What is hacking?

Through hacking, you can do anything that you're not supposed to do (or allowed to do). For example, you can view information that you don't have permission to see or use a computer that you're not allowed to use. There are many different types of hacking, such as email hacking, computer hacking, server hacking, and web application hacking.

There are three different types of hackers:

• Black hat hackers: Black hat hackers hack into systems for their own benefit; these are the ones that steal money or break systems purely to benefit themselves.

• White hat hackers: White hat hackers try to secure systems; they might use the same methods as black hat hackers, but they only do it on systems for which they have permission to do so, in order to see if the systems are vulnerable—they hack them in order to fix them.
• Grey hat hackers: There are also grey hat hackers, which are a mix of both; they will test any systems that they want to test, even if they don't have permission to hack them. Once they do hack into things, they don't break anything or steal any money; they don't cause damage. They might even tell the administrators how to fix it.

In this book, we will be white hat hackers. This book is only about teaching hacking for educational purposes. It is for people who want to be able to secure their networks, and who want to work as pen testers to secure computer systems.