Are Hackers Crackers?

Hacking is a process of getting into system/network using unauthorised methods to gain access of sensitive information. The question may arise that what is ethical in this as the word “unauthorised” is been used. Here intention of the person who is getting the unauthorised access of the sensitive information matters a lot. The person who keeps malicious intention for getting access of sensitive information is called as cracker whereas whose intention is system and network security behind accessing sensitive information is Hacker. The crackers and hackers are both technically skilled professionals who can scan for vulnerabilities and pitfalls in the system/network architecture but hacker does this with permission whereas crackers does this without permission. Hacking is done for productive causes whereas cracking is done for thefts/damaging systems and even for fun. But to understand the mind-set of the cracker and safeguard the system and or network, Ethical Hacking is completely legal. Conceptually hackers can be classified in three different categories which are Black hackers who are skilled hacking professional with dangerous and malicious intension towards system/network, white hackers who are skilled hacking professional with defensive intension and Gray hat hacker whose intension of hacking is a mixture of offensive as well as defensive actions towards system and or network.

History of Ethical Hacking?

Till the year 1960 hacking was term used by engineering students to simply find different ways for system and or machine optimization to make them run more efficiently. In 1970 individuals who were able to access the system and network beginning to see the possibilities in testing those systems to understand their capabilities. In the same duration “phreaking” began to come into the picture. Phreaking is getting unauthorised access of telephone line by understanding nature of telephone networks to make free calls of long distance. Arguably this was the first time when hacking was used for illegal purpose by large number of people. At the same time US government observed the niche need of technical experts who can safeguard the system from malicious activities and strengthen the system and or network. That team is called as “Tiger Team”. It was the span of 1980-90 when these skilled professional found another glittery side of coin. They started getting unauthorised access to the networks system and hacking is exclusively considered as a criminal activity. Now a days criminals are becoming more smarter and number of websites being hacked is increased to 30,000 sites per day.