HACKERS

HACKERS

Since the arrival of IPV6 and the Internet of  Things (IoT), millions of additional network nodes have extended the realm of the WWW. Needless to say, computer savvy individuals have an inherent curiosity, a burning desire, a need and an itch to interact with these additional network devices. This is as human as wanting to run the fastest race and win. Sing the best and beat the rest. Excel at school to prove your worth. This curiosity and the need to prove yourself goes far beyond the individual, it is the epitome of Governments behaviours. Both Russia and the US of A had the curiosity to go into space and the USA just had to dominate, needed to, or  wanted to ... semantics.  Global militaries have the curiosity to witness the destruction of military hardware and chemical weapons, so Netanyahu just had to drop phosphorus bombs on the Palestinians. They also wanted to out do one another with their displays of military armourments, the one boasting better than the other. This idea of mental prowess and greater ability even extend to the movie business, where Bollywood is bigger but Hollywood just has to prove that it's better. Kiddies cartoons even teach this attitude to our young children for example, Pinky and the Brain, with the Brain wanting to take over the world.... because he can.

If we look back to 1983 when  Ronald Austin of the 414s hacked the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Security Pacific Bank. He and his crew had the curiosity and the knowledge but lacked the computer network to practice on, and prove to themselves that they could do it. They didn't own nor could they afford a computer network of their own to play with, experiment on, hack, reconfigure, etc... So they just had to use the internet which only had 562 host computers at the time as opposed to billions of nodes today. If they had their own hubs, routers, gateway servers, DNS servers, proxy servers, mail servers  and a network with computer running  Microsoft, iOS, Linux, Solaris, Unix and VMS operating systems, they would never have done a live hack that landed Ronald a 3 years probation. They looked upon their hacks as  youthful pranks whereas the authorities saw them as criminals and black hat hackers.

What’s a Blackhat Hacker?

A Black hat hacker is an individual with exceptional computer knowledge, a computer guru if you like, who takes pride in beating cybersecurity expert at their own game by breaching or bypassing their computer network security purely because he can. This doesn't make him a criminal for outwitting his counterparts, it just puts him at the head of his game. So out of pure jealousy he is called a Black hat hackers or a  crackers or a dark-side hacker. Many of these "Black Hat Hackers" become cybersecurity experts and are employed as "White Hat Hackers" by large corporations.  World's most famous hacker Kevin Mitnick was one of the FBI's most Wanted, because he hacked into 40 major corporations just for the challenge, today he is a trusted security consultant to Fortune 500 companies and governments worldwide. He also mentors the theory and practice of social engineering. He published several books on cybersecurity, the latest being 'Ghost in the Wires'. However some "Black Hat Hackers"  hack with maliciousness intent, defacing  web pages, deleting log files, or even crashes the computers or take the entire network offline out of anger. Anger at having extraordinary skills but unemployed. Resulting in some  "Black Hat Hackers"  hacking for personal gain. When they do so, they are more often than not often members of hacking  tiger team. This is the stereotypical  young,  intelligent, highly motivated, energetic and curious male "Black hat hacker" portrayed in popular culture as the computer criminal involved with identity theft and the illegal sale of credit card numbers and fraudulent bank transfers. They are also labelled as the hackers who create computer viruses.

What’s a Whitehat Hacker?

A white hat hacker is normally paid cybersecurity consultants who contracts himself out to both small businesses and large corporations, to perform penetration tests by breaking into their protected computer systems and networks purely to asses the level cyber security. He then informs their IT departments of all computer and network vulnerabilities and how they should be plugged before malicious hackers breach their computers network for criminal purpose. 

Then there are also  "blue hat hackers" and  "gray hat hackers".  Blue hat hackers are normally security professionals working outside of computer security consulting firms who are contracted to bug-test computer system prior to going live. Their objective is to indentify exploits so they can be plugged. A "Grey hat"  computer hacker is an individual with exceptional computer knowledge but  whose "ethical standards" fall somewhere between  altruistic (Whitehat Hacker) and  malicious (Blackhat Hacker). A fence sitter if you like, a white hat that has going bad or a Black hat in the process of cleaning up his act. Uncertain of his loyalties.

HACKING THE NET

HACKING THE NET

Curiosity and inquisitiveness are two characteristics deeply ingrained in nature and is a very natural part of all life forms. Curiosity killed the cat but inquisitiveness has sent many a hacker to jail for 'cybercrime' though over zealous inquisitiveness is normally their only crime. Anyone with sufficient interest in the 'art of hacking' can become quite accomplish in just a few short months  but mastering it takes substantially longer.  The learning curve of hacking is fairly steep, the subject is extremely interesting and the knowledge totally beyond awesome. Hence you hear names like, “Digigod”, “Cybergod” “Solo”, “C0mrade”, “Dark Dante” and   “Byteking”, etc, etc, because analytical thought,  mental brilliance or a high IQ and  does tend give some people a complex of superiority. Which in some cases borders on arrogance then stupidity. 

When one gets the hang of computers, ports, software and programming, understand communications protocols, have a familiarity with networks and routing tables and can visualize how they seamlessly integrate, curiosity can get the better of you. Knowing when to stop  is the difference between a hacker and a cracker. Crackers are those individuals or teams intent on stealing sensitive or classified information, credit card details and other forms of identity theft for financial gain. Whereas hackers are those individuals who respect personal and corporate boundaries and do what they do for personal pleasure and advancement of knowledge. Most hackers today are employed as network security consultants or security analysts and the best example of such a hacker is Kevin Mitnick. He served time for his inquisitiveness and now works  as a network security professional. People with hacking skills are in big demand and normally command above decent salaries.  There is an old saying that says, "it takes a thief to catch a thief" well likewise "it takes a hacker (“White Hat”) to catch a cracker" ( “Black Hats” ).  One of the hackers were even referred to as  the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime.”

Kevin Mitnick hacker supreme

Hacking is a serious offence and as recent as 28th August,  'smilex' the administrator of the botnet “Bugat” aka Dridex got nabbed in Cypress by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In a joint venture of U.K and US disrupted his botnet which infected more than 125 000 computers in one year. Smilex is innocent until proven guilty but has already been labeled as a cyber criminal. He is being held for releasing a sophisticated malware package designed to steal banking and other credentials from infected computers that amounts to millions of USD. Smilex's real name is Andrey Ghinkul  or Andrei Ghincul and he is from Moldova.  It is alleged that he and  his co-conspirators used the Dridex P2P malware to initiate fraudulent electronic funds transfers  from the victims’ bank accounts into the accounts of their money mules, who then transferred the stolen funds to other members of the conspiracy. 

Black hat hacker

The first offence was a transfer of $999,000 from the Sharon, Pennsylvania, City School District’s account at First National Bank to an account in Kiev, Ukraine.  The second offence was a transfer of  $2,158,600 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Krasnodar, Russia.  The third offence was a transfer of   $1,350,000 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Minsk, Belarus.  The fourth was a attempt to transfer $76,520 from a Penneco Oil account held at First Commonwealth Bank to an account in Philadelphia. But the FBI estimates that peer-to-peer malware and the Bugat botnet is responsible for at  least $10 million domestically. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), have released a Technical Alert (TA15-286A)  for all Microsoft Windows Affected Systems  about the Dridex botnet. 

Because Smilex targeted American businesses, the USA is seeking for his extradition so that he can be tried in America. He will be charged with criminal conspiracy, unauthorized computer access with intent to defraud, damaging a computer, wire fraud and bank fraud.   But don't let this put you off from learning hacking, because the key to becoming a successful hacker  is to know where to draw the line.

If you've been infected, the following anti-virus software could help to alleviate your problems.

F-Secure
https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/online-scanner/

McAfee
http://www.mcafee.com/uk/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx/

Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx/ 
       
Sophos
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool.aspx/

Trend Micro
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/