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Chapter 2
Cracking the Hacker Mindset
In This Chapter
▶ Understanding the enemy
▶ Profiling hackers and malicious users
▶ Understanding why attackers do what they do
▶ Examining how attackers go about their business
B efore you start assessing the security of your systems, you may want to
know something about the people you’re up against. Many information
security product vendors and other professionals claim that you should protect
your systems from the bad guys — both internal and external. But what
does this mean? How do you know how these people think and work?
Knowing what hackers and malicious users want helps you understand how
they work. Understanding how they work helps you to look at your information
systems in a whole new way. In this chapter, I describe the challenges
you face from hackers, the people actually doing the misdeeds, and their
motivations and methods. This understanding better prepares you for your
ethical hacking tests.
What You’re Up Against
Thanks to sensationalism in the media, public perception of hacker has transformed
from harmless tinkerer to malicious criminal. Nevertheless, hackers
often state that the public misunderstands them, which is mostly true. It’s
easy to prejudge what you don’t understand. Unfortunately, many hacker
stereotypes are based on misunderstanding rather than fact, and that misunderstanding
fuels a constant debate.
Hackers can be classified by both their abilities and their underlying motivations.
Some are skilled, and their motivations are benign; they’re merely
seeking more knowledge. At the other end of the spectrum, hackers with
malicious intent seek some form of personal gain. Unfortunately, the negative
aspects of hacking usually overshadow the positive aspects and promote the
negative stereotypes.