at the tricks of their trade. The main resource these professionals rely upon, apart from their own ingenuity, is computer code.
While there is a large community of them on the Internet, only a relatively small number of hackers actually program code. Many professionals seek out and download code written by other people.
There are thousands of different programs they can use to explore computers and networks. These programs give them a lot of power over innocent users and organizations -- once a skilled criminal knows how a system works, he can design programs that exploit it.
Those who have bad intent often use their programs to log people's keystrokes. When every keystroke is recorded and sent to the invader, they can then steal passwords, account numbers, pin codes, and everything they need to steal an identity and all the money a person has.
They can also infiltrate a system with a virus they have designed. Computer viruses are programs designed to duplicate themselves and cause problems ranging from crashing a computer to wiping out everything on a system's hard drive.
A hacker might install a virus by infiltrating a system, but it's much more common for them to create simple viruses and send them out to potential victims via email, instant messages, Web sites with download-able content or peer-to-peer networks. Why they do this, we may not ever really understand-maybe just because they can.
Another thing their programs can do is gain back door access to your files. Similar to hacking passwords, professionals can create programs that search for unprotected pathways into network systems and computers.
In the early days of the Internet, many computer systems had limited security, making it possible for an intruder to find a pathway into the system without a user name or password. Another way a hacker might gain backdoor access is to infect a computer or system with something called a Trojan Horse.
As you can see, these professional computer invaders are very intelligent, and skilled. Whether they use their skills to protect or invade, their history can be traced back ironically to the profession of technical support!
by: Ignacio Lopez
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