how-password-are-hacked

Howstuffworks "The Hacker Toolbox"
ARTICLE REVIEW
TITTLE How Hackers Work
AUTHOR Jonathan Strickland
Hacking of passwords has been a topic of curiosity and dread to everyone using the Internet at some point of time or the other.


Password became a common word only after the advent of Internet as email and chat spread like wild fire, unprecedented and unforeseen growing in geometric proportion in the population. Password cult now is pervasive world over as Internet access has reached the common man and the mouse is held by school children who pick up new technology fast.

It is worthwhile knowing some basics of password hacking from the experiences of developed countries who are two decades ahead or earlier than the third world countries.
Jonathan Strickland writes:

Malicious hackers use programs to:

* Hack passwords: There are many ways to hack someone's password, from educated guesses to simple algorithms that generate combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. The trial and error method of hacking passwords is called a brute force attack, meaning the hacker tries to generate every possible combination to gain access. Another way to hack passwords is to use a dictionary attack, a program that inserts common words into password fields.
* Infect a computer or system with a virus: Computer viruses are programs designed to duplicate themselves and cause problems ranging from crashing a computer to wiping out everything on a system's hard drive. A hacker might install a virus by infiltrating a system, but it's much more common for hackers to create simple viruses and send them out to potential victims via email, instant messages, Web sites with downloadable content or peer-to-peer networks.
* Log keystrokes: Some programs allow hackers to review every keystroke a computer user makes. Once installed on a victim's computer, the programs record each keystroke, giving the hacker everything he needs to infiltrate a system or even steal someone's identity.
* Gain backdoor access: Similar to hacking passwords, some hackers create programs that search for unprotected pathways into network systems and computers. In the early days of the Internet, many computer systems had limited security, making it possible for a hacker to find a pathway into the system without a username or password. Another way a hacker might gain backdoor access is to infect a computer or system with a Trojan horse.
* Create zombie computers: A zombie computer, or bot, is a computer that a hacker can use to send spam or commit Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. After a victim executes seemingly innocent code, a connection opens between his computer and the hacker's system. The hacker can secretly control the victim's computer, using it to commit crimes or spread spam.
* Spy on e-mail: Hackers have created code that lets them intercept and read e-mail messages -- the Internet's equivalent to wiretapping. Today, most e-mail programs use encryption formulas so complex that even if a hacker intercepts the message, he won't be able to read it.

Hacker Hierarchy
Psychologist Marc Rogers says there are several subgroups of hackers -- newbies, cyberpunks, coders and cyber terrorists. Newbies are hackers who have access to hacking tools but aren't really aware of how computers and programs work. Cyberpunks are savvier and are less likely to get caught than a newbie while hacking a system, but they have a tendency to boast about their accomplishments. Coders write the programs other hackers use to infiltrate and navigate computer systems. A cyber terrorist is a professional hacker who infiltrates systems for profit -- he might sabotage a company or raid a corporation's databases for proprietary information [source: Knittel and Soto].