As we walk in the 21st century, it is quite inevitable that the term “hacking” has become a part of our colloquial vocabulary. Now based on this, there will be two people, those who know hacking and those who don’t. Furthermore, the later can be divided into people who don’t give a damn to what hacking might be and individuals who resort to Hollywood to get an idea. Both these sets of people have false impressions of what hacking really is. So here is a quick read on five common misconceptions about hacking:

Hacking is illegal

If you think hacking is illegal then obviously you haven’t heard of “ethical hackers.” Of course, there are people who “hack” with evil intentions, but they are the YIN to the YANG, which are ethical hackers. Hacking is knowledge. Hackers analyze code to figure out where its weak points are. Now if you exploit them, you are a bad guy, and if you fix them, then you are a good guy. Think of it like this: who is the villain; the person inventing the bomb or the person dropping the bomb?

Hackers are generally teens or people in their 20s

Well Hollywood isn’t wrong showing kid hackers. Here are brats who hack stuff just to get a “congo bro” online. But that is not the entire demography of hackers.

Ethical hacking isn’t done by kids in a corporate office; they are handled by adults. Again hackers who steal information just to sell them aren’t fooling around in a playground. Hackers are a coordinated, organized and professional group.

You can hack a mainframe over the internet

We have seen it multiple times where Hollywood creates some dilemma by getting vital information by hacking into a mainframe. The scene might be thrilling, but mainframes CAN’T be hacked like that.

You can’t hack the CIA’s website and get confidential records and internal details. Similarly, you can’t hack some government website to get all the nuclear launch codes. People who built these sites are not idiots. Such sensitive information is well hidden and can’t be accessed by the public.

Mostly these kinds of hacks, if they would ever happen, require an inside job; someone who works inside CIA or the government’s defense section.

Hacking can be stopped by security software

Even if you have great security software, you are not safe if some sensitive information gets into the hands of the person who wants to hack you.

More than software, the weakest links in your line of defense is you yourself. Hackers will mostly use flattery, tricks, and lies to trick you into getting the info they need or get access to your key system.

For example, hackers will call you impersonating an authority from your bank to get some vital details. There is no way he can get this info without you telling it to them. Now if you fell for their deceit then you have got hacked, literally.

All hackers are specialized in the same knowledge

There are various areas of expertise for a hacker to work in. Different hackers have different skills and that too of different levels.

Some are good with only particular technologies while some have different purposes.

They can be reverse Engineers who are cracking software or someone with excellent TCP/IP stack knowledge. Hacking is a diverse field of education.

Conclusion:

Hope you have now become a little more enlightened about the world of hacking, and perhaps more interested. Now that your misconceptions about hacking are cleared out, remember hacking is not rocket science; it is just when your passion for computers meets your creativity. So if you want, you can become a hacker too.

And since you now understand how hacking works, in general, you should now be able to protect yourself more.