How to Become a Hacker ?

It was a lovely evening when I opened the contact form of ehacking.net and I found several emails asking the said question; this event is not once in a blue moon at all, it seems a regular habit of beginners or may be intermediate level too. They keep asking the same question, so I should say that “How to become a hacker” is a million dollar question.

There was a time in 90's when movies were creating and showing hacker culture, their personalities and lifestyle; some of these movies have shown hackers as a hero and some made them villain. At the end, movies have created a mindset of our generation to become a hacker in order to achieve their objectives, whether they are good or bad.

When someone ask this question, I used to float a counter question; “Why do you want to become a hacker ? Why not IT security professional or penetration tester ?” And believe me most of the time people say that it sounds good to be a hacker. My simple is point is that:

“Media has created this mentality to be a hacker instead of professional penetration tester”

Neither I will define the word hacker here, nor I will differentiate between penetration tester and hacker but in this series of “to be a hacker” I will show a pathway to become an IT security professional.

If you cannot handle the difficulties and challenges then leave this field at your earliest, IT security is a dynamic field which requires education, certification, human skills and impatient while learningsomething. So you should be waiting to handle loads of challenges coming your way to become a hacker Penetration tester.

Education & Skill Set

Any degree related to computer sciences is highly recommended because while studying computer science you get to know about the programming, scripting, networking (wired & wireless), web,database, cryptography and many other things that will help you throughout your IT security career. Apart from computer sciences, engineering degrees like Telecommunication and electronic degree are also a good option; these degrees enhance your networking and hardware skills, and you may learn the software side while working :)

If you don't have any degree, then come on you need not to worry about it; in history many outstanding professionals did not complete their degrees. A little difference is that you need to learn those skills by yourself, believe me you can learn everything free online that a university could teach you.

The Bottom line is that, you need a particular skill set; it does not matter from where you acquired those skills.

Follow the Master, Become the Master

You have got the suitable education now what; have you become the hacker ? No! As I said challenges, it starts from here. To become the master, you need to follow the master; you need a mentor who can show you the path, direction and who share his/her experiences and the one who make you what you wanted yourself to be made.

Be wise while selecting the mentor, it defines your future. Here master can be anyone, it could be a human being, a blog or website and group or place of discussion; you may have as many mentors asyou want. Be focused, plan your action to achieve the objectives (but first you need to define your objectives).

ConclusionNo no no, this is not enough to become a hacker but let me conclude the first part of this series. We have discussed the essential parts that play their important roles while making a professional IT security expert. In the next articles, we will discuss the values, culture, certification and many other things that you should have to become a hacker.