What happens if u get caught hacking

Your goal could be a powerful programming platform, a user-friendly web application, or the next great computer game.

Hacking can be broken down into three basic skill sets — all equally important. Programming skills are essential to becoming an effective hacker. SQL skills are essential to becoming an effective hacker.

Hacking tools are programs that simplify the process of identifying and exploiting weaknesses in computer systems. Is hacking a career? Yes, it is a good career if you are interested in the ethical hacking and cybersecurity field but it requires a great knowledge of the whole IT field. One of the most in-demand positions in this field is that of an ethical hacker—an IT professional who purposefully penetrates networks and systems to find and fix potential vulnerabilities.

The effects of hacking can also include damage to digital data or even to physical equipment. Some hackers may purposely destroy data in order to harm their targets. In other cases, valuable data may be accidentally damaged or not saved, because of interference from hackers or the software that hackers use.

According to Watkins, a good bad hacker must be open-minded, be able to think out of the box, and be really systems oriented. In many ways, white hat hackers are the antithesis of black hat hackers. Hacking for notoriety — These types of attacks are normally performed by the younger generation of hacker along with script kiddies trying to prove their knowledge to groups they may belong to. These types of attacks are often website defacements but, in some cases, can be larger in scale.

Predominately these forms of hacking are illegal, as there is no authorisation for these individuals to access or conduct active testing on these systems, which subsequently leads into a number of additional offences. Individuals who perform this activity are often referred to as Black Hat Hackers — you read more about them here.

Research — This type of hacking consists of passive techniques, which means without being too granular conducting activity that does not actively impact on a computer, system or service. Online reconnaissance, researching only data and viewing websites encryption details could be seen as passive.

Honeypots are another form of research and can be very useful in understanding how hackers conduct attacks and what type of techniques they are utilising. Bug Bounty — Many organisations such as Twitter and Facebook offer monetary rewards for vulnerabilities found in their systems. Hackers often have careers trying to find vulnerabilities known as Zero Days and once found they submit them to the relevant company and subsequently get rewarded. Professional Penetration Testing — Working as a penetration tester is one of the best legal ways for security professionals to apply their skills and make a career out of hacking.

The types of penetration testing include:. This is where a company requires their website or web applications tested and many testers use the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities to assess the systems against. This is where company may have a network consisting of servers, routers, switches, firewalls and PCs. A company or individual will be procured to conduct penetration testing on all of this equipment.

Mobile device penetration testing can be the act of performing a security assessment against devices that access or hold sensitive information and their physical security, as well as performing penetration tests against applications that are created specifically for mobile devices such as applications on the iOS and Android platforms.

Hacking involves "breaking in" to a computer or computer network without permission. The hacker essentially trespasses into the computer or system. Like a property trespasser, the hacker may be there just to look around or to do some damage. Accessing the computer can be an end, in and of itself, or it can be a step in committing a further crime, such as harming or disabling the computer's programs or stealing information.

Many early hackers were young computer enthusiasts, mostly interested in seeing what they could do, not in criminal activity per se. People still hack computer systems for this reason some professionally.

However, today there is a whole population of people who hack in order to access confidential or private information, often as part of a scheme to commit some other crime, such as:. Some criminal hackers work overseas and have ties to organized crime. The proliferation of hacking programs sometimes called Trojan Horse software that allow people to gain entry to systems through email attachments and pop-up advertisements has made hacking accessible even to people without a lot of specialized training or computer knowledge.

Any time a person hacks into a computer without permission, a crime is committed—even if the person doesn't steal information or damage the system. Hacking crimes can be prosecuted in state or federal court, likely for one of the crimes listed above.

Some laws also specifically target hacking. Many states have enacted their own counterparts to the CFAA. The first person to be convicted under the CFAA had released a "worm" a self-replicating computer program that ultimately damaged thousands of computers. United States v.