The great free introduction for newbies (tip)

[scrlptclddle]

This isn't a question, but a tip for all the newbies out there.

I have, in my spare time, studied hacking for about one and a half years now. And i have started to see the reason why it is so hard to learn this:

As a normal windows user, i am used to finding the answers i need with simple Googling, or by asking friends/acquaintances. Why? Because roughly 99% of all people use some version of Windows.

But Windows is very restrictive, and does not allow their users to do a lot of hacking stuff, so if you want to become a hacker, you must learn a different operating system. I'm not going to say that Linux is the only choice, but i will say that Linux is the most popular and most used choice in the hacker community.

Linux is however not as commonly used as IT people think. For them it is normal, obvious and just as common as getting a glass of water. But in reality, internet searches on issues regarding operating system problems are much easier to find for windows then Linux. Not only are the Linux users fewer in numbers, which translates into fewer internet articles, but the problem is magnified by the fact that there isn't just one Linux, or a series of Linux version, there is an evolutionary tree of different distros, forks, variants and combinations.

So why do i care? Why did i try to abandon Windows (unsuccessfully yet)?

Well, ever since my home computer was forcefully "updated" from Windows 7 (which worked with my video editing software) to Windows 10 (which didn't) despite the fact that i clicked "No thanks" on the "Upgrade to Windows 10?" popups about 30 times before that,  i wanted to migrated away from Windows.

I mean, seriously! Why did Microsoft even ask for my permission if they in the end planned to ignore it all together?! I actually, and you might laugh when i tell you this, but i actually call the cops and filed a police report against Microsoft for hacking! Of course i knew that it would amount to nothing, but at least i would have caused them to loose some money in attorney cost. Or so i thought. When the Swedish attorneys read this police report, the disqualified it outright. Microsoft wasn't even contacted. You just cant win....

Sorry, my hate seems to have disrupted my focus here...

Anyways, i have thought about migrating to Linux for several years. And when i bought myself a brand spanking new gaming computer with a shiny shiny NVIDIA RTX 2070 graphics card in it, i thought it was the perfect time to start migrating. So i partitioned a big chunk of this new rigs SSD so i could have dual boot. But guess what? I couldn't even install Linux, because the RTX 2070 graphics card was so new that there weren't any Linux drivers for it! And i couldn't even get it to use any other output, all i got on boot was multicolored static.....

So guess what i did? I sucked it up and reverted to Windows again, like the little obedient slave i was.

A couple of years later, i got a new job as a developer. And the things i develop was so beautiful (at least in my eyes) that i wanted to protect them from malicious hackers. That's how i got the motivation to learn Linux, networking and hacking. To learn pen-testing in order to protect my babies.

But let me tell you, one and a half years later, i can not lie: Migrating from Windows to Linux is tough. Really tough. 

But its not because the technology is so different. You can install Linux (Ubuntu for instance) right now, and if the only things you want is to browse the web and watch YouTube videos, your all set! Easy peasy! Ooh, you want to receive and send emails? Eeh, that would take some online studies to accomplish, its not like using Outlook. But fuck that, you can use web-mail instead, right? Simple, easy, and not too weird.

But ooh, the reason you are reading this is because you are interested in hacking. Well then.......you will encounter a very steep learning curve...

But why is that? Why is it so hard to learn Linux in depth?

Simply because everyone that already knows Linux also knows how much basic computer knowledge is necessary in order to even grasp hacker related issues, terms and acronyms. They know that if they help you, even a little bit, they will have open a Pandora's box of questions, suggestions and ill-conceived ideas and they do not have time to answer your flood of curiosities. That's why you may see "Why wont anyone help me?!" or similar unanswered pleads for help by beginners on Linux forums.

Its not that Linux people are unfeeling or unhelpful, its simply because it takes so many hours to get you up to speed, that they cant handle it. After all, a Linux person with great enough Linux skill to teach, has already been snatched up by a company that demands 14 hours of their every day, including saturated and Sundays! How are they going to teach you as well on top of that pressure? Its simple: they cant. So you wont find any great Linux guru to guide your way toward hackdom heaven. Morpheus doesn't exist here.

So don't expect people to answer your calls for Linux help, holding your hand or doing your problem solving for you. Sure, you can post a question on a Linux forum, but don't expect an answer this week. Or this month...

In short, don't abandon Windows totally and try to go hardcore Linux directly.....You will need the Windows environment during the weeks it takes to get answers on Linux communities. The Windows to Linux change is a migration process.....

So is it more effort than its worth to try to learn Linux? Not at all! When you have learned Linux, you have automatically amount so much information that is applicable even in a windows environment! Your generic computer knowledge has increased by extreme amounts, but most important of all, your mindset has been expanded. You will see new possibilities that you never had a chance to see by only using the restrictive environment of Windows.

And that is the most important, and at the same time the hardest goal to reach: The hacker mentality. Because it doesn't really matter which operating system you use. Sure, windows is restrictive, but whats is most restrictive is living in a mental box. Thoughts like "That cant be done" or "That's impossible" or even "That's not how its supposed to be done!" doesn't exist in a hacker brain.

A hackers brain works like this:

Question: "Can it be done?"

Hacker Answer: "Anything is possible, but is there a shorter route to the same goal? Do i have to follow the guide, or can i cheat?"

 

Question: "Is it possible?"

Hacker Answer: "Anything is possible! Do i have free range of trying anything and everything, or do you impose limits?"

 

Question: "You should do this as it is supposed to be done!"

Hacker Answer: "Huh? "Supposed"!? What kind of gibberish is that?"

 

Lastly but definitely not least, a hacker doesn't view obstacles as a nuisance. I know there are people in this world that thinks "This should just work, why doesn't it work, GAAHHH!!!". Trust me, those people will never ever, in a million years, become hackers. If you want to become a hacker, you must adopt a completely different mindset. 

Remember, the entire world is trying to prevent you from hacking! Banks, governments, huge international companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, they all want you to follow their rules! To be the little insignificant obedient sheep they want you to be. Of course you should not do anything illegal, but even legal hacking is discouraged by them. The will try and stop you in every way they can, so prepare for a challenge. Learning Linux might be difficult, but learning to hack is a serious challenge, because the entire IT infrastructure is devised and designed to prevent you from finding loopholes!

So don't look at hacking as grasping for control. Look at it as a fun way of finding flaws in their armor. Just a simple thing like finding a bug in Facebooks code can give you a sense of superpower. You, a single individual, found this backdoor into this international conglomerate company! 🙂

"E. Corp" anyone?

Yes, a Mr. Robot reference. I'm sure many of you rolled your eyes at that one, but let me tell you, no matter if Mr. Robot was realistic or not, at least it motivated me to go this far. And i want to send my compliments to the creators of the Mr. Robot series for their ability to show that "ethical hacking" is not necessarily legal, and always following the law to the letter isn't necessarily ethical.

Aaaaaanyway, if you are still reading this, you might actually have the focus and discipline it takes to become a hacker! So ill give you a helping hand... ¨

No, i will not be your mentor, i will not be your Yoda, stop looking for a hacker guide! You must walk this path alone!

There are some excellent free educations online that can get you up to speed. You will have to provide the motivation, focus and curiosity yourself though, because no one will do your learning for you.... And getting up to speed will take some time....However, this is my suggestion for your exploration path:

First invaluable tip:

Learn Linux! Here's an excellent tutorial that will take you from "Don't know shit" to "Knows da shit!":

https://linuxjourney.com/

you don't need to learn everything there. In fact, i only come as far as "Journeyman" myself and then learned the rest by watching YouTube videos..

 

Second invaluable tip:

Learn the language! And here I'm not talking about a programming language, but rather technical terms, sayings, jargon and abbreviations. You can learn all of this for free by watching Professor Messers video lectures (like i did):

https://www.professormesser.com/

There you will find many different free courses. If your unsure which course is the right starting point for you, then start with the same course i started with, its a great beginner course!:

https://www.professormesser.com/free-a-plus-training/a-plus-videos/220-1001-training-course/

I'm actually revisiting these courses today, and i still find value in them the second time around. Professor Messer is an excellent teacher!

Lastly, my biggest advice to you is: Don't set any deadline. Don't think "I'm going to be a hacker by the end of 2025". It doesn't work that way. Being a hacker means that you are constantly learning, constantly challenged, constantly hindered. If you have a goal, forget it. Instead, view this as an adventure without an end. Sincerely, you can spend every waking hour learning about hacking, and by the time you rest in your grave, you will still have just witness the tip of this iceberg. There is a never ending world of exploration out there. Enjoy it while you can and try to forget deadlines.

 

 

[Rkiver]

Already a full topic you could just add to rather then advertising.

[kuyaya]

10 hours ago, scrlptclddle said:

But Windows is very restrictive, and does not allow their users to do a lot of hacking stuff, so if you want to become a hacker, you must learn a different operating system.

Can you give some examples? I also use windows mainly and I can't remember any "restriction"

[dark_pyrro]

Windows is also really important to master since it's pretty often the target of engagements (or parts of it). The pure essence is, you need to know a lot of things about a lot of things.