Is there any money in legal hacking?

It is indeed a lot if with the right companies and right positions, I know a guy who works testing systems for the NY stock exchange and he is on $180,000+ a year.

Reply 4

in_jeopardy

munn

sounds like a soul destroying job

Sounds like the best job in the world.

People seem to say theres a fair ammount of money in ethical hacking / penetration testing, I've never seen figures though.

Reply 5

Ryan Hekk

Lol, i doubt thered be much market for hackers lol. Theyd just get the person who sets up the system to test it, and if you cant set up the system, well, guess your screwed. Because hacking is illegal, and no companies stupid enough to hire a hacker when it puts their information at risk.

Reply 6

OP

Craig_D

The problem is, you need experience before they will employ you, and how can you can get that experience? In 95% of cases, illegally.

Oh. It's not a 'we'll train you on the job' situation then? :o:

Reply 7

Corpsetaker

11

Ryan Hekk

Lol, i doubt thered be much market for hackers lol. Theyd just get the person who sets up the system to test it, and if you cant set up the system, well, guess your screwed. Because hacking is illegal, and no companies stupid enough to hire a hacker when it puts their information at risk.

Just because you build your own OS doesn't mean you have any idea of how the common pr0 or script-kiddie is going to attack it. How else do you think big companies like Microsoft ensure their systems are safe? They bring in outsiders with experience in the field to try things they didn't think of.

Really, do you think company-hired hackers actually steal the information they're trying to access? *facepalm* They'll be there to make sure nobody else can steal it.

Reply 8

someperson

13

Ryan Hekk

Lol, i doubt thered be much market for hackers lol. Theyd just get the person who sets up the system to test it, and if you cant set up the system, well, guess your screwed. Because hacking is illegal, and no companies stupid enough to hire a hacker when it puts their information at risk.

the person who sets up the system can get someone to hack into it to test it...that's what i saw in a film a really long time ago anyway :p:

Reply 9

JChoudhry

If you can learn it, you will most likely be earning a huge load of money if you can find a job of course. Ethical hacking is extremely long and boring to learn though, I must warn you. I attempted but gave up right that the beginning. :smile:

Reply 10

OP

Ryan Hekk

Lol, i doubt thered be much market for hackers lol. Theyd just get the person who sets up the system to test it, and if you cant set up the system, well, guess your screwed. Because hacking is illegal, and no companies stupid enough to hire a hacker when it puts their information at risk.

Any system can be broken, that's why they hire people to test systems and find the holes. If the person who designed the system knew about the holes he or she would have fixed them.

Reply 11

Craig_D

17

O-Ren

Oh. It's not a 'we'll train you on the job' situation then? :o:

To the best of my (very limited!) knowledge, I don't think so. There are just too many 18-25 year olds who spent their adolescence illegally trying to hack into mainframes and whatnot that it really isn't necessary to pay to train people. And who are better placed to be doing that job than someone who used to actually do it? The British government are even asking for former hackers to contact them, as they want to employ them and use their skills against the constant terrorist threat.

It's still worth a try though, and you could quite safely try minor hacking, there are just so many people (thousands) that do it that apparently the police can only be bothered to trace the major ones.

Edit: Link to kind of thing we are talking about ...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/hackers-recruited-to-help-fight-against-cybercrime-1719995.html
http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/british-government-recruits-naughty-boy-hackers-005790

Reply 12

OP

Craig_D

To the best of my (very limited!) knowledge, I don't think so. There are just too many 18-25 year olds who spent their adolescence illegally trying to hack into mainframes and whatnot that it really isn't necessary to pay to train people. And who are better placed to be doing that job than someone who used to actually do it? The British government are even asking for former hackers to contact them, as they want to employ them and use their skills against the constant terrorist threat.

It's still worth a try though, and you could quite safely try minor hacking, there are just so many people (thousands) that do it that apparently the police can only be bothered to trace the major ones.

Edit: Link to kind of thing we are talking about ...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/hackers-recruited-to-help-fight-against-cybercrime-1719995.html
http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/british-government-recruits-naughty-boy-hackers-005790

I see. That article depresses me actually as I'm 19 so I feel over the hill! How long does it take to become a good hacker? I dont know any programming languages so I'd be starting completely from scratch.

Tbh I'm not sure I have the time to do all that learning...

Edit: would you be able to learn through a computer science degree? Or is hacking not part of the course?

Reply 13

JChoudhry

It takes many many years.

Reply 14

OP

JChoudhry

It takes many many years.

Hmm. Perhaps it's not for me then. I only wanted to do it because I like the idea of using my brain to make money, but you probably need to also be passionate about computing to be able to spend that long learning how to hack, and I've never really felt that passionate about computers.

Reply 15

giran

They call them White Hat Hackers.

Just deliberately try to find flaws and exploits within a system. Get paid top dollar if you work for a security firm.

Reply 16

JChoudhry

O-Ren

Hmm. Perhaps it's not for me then. I only wanted to do it because I like the idea of using my brain to make money, but you probably need to also be passionate about computing to be able to spend that long learning how to hack, and I've never really felt that passionate about computers.

I knew a friend who used to spend most of his nights just doing this, but if you are interested a bit, you could try starting off at this site.
http://www.enigmagroup.org/

Reply 17

Corpsetaker

11

O-Ren

Hmm. Perhaps it's not for me then. I only wanted to do it because I like the idea of using my brain to make money, but you probably need to also be passionate about computing to be able to spend that long learning how to hack, and I've never really felt that passionate about computers.

Code injection would take at least a few years to learn. Many more to master. Lacking passion in this area would be a major flaw, imo.

Reply 18

Antimatter

I do love hacking, but I doubt you'll meet a hacker, legal or not so legal, who doesn't love computers and being around them.
Learn a programming language first :smile:

Reply 19

OP