What is a Cracker? Know their types and habits!

Be careful in the networks! There may be people who want to get hold of your personal information. In the next article we will tell you:what is a cracker ? and how to take care of one.

what-is-a-cracker-1

What is a cracker?

Currently, there are many risks when it comes to having your personal information on the internet, why even the mere fact of having a social network opens the door to many people who will use that against you, since the mere fact of placing your first name, last name and date of birth, can be used for someone else to create an identity.

And this is just about public information, but what about the one on your computer or phone? These devices can contain even more intimate data, such as our bank account, this can make you a victim of money theft or even extortion.

These individuals who commit these acts of vandalism are known as cracker. But what exactly is a cracker? These are usually confused with hacker, but there is actually a difference.

Crackers are people who have information on how to illegally access third-party systems, deceiving them with the access codes or codes they possess. This is usual in programs that previously require a license or a code to activate it, it is here when the cracker intervenes, creating a program that generates the activation or serial codes, but obviously, these are artificial, that means, that it is disconnected from the company or business that originally sold you the license.

The programs created by these people carry out these artificial codes through programming algorithms that "crack".

These people called cracker must have a high amount of knowledge about computers and computing, but it would not be the same as a hacker and their different classifications, so care must be taken not to confuse these two terms. Next, we will clarify that he is a hacker:

What is a hacker?

Hacker is known to people who have a high knowledge about computers, computing, programming, among others; This means that he is an expert with everything related to computers. Depending on the tasks or purposes that these people want to achieve, they can be divided into different types, since contrary to what many individuals believe, not all hackers are bad, so below, we will explain the classifications:

Black hat hackers

In English they are known as "Black hat", these are what they try to steal information, enter servers or violate computer security that they do not own. In the same way, they try to appropriate ideas that are not their own and earn capital at the expense of other users.

These types of people are the ones you should take care of, since they can even access secure networks to perform acts such as: get rid of information or make it useless for the person who did have legal access.

These are also known as crackers and have the objective of breaking secure systems on computers, accessing safe areas, creating viruses for other computers, changing program components, stealing banking information and even transmitting false information on the networks, making it look true. Many public figures like presidents and celebrities have been affected by these people, damaging their public image.

White hat hackers

Unlike the one mentioned above, these hackers are known to be good. These types of people carry out the task of finding possible errors in the systems and even perfect them, making it have a stronger security, preventing black hat hackers from taking over them.

To test if a system is secure, they can sometimes break it, but all this without bad intentions, it is only to test it and fix any security problems you may have.

Gray hat hacker

Known as neutral hackers, they can have a good side and a bad side, but they do not fall into either of the white hat or black hat classifications, since they can lean to either side.

This type of hacker can break or break a system, then inform the person who administered it and finally ask for a sum of money to fix what they did, in other words, it can be known as a scam, but unlike hackers black hat, they will not defame or steal information, but fix their own act, that is why they cannot enter the white hat classification either.

hacker-types-1

Difference between Cracker and Hacker

Hackers, as we said before, are computer and informatics experts, with knowledge about programming, operating systems, among others, but it is not always out of evil, but because they are hungry for knowledge and discover different things, and they can even use those skills to help others. On many occasions, it can be through the media, that people tend to get confused and believe that all hackers are bad, when in fact some may even work for the government.

Unlike these, crackers are people who violate computer security, it can be for personal reasons to earn money or simply harm other users, that is why the term cracker comes from «Criminal Hacker» (In Spanish it would be Hacker Criminal or virtual vandal). The name was created in 1985 to be able to differentiate the hacker from the cracker.

To find out more differences between a hacker and a cracker, we invite you to watch the following video:

Types of cracker

As for crackers, there are some specific types which are the most important within this one, it is important to know how to differentiate them and to know what acts each one does, so then we will define what the types are:

  • System Crackers: They are people with knowledge regarding programming, which violate programs, changing their original design.
  • Crypto Crackers: It is the type of cracker that I know in charge of cracking codes, also known as a cryptographic break.
  • phreaker: they are experts in telephone functions or in telecommunications technology. In the same way, they have knowledge about electronics that is applied to telephone systems.

They can have multiple objectives, such as: spying on telephone conversations, obtaining free calls, breaking the security of telephone lines, recording calls, among others.

  • Cyberpunk- He's the type of cracker who takes over other people's jobs and tries to destroy it. They are the worst fear of internet pages or systems.

Process that a cracker performs

To better understand what a cracker is, you must know what the process they perform to enter a network is, this is divided into three parts: selection, compilation and completion. Next, we will make a brief explanation of each of these:

  • Selection: This is the stage where you select, depending on the purpose of the cracker, the network you want to violate. This can be done for a personal, political or any other aspect in general.

Before doing anything, first, you have to verify if where you want to access is weak and fragile, this will be done by testing the accesses of the user you want to invade. What is a port? They are the openings that computers have when it comes to receiving data, which comes through the network, if these ports are open, that is, if they respond, that is where the cracker will enter.

  • Compilation: this is the moment in which the cracker will gather all the information it obtained, in order to enter your system. They will take all the information that is crucial to them, even in the computer trash until they reach important documents that help you achieve the objective that you first set.
  • Ending: At this point, the target has finally been invaded but the cracker is still in danger, as they can be discovered by computer security systems.

What does crack mean?

It can also be written as "Cracking" or called "Computer Crack", it is a term used to describe when an attempt is made to deceive a system or program with an artificial password or key, created by means of a programming language. This obviously is without the permission of the person who made the original program, resulting in the original software acting differently from what was created.

Depending on the purpose of this "crack", there are two terms used to refer to them:

  • User: it is known this way when it is simpler, in fact, this term is not so well known to crack, since it is only used to obtain an advantage of an application at a commercial level. These people only use the program, but they do not perform a task as complex as creating the program.
  • Cracker: this would be essentially pure "Crack", since the algorithms of the programs that do not have full use would be deciphered, changing the original work or altering the introductions.

What is patching?

When we refer to patch, it means when changes are made to a certain program. Usually with regard to computing, placing a "patch" means that changes were made for the better: correcting something, putting a new function on it, adding an update, among others.

As for crackers, it can be used to change, add or delete instructions in order to violate or bypass the security of the executable.

How to avoid crackers?

After knowing that it is a cracker, you must know how to prevent possible attacks from one. Unconsciously, you may be doing things that leave you defenseless against violations of your privacy, why the simplest things, can cause your computer to be exposed.

Computer security must be taken very seriously, since it could not only affect you, if not your family, then we will tell you the possible problems and solutions for these:

Simple passwords

Even the least experienced cracker can crack your password, if this is your birthday, it would be as simple as just going to any of your social networks and searching your personal information; This is why you should be serious about establishing one. Keep this in mind: If it's easy for you, it's easy for a cracker; This does not mean that it should be very complicated, as you could easily forget it.

It is recommended that it be a random word with more than 8 characters, it can be a long word that you remember, you could also try to place two words separated by a period or a slash, you could even put numbers, but remember that it must be something simple so as not to confuse you later.

Beware of Wi-Fi

If you plan to do something private like logging into a bank account, avoid using public Wi-Fi, as this leaves you as a simple target for what a cracker is. It doesn't matter if "it's just for a minute", that short period of time, can give a black hat hacker your password on a silver platter and easily gain access to your account to steal your money.

what-is-a-cracker-2

Online shopping

Many pages currently offer the option of buying virtually, this can be done in different methods, but one known is to enter your card number, address, among others. If these pages are not protected by HTTPS, it is possible that they were created by crackers to steal your personal information.

Do you know how to check that a site is secure? Well, before adding the URL or site address, there must be a small green insurance, with this you will know if the site you are entering is safe. If we don't take this seriously, we could be the victims of theft or even counterfeiting.

If you want to know which are the best online stores to buy, we invite you to visit the following article: The best online stores in the world.

Phishing

This is a common technique among crackers, it is based on asking users for personal information through links. People with less experience in the networks are the ones who most usually fall victim to this.

Any type of information can be found by this method, either: name, password and location.


Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Actualidad Blog
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.