What is Hacking?
Hacking is the act of using or modifying something in a way it was never intended to do. When people hear hacking they usually think of computer hacks like when a person hacks into a system that they’re not authorized to be in and steals information but you can also hack physical objects. Say for example you take an alarm clock and modify it so that it opens a window every morning at the same time on its own. That’s because you hacked the alarm clock into doing something it wasn’t originally designed to do.
While many hackers use their skills as part of a job (like penetration testers or security analysts) others do it because they enjoy the challenge of breaching cybersecurity defenses. Ethical hackers use their skills to test for vulnerabilities in software and advise companies on how to fix them. Others, known as black hat hackers, use their technical skills to steal information from other users or disrupt service. This is illegal and can be dangerous.
Some hackers engage in hacktivism, using their skills to promote a political or social cause. Examples include website defacements or attacks that cause computers to slow down or fail. These types of hacks can be difficult to detect by antimalware software or firewalls. They may also have the effect of revealing login information or stealing financial data. In the early 1980s, a group of teenagers hacking into high profile targets like Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center helped spur the US Congress to pass the first computer fraud law.