Hacking…what is it? What does it mean?

To Hack is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "to gain access to a computer illegally."  I am going to take it one step further and say that it is "to gain access to computer data illegally."  Something as simple as guessing someones Facebook password in order to get data that doesn't belong to you is also hacking.  The average computer user has a warped view of how hacking works.  With movies like The Matrix, Hackers and WarGames we have this idea that hacking has a cool visual interface and if you are capable of typing fast enough you can get any information from any computer you want.  There are three major types of hacking that are popular today: website hacking, corporate hacking and trojans.Corporate hacking is the next largest form of hacking.  Because of how profitable identity theft has become, hackers are looking for ways to collect more people information at a faster rate.  Several major companies as list by HotforSecurity include AT&T and even Google.  Hackers are collecting user data in order to open credit in the users name.

As a Computer Technician I get to see my fair share of fun people.  But my favorite has to be the this one lady that kept coming back once a week to get her computer completely wiped.  Each time I would ask her "what's going on today?"  And her reply would always be "My computer got hacked."



Website hacking.  Recently an organization that calls themselves Anonymous has been breaking into websites in order the bring them down, even if its just for a short time.  Anonymous was born from the governments attempt to start taxing and regulating the internet.  So far they have targeted large companies or government organizations that support this anti-free-internet point of view.


The last form of hacking is trojans.  Since most people have no idea how to actually break the security of a computer, trojans have become popular by the younger crowd to spy and mess with there friends or enemies.  A group of poorly guided programmers built some software that attaches to anything the user wants.  Someone can add this software to a song, photo or another app and send it to there victim.  When there victim opens the file the malicious software installs on the computer and allows the attacker to see everything the user is doing, read all key strokes entered and even take over the computer.

What the moral of this story?  Its basically this: Your computer is not being hacked once a week by a group of shady people you never met; but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful about what you download or what information you put in your computer.  Its not hack happy world out there but please take care of your self and your information.  After you do that, have fun!  The internet is a fun place.