From then on, all-night hacking events with friends filled many weekends. We even formed an intense cybersecurity study group to learn and share knowledge. And, to cut a long story short, I became an ethical hacker who is now part of a one-of-a-kind community that makes the skill of hacking accessible to anyone willing to learn it.?
This outside-the-box mindset applies to the different types of hacking that even include physical (testing the security of a physical location) and social (exploiting human errors or vulnerabilities).
Organizations hire Ethical Hackers or Penetration Testers (the common term used in industry to describe the job description of professional hackers in the corporate world), to proactively simulate attacks against their networks, devices, software, users, applications, and just about anything that could expose them. This allows them to be a step ahead of any nefarious hacker by gaining insight into and improving on weaknesses.
At the end of the day, these security professionals are there to help businesses and do everything in their power to keep them as protected as possible. Having a set of guidelines distinguishes the good guys from the cybercriminals, and also lets businesses employ hackers with more confidence.
Script kiddies: Low-skill hackers who use scripts or programs developed by others to conduct attacks, but do not truly understand how things work. Script kiddies use pre-made exploit kits or separate programs because they are unable to write malicious tools on their own. Their motives for hacking are usually personal, such as to impress friends, get revenge, or have fun.
Black hat hacker: Black hat hackers are cybercriminals who break into networks and systems with malicious intent. An example of a (former) black hat hacker is Kevin Mitnick, who is notorious for hacking large organizations such as IBM, Motorola, and the US National Defense system. Kevin is now on team white hat, fortunately.
A passion for problem-solving: A college or recognized training certification certainly helps you acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to work as a pentester; but a great hacker is a tenacious problem-solver at heart!
The ability to think outside the box: To defend against an attacker, you must think and act like one. This requires the ability to not only respect, but also think beyond routine practices like firewall reviews and scanning for known vulnerabilities.
When I started, there were fewer publicly available resources than there are now. Most of our learning was done via internet relay chat forums (IRCs) and learning from others in the community. You also had to download your own virtual machine or build a hacking lab at home for target practice. Nowadays, content and training are more accessible with cybersecurity training and upskilling platforms like Hack The Box (HTB).
An operating system (OS) is software that manages all of the hardware resources associated with a computer. That means that an OS manages the communication between software and hardware. Learning Linux operating systems is an essential and inevitable step in cybersecurity because Linux covers about two-thirds of the world's servers, including macOS, which is also based on Linux. Linux-based operating systems run on servers, mainframes, desktops, embedded systems such as routers, televisions, video game consoles, and more.
It is important to understand how to navigate the Windows file system and command line as it is heavily used across corporate environments of all sizes. During penetration testing (or ethical hacking) engagements, hackers will often need to gain access to a Windows host. Additionally, many servers run on Windows, and most companies deploy Windows workstations to their employees due to the ease of use for individuals and centralized administration that can be leveraged using Active Directory.
Bash is a command-line interface language used to make instructions and requests to operating systems like Linux. As hacker, learning how to create bash scripts (which are a collection of commands) will help you harness the full power of the Linux OS by automating tasks and enabling you to work with tools.
Master cybersecurity with guided and interactive cybersecurity training courses and certifications (created by real hackers and professionals from the field) on the HTB Academy. (Student discounts are available.)
Below are two different potential training plans from two hackers and content creators here at HTB, IppSec, and 0xdf. The purpose of showing both is to demonstrate there is no absolute answer that applies to everyone. Find what works for you and adapt as you go!
Validate the methodology: Watch a video in its entirety, then immediately do a challenge. If you are short on time, then divide the machines parts, for example watching up to the user flag and then solving the machine.
Note-taking is key. Writing something down is a great way to lock in information. Create some key sections in a way that works for you. I use markdown files in Typora, but find what works best for you.
From absolute beginners to high-level cybersecurity professionals, Hack The Box makes learning how to hack a fun, gamified experience for millions of hackers around the globe. You can start by learning the foundational fundamentals, transition into hands-on training that forces you to compromise realistic environments, compete in Capture The Flag events, and even land your first cybersecurity job. (I got my first ethical hacking job thanks to my public HTB rank.)
HTB CTFs: Compete with other hackers around the globe. Capture the flag events are gamified competitive hacking events that are based on different challenges or aspects of information security. They are excellent for experienced hackers looking to develop, test, and prove their skills because they gamify hacking concepts.
We believe in making an inclusive, equal-opportunity, and diverse community. We try our best to provide a safe and happy place to all of our hackers, where the only thing that matters is a passion for cyber!
Also on Discord, we have targeted channels per topic or skill level. Plus we are the biggest InfoSec Server with more than 200K members from all around the world. Join the discussions, ask any questions, find a study buddy, and get inspired.
Sotiria is an experienced Cybersecurity Professional and a successful Community Manager, having created engaged communities over 1 million members. Driven by technology, hacking, and growth, she has earned a BSc in Computer Science, an MSc in Cybersecurity, and is a devoted Hack The Box CTF player for over 6 years. Her past work experience includes penetration testing at Ernest and Young for 2 years, and she has been leading community efforts at Hack The Box for 3.5 years.
Essentially, The Green Bible takes a cue from the red-letter KJVs (the ones with the words of Christ in red) and puts all the words that deal with environmental topics or creation care in green. It colors them if they fall into one of four criteria. Passages that show:
All i can say is that god can do anything if u really know he made us and everything around us how can u think about this stuff recycling all i know is if he really wants to he can clean up the planet in a snap of his fingers so why publish this when u already know the answer.
I myself would not mind seeing a bible that uses syntax highlighting to represent, with different colors, all remarks ascribed to Jesus, all ascribed to God the father, or to the Trinity as a whole, all ascribed to the Holy Spirit, all those ascribed to Prophets or Apostles speaking in the Holy Spirit, all those ascribed to angels, all those ascribed to demons, and all those ascribed to the devil. This would make for very interesting reading indeed.
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Because calling it marketing would be both too broad and too specific at the same time. While a growth hacker needs intimate knowledge of different areas of marketing, and most of the successful hackers started in marketing, you need to go beyond the teachings of conventional marketing and the formulaic approach that it sometimes prescribes. Most of the tactics that a growth hacker uses have been used in marketing, especially online marketing, but it would be remiss to equate this discipline with its progenitor.
While a marketer will rarely have any kind of constructive cooperation with the development team, a growth hacker turns to product tweaking as one of the most important weapons in his or her arsenal. This reliance on technical skills and knowledge is what makes a growth hacker much more versatile than a marketer when it comes to the promotion of certain types of products.
While the beauty and the challenge of growth hacking are found in the fact that it is not formulaic and that your success will often come from something never tried before, there are parts of the process that are common to all growth hacking campaigns.
While these two strategies have been used by marketers for quite a while now, growth hackers have another option at their disposal, namely, product oriented tactics. Unlike traditional marketers, growth hackers are quite capable of cooperating with the development department and getting the product to promote itself. Whether this is achieved through the gathering consumer info through the product (Facebook, for instance), API integration, allowing social sharing through the product (think various fitness apps that allow you to post your results on social networks), or by simply inserting a backlink into the product (Hotmail is the most popular example, but WordPress also comes to mind, as do many others), product based tactics can do wonders for your exposure, and can also be leveraged to help with the activation and retention parts of the process.
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