Hacker Psychology

Who is a hacker? A hacker is someone who looks like you and me! but who thinks outside the box. It's someone who discards conventional rules wisdom, and does something else instead. It's someone who think beyond the limits. It's someone who sees a set of rules and wonders what happens if you don't follow them. A hacker is someone who experiments with the limitations of systems. A normal man ask his wife “how many teeth in your mouth?” but a good hacker would have simply counted his wife's teeth without her knowing about it, while she was asleep. A bad hacker might remove some of them, to prove his skill (Well that is next stage of hacking which called cracking!)
Computers are the perfect playground for hackers, as we do all the works and transactions online in this technical age. The best way to defeat your enemy is to know their mindset! So we will discuss how hacker works and what he/she thinks? How they work?
How hacker works? Hacker have several ways to hack information like login and password, it depends who you are, where you are and how the hacker reaches you.

1. Mind Reading This can do anyone! They no need to be specialized for this. A hacker thinks what can their victims can set as password? They start with guesses like date of birth, family names, pet names or address information.
2. Common words What if, I set my password as 12345678? or abcd? These are the most easy to break passwords.
3. Proxy If the hacker is just standing behind you, He will see what you entered from the keypad? This may happen at cybercafé or ATM!
4. Trojan Horse Tools: There are many hacking tools are available on the internet, that can be easily downloaded and used on someone’s machine. {Due to security reason the tool names and how to use is now given here} These software use to extract passwords from cookies saved on local machine!
Key Logger: This is more worst then previous one! This will track entire activity from your keyboard and send the information through email to the hacker. There is also some hardware based key logger that can be fitted before keyboard plug as show below;

5. IP address Hacker can get your IP address and tack back the activity on the IP address by sending some “Trojan horse”. How they get your IP address? Well that’s very easy, If you write comments on my Wordpress blog I’ll have your IP address! {Feel free to write comments at my blog, Coz I’m not a hacker! or interested in doing so!}
6. Try and Try Hackers can program a server to give different passwords to open someone’s account, but after some false try the login screen ask to solve the CAPTCHA CODE that can’t be solved by machine only human’s can solve it {Not so far! now servers also solves CAPTCHA CODE!}

The above are some examples only, more can be done by a hacker! After understanding how a hacker hacks some one’s password. we will understand how to make a complex password?
Password complexity A good password is like; 5eR3$1♥x9%#DF (if you able to remember it!)
Keys can be entered from keyboard:

Capital Letters	26
Small Letters	26
Numerals	10
Symbols	32
Total Characters	94

Suppose you chose 1 letter as you password e.g. “r” so there is maximum number of tries will be 94 {remember this is maximum, minimum could be 1!}. But if you choose 2 letters e.g. “mk”, the number of tries will be 94^2 = 8836 (94x94)
To make a real complex password you have put some special characters like;

Code	Key
☺	9786
♥	9829
♫	9835

There are 65535 symbols that you can put! they can be entered by holding down the Alt key and entering the number from number pad in the right of your keyboard {remember number pad in right of your keyboard, not the above number line on top of QWERTY}

So the above table can be reviewed like this:

Capital Letters	26
Small Letters	26
Numerals	10
Symbols	32
Symbols (With Alt)	65535
Total	65629

Suppose you chose 1 letter as you password e.g. “r” so there is maximum tries now will be 65629!  {but still the minimum is 1 if some get rite guess as the first attempt!!} and think about 2 letters! it will be 65629 x 65629 = 4307165641!! So make the password more complex and hard to guess.

Why they hack?

1. Personal gain Now a days most of hackers gain access to someone’s account or get access to machine and encrypt all files in hard drive, they decrypt your data if you pay them what they want!
2. For fun Some hackers only hack for their own fun, or to prove their skills!
3. Revenge Some time revenge is also a fact to hack some one. As we see often terrorist hacks government websites.
4. Ethical hacking Well ethical hacking is also a part of hacker’s life. Some time to rescue some one or to prevent damage to someone, they have to do hacking which is called ethical hacking.

Hacker targets celebrities to get fame and to be in limelight, as sometime before Britney Spears’ account was hacked!
Note: This article is not to teach hacking or to appreciate it in any manner! this is just to improve your knowledge and to protect you from password hacks! :)
–Rohy