Most of us have a strong desire to become a hacker, but really don’t know where to start. If you are in a similar situation, this article will surely help you out. On a regular basis, I get a lot of emails from people loaded with questions like “How to Become a Hacker”, “What is the Best Way to Learn”, “Where to Start” and so on. Instead of answering every such question, I decided to come up with a detailed article on the topic so that it can help all those hacker enthusiasts who have similar kind of questions in their mind.
What Skills do I Need to Become a Hacker?
In simple words, there is no magic to becoming a Hacker. But, like anything else that is worthwhile, it takes dedication and willingness to learn. It is most important to have a basic knowledge of the topics such as operating system basics and its working, computer networks, network security and programming.
What is the Best Way to Become a Hacker?
As said earlier, the best way to turn yourself into a hacker is to start from the basics. You will have to master the basics to build a strong foundation. And once this is done, you’ll be in a position to explore new ideas and start thinking like a hacker. You can follow the below mentioned steps to start off your career as a hacker.
1. Learn About Computer Network and Protocols
If you already have an understanding of how computer network works and its basic protocols, you are good to go. If not, it is necessary to learn more about this topic as its understanding makes it easy to comprehend the concepts of network hacking. To start off you can refer this link for more information on basic concepts of computer network.
2. Programming: Is it Necessary?
Once you master the basics of hacking and want to take it as your career or go more deeply, having a knowledge of programming becomes a must. If you are a computer science student, you may already be aware of some of the markup and programming languages such as HTML , C++, Java, PHP, Python etc.Since there are are hundreds of programming languages it would be impossible for any hacker to master all of them. However, as a hacker you ought to have a working knowledge of at least a few basic languages like HTML , C++ or PHP. This would make it easier to interpret and handle any code that you may come across in the future of your hacking career.
3. Learn Both Windows and UNIX
If you are just like any other computer user who knows only one operating system which is Microsoft Windows, your options to hack and expand knowledge would remain highly limited. This is because most web servers and web applications run on Unix. More and more companies are now switching to Unix based operating systems as it is a freeware and also considering it more secure than Windows.So, this is why most professional hackers always use Unix as their primary operating system. Even though it is still possible to do most things on Windows itself it still isn’t secure and complete as Unix. This makes it incomplete to use it for hacking and penetrating testing. So, if you are new to it, I recommend you start learning Unix before you try to hack anything of the Web.