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Hacking involves the ability to penetrate any computer system or network, using its inherent weakness or security loopholes. The word has negative connotations, but the techniques can also be used in positive ways. An Unofficial Guide To Ethical Hacking, authored by Ankit Fadia, introduces the reader to the world of hacking, and explains the various techniques, and how they can used beneficially.
The word hacker generally invokes the picture of a technical wizard who exploits weaknesses in networks and systems for destructive purposes. But, hackers also work openly for companies that use their expertise to find the loopholes in their systems so that they can fix them before those weak points are exploited by others for negative purposes.
Hackers generally have a thorough knowledge of the system, the OS, hardware, security implementations, and especially the drawbacks in all of these. They can use these weak points to gain entry into the systems or networks where they have no official authorization.
The hackers community are now campaigning to change their image, to differentiate between ethical hackers and others who use the techniques for illegal activities. The hacking community generally refers to ethical hackers as hackers and criminal hackers as crackers.
Hackers use a variety of methods to gain access to a system. An Unofficial Guide To Ethical Hacking starts by explaining who is a hacker, and then takes the readers into the world of hacking. Various hacking methods are also explained. The author explores hacking into networks and the World Wide Web, and techniques used to gain access, types of of attacks, etc.
Privacy attacks, input validation attacks, password hacking, denial of service attacks, and more such threats are discussed. The book then explains TCP/IP protocols, firewalls, and batch files and shows how some loopholes in these can be exploited by hackers. Then, the book takes a look at virus and exploit scripts.
An Unofficial Guide To Ethical Hacking is considered to be a good introduction to the subject of hacking and system security. It give a detailed explanation of the concepts, methods, and even types of hacking - a good introduction for those who want to get familiar with the hardcore internal working of a system.
About Ankit Fadia
Ankit Fadia is a system security consultant who wrote the book An Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking when he was just 15 years old. He was born in 1985, and he completed his education at Delhi Public School.
Some books by Ankit Fadia include How to Unblock Everything on the Internet, Even You Can Hack: E-mail Hacking, Windows Hacking 2.0, and Software Hacking.
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