3 Answers

  1. It is impossible to learn how to be a hacker, there is no such specialty. But there is a specialty “Information Security”, where they teach you how to protect yourself from these hackers.Well, it is simply impossible to teach defense without an attack.

    There are many conferences for such specialists(Zeronights, PHDays)

    I also recommend reading the book ” Hacking. The Art of the Exploit”

  2. The concept of “hacker” is rather vague, and it has changed over time. Previously, hackers were all those who are able to work with complex technical systems. Now hackers are called people of various professions related to information security (security of systems, networks, and so on). There are quite a lot of such professions. They can be legal or illegal.

    Legal ones, for example, include service in the armed forces or the FSB, where hackers create protection and try to break into existing systems in order to identify their vulnerabilities.

    There are commercial companies that perform security audits. In large companies, there are Information Security Officers whose task is to detect and close vulnerabilities in the company's systems and products.

    Illegal hackers include, for example, people who are engaged in hacking bank cards. There is a wide range of specialists in this field. There are systems that are online and can be hacked without getting up from your chair. And there are systems that need to be present at the site to break in, such as industrial systems.

    We can say that a modern hacker is a specialist in the field of information technology. Usually, like programmers, hackers graduate from the departments of computational mathematics and cybernetics, computer Science, and applied mathematics. However, in the course of their training, they become interested in information security, and they try to deepen their knowledge in this matter. There are several ways to do this.

    First, you can apply for a master's degree in information or network security. There are very few of them in Russia. Such master's programs are available, for example, inUniversity of Innopolis, Baumanka or MEPhI. One of the coolest programs in the world is located at the University of Amsterdam.

    The second method is more “practical”. People who are interested in information security start hacking systems at school age. Often they start participating in CTF (Capture the flag) competitions. CTF is a team competition where participants must hack into the opponent's system and protect their system from hacking in a certain period of time. The team that breaks into as many systems as possible wins.�

    The CTF movement is very popular and is already catching up with the programming Olympiads in terms of size. Such team games improve children's practical skills, young hackers master the tools, protocols, and learn about the problems of modern software. But this method of deepening your knowledge has a negative side. Young people who get into CTF early quickly gain professional skills, but they don't have an understanding of how it all really works. As a result, their skills are completely inflexible.

  3. First of all, you need to know what we mean by hacker. The word is ambiguous, but in most cases a hacker is understood as a person who exploits non-obvious and undocumented features of systems, mainly information systems. Hacker, as a rule, is not a profession, it is a way of thinking. Among the professions in the field of information technology, the most hacker are experts in the field of information security, especially penetration testers. The use of hacking techniques in the practice of system administrators and developers is limited, although it is very much appreciated when necessary.

    Now there are courses on “ethical hacking”, both in Russia and abroad, and, although I do not have any experience of studying on them, I believe that they are useful. Also, as rightly noted earlier, a good help here can be the presence of preliminary training in the form of mathematical/technical education. However, if you want to embark on this path, you must understand that hacking is in a certain sense a martial art that is perfected through observation and attention to detail, which is the devil, the ability to correctly exploit other people's mistakes and avoid your own.

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