How do Hackers Spend Their Time?

Web TrendsPosted on October 17, 2011 Ryan Nutley

Imperva, one of the worlds most renowned internet security and data protection agencies, performed a recent survey suggesting that hackers spend approximately half of their time educating other hackers on internet forums. The two most talked about topics covered throughout hacker forums are apparently SQL injections and DDoS attacks, accounting for 19% and 22% respectfully. Imperva monitor hacker forums all over the internet as an initiative to combat against hacker intelligence, claiming that some forums host more than 250,000 members

Many of the topics discussed by hackers generally include how-to tutorials for neewbies, ensuring that the tricks of the trade are kept alive. Many hackers are also computer security experts, and not all of these communities aim to deliver malicious attacks on websites and companies. But as with every community, you’ll get some people who rebel. Imperva’s gathering of data on hacker forums allows top security firms to keep on top of information security. Knowing what hackers are talking about and where vulnerabilities lie is vital for software and IT securities progression.

There are many different aspects of hacking that have particularly come into play in the last few years, a big one being social engineering (the ability to manipulate large audiences to give forward information). Knowledge of this information is perfectly legal, as is knowledge of how to perform attacks. The act of performing the attack is what’s illegal, and many hackers in certain forums discuss various ways to avoid law enforcement authorities.

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