Hacking is the term that fascinates 90% of the people. By hearing the term ‘Hacking’, people start to dream that hackers can do anything. But that’s not the truth, There is certain restriction through which the hacker is bounded that are “cyber laws”. These days, hackers are in huge demand. Major organizations & co-operations require hackers for data security. Today, we will see 10 interesting facts about ethical hacking.

Note: We would like to thanks Mr. Comet for giving us these amazing facts, tips & suggestions

“For me, a hacker is one who enjoys observing details and understanding how things work, and uses this knowledge to improve things.” – Mr. Comet (Ethical Hacker)

There are many types of hackers like Black Hat hacker, White Hat hacker, Gray Hat hacker or the Suicide hacker. An Ethical Hacker is the white hat hacker whose main intention is to safeguard the data owned by the organization. In simple words, we can say that hacking for a good cause. Here are the top 10 interesting facts about ethical hacking.

1. Hacker culture can be traced to 1959

Hacker culture can be traced to 1959 with the founding of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. MIT students who were exploring the phone switching network and the control systems of the Tech Model Railroad Club were drawn to the computers of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (MIT AI Lab). Marvin Minsky (MIT AI Lab Director), was sympathetic to the hacker’s desire to explore and was very much impressed with their achievements. He allowed them to have direct access to the machines, even if the true hackers among the group were dropped out of school to spend more time on hacking. Legendary hackers from this first wave include Peter Deutsch, Bill Gosper, Jerry Sussman, Tom Knight, and Richard Greenblatt.

This was said to be the “Golden Age” of computer hackers. As the machines were large and slow, the extraordinary effort was required for their coding and operations. Soon, the hacker culture spread widely across the country. The Stanford AI Lab (SAIL), under the direction of John McCarthy, became the center for west-coast hacker activity. In 1991 the SAIL machine was shut down, hackers sent a goodbye email to the internet as if the machine was itself sending messages. Legendary hackers from this second wave include Ed Fredkin, Brian Reid, Jim Gosling, Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Richard Stallman.

Now comes the time. The third wave of hacker activity tool place in northern California. Now, the hackers wanted their own computer machines such that they could program them at home as well can build or modify (hardware) it. This includes legendary figures, Lee Felsenstein, Steve Dompier, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. Moreover, these legends formed the foundation for the entire personal computer industry.

Source: University of Utah School of Computing

Hacker’s Memorandum was published on leap day 1972.

HAKEEM is a report of MIT Artificial Lab. It was published in 1972, It includes a wide variety of hacks algorithms and theories. It was published in an HTML document format so that it is supported by all types of browsers. The HAKMEM 140 includes:

Geometry, Algebra, Calculus

Recurrence Relations

Boolean Algebra

Random Numbers

Number Theorem Primes, Probability,

Automata Theory, Games, hardware, etc (Total 191 items)

Source: HAKMEM (inwap)

Richard Matthew Stallman wrote GNU General Public License

Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS), who launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote the GNU General Public License, is a self-identified hacker.

GNU General public License is free to license for software & other works. It’s designed to guarantee your freedom to share & modify work. It means anyone can freely contribute, use and share the product. The GNU Compiler Collection includes front ends and libraries for different languages like C & C++. GCC was originally written as the compiler for the GNU operating system.

Yet when I say I am a hacker, people often think I am making a naughty admission, presenting myself specifically as a security breaker. How did this confusion develop?

Around 1980, when the news media took notice of hackers, they fixated on one narrow aspect of real hacking: the security breaking which some hackers occasionally did. They ignored all the rest of hacking, and took the term to mean breaking security, no more and no less. The media have since spread that definition, disregarding our attempts to correct them. As a result, most people have a mistaken idea of what we hackers actually do and what we think.

Source: Richard Stallman’s Personal Site

Creative Computing, hackers got information before the Internet was created in 1984.

“Creative Computing”, edited by David H. Ahl and published from October 1974 until October 1985, was one of the ways hackers got information before the Internet was created in 1984. It was one of the earliest magazines of that time covered the microcomputer revolution. Moreover, the magazine covered the major spectrum of different types of computing in a more human-understandable easy format.

You can find a complete collection of the magazine: Creative Computing Magazine

Bulletin Board Systems

Hackers also communicated via dial-up bulletin board systems, such as Spies in the Wire BBS, which ran from 1984 to 1991.

I'd like to take the time to say that I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed running this system for you guys, and the messages I have received in the mail and on the forums has been terrific! It's good to see that the system wasn't just THERE, it really seems to have made a difference. I'd like to thank Carmen, Robert, Ult, Cindy, Hagbard, money, Rich, Panther, and the others who were there from the beginning, and really helped to make SPIES a memeorable place. The good times and the bad times changed the way I think about many things, but most importantly, they remind me of how much can really be accomplished with a stupid computer and modem. Take care, and stay in the spirit... -- SYSTEM 0PERATOR/Ducati pilot/Geek

Post: 21 of 25 Subject: Yup, I still have it! From: Moebius (Moebius) Comment: Sell the kids for food. Date: Wed, 30 Oct 91 09:58:44 PST

...yes, I still have the Altos that Rubin ran E-MX and eventually Citadel on in Chappaqua, NY. As a matter of fact, I thought I was the one who turned Andy on to Citadel (wasn't I?!)...

SOURCE: arubin.txt

In 2014, Yahoo! suffered the largest Cyber Attack.





On 22 SEP 16, NYTimes reported Yahoo had suffered a cyber attack in 2014 that affected 500 million user accounts. It had constituted the largest massive hacking of individual data directed against a single company. Names, dates of birth, telephone numbers and passwords were stolen.

However, on 3 OCT 17, Yahoo said that all 3 billion of its accounts were hacked.

Source: Reuters

Some Ethical Hackers are Famous!

Ethical Hackers are now very valuable for an organization for security concerns and are in Big Demand. Let’s see a few of the famous ethical hackers:

Kelvin Mitnick (American Computer Security consultant, Author & Hacker. Best known for 1995 high-profile arrest. His black hat adventures included breaching down due to 2.5 years spree of criminal cyber activity.) Joanna Rutkowska (Cyber Security Researcher, Poland. She is the founder of Qubes Desktop OS focused on security.) Charlie Miller (Computer Security Researcher, best known for exposing vulnerabilities in Apple products.) Greg Hoglund (Specialist in computer forensics, best known for working in include physical memory forensics, attribution of hackers and malware detection.) Tsutomu Shimomura (Cyber Security Expert and Physicist)

Source: Top 5 ethical hackers you should doff your white hat to (CBRonline)

Now maybe the best time to pursue ethical hacking as a career

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job outlook for information security analysts is expected to increase 18 percent between 2014-2024. 18% is very much faster than the national average. Many top technology companies like Microsoft and Facebook helped hackers gain mainstream recognition as a vital element of cybersecurity. Facebook uses many hackers to discover new vulnerabilities within its system. Ethical Hacking requires a vast amount of knowledge and skills. But, hackers play a vital part in the IT sector. Today, big corporations and organizations are investing hugely in cybersecurity to prevent major attacks.

Source: Ethical Hacking Emerges as a Unique Career Path in Cyber Security

India leads the worlds in Ethical Hackers (HackerOne)

According to the survey conducted by HackerOne, it was found that 23% of the world’s hackers belong to India. The US is the second country to have the highest number of hackers that is 20%. Followed by Russia (6%), Pakistan (4%) and United Kingdom (4%).

Note: However, viewers must know these numbers do not claim to show who leads the world in the number of ethical hackers. The numbers simply show the participation, by country, of the 166,000 people participating in HackerOne programs.

35% of the Cyber-attack on Indian sites are from China

The Official report of National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) says that “The cyber attacks from China made up 35% of the total number of cyberattacks on official Indian websites, followed by the US (17%), Russia (15%), Pakistan (9%), Canada(7%) and Germany (5%) ”. However, cyber attacks on Indian sites also affect computers that do not host a web server. The cited report is only an analysis of attacks reported on web sites where the attacker has been identified.

Source: Indian Express

Moreover, India Ranks 4th in the list of countries most affected by cybercrime in 2017. (Statista)

BONUS 1: The Mental Smile (The battle of wits between Man and Machine)

Arthur C. Clarke mentions Doctor Susan Calvin several times alongside Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, describing her as a female “role-model” in “the battle of wits between man and machine. Hackers have always strived to make computers do more than what was originally envisioned for them by the system designers.

BONUS 2: Hacker Test

You can see if you have what it takes to be one of these early hackers, by taking the Hacker Test.

Okay. Maybe you’re not up on your old-timer hacker historical questions. You CAN be a hacker. FAQs To be an “Ethical” hacker, it would be good to study ethics, a branch of philosophy, to be sure to live a good life and help make the world a better place.