I'm a professional hacker, ask me anything

Somewhat sensationalised title, but it's basically accurate

I did one of these last year on my old account and many of my answers there will still apply

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Reply 1

Ram Ranch

Badass. How much are you paid?

Reply 2

username3477548

Is it rude if I ask how much you make lol

Reply 3

o_reo

how did you become a professional hacker

Thank you!

Which unis do you recommend for people interested in working in cyber security... Any good apprenticeships?

Reply 6

RichPiana

Inb4 "Can you hack NASA?" or "Can you hack TSR?"

Reply 7

Other_Owl

Are you self-employed or employed?

Reply 8

username5770391

Original post by Qxi.xli

Is it rude if I ask how much you make lol

Original post by Ram Ranch

Badass. How much are you paid?

I'm torn on answering this. I don't think it's rude to ask, but I'm also not looking to just throw that information out there.

For what it's worth, average salary when I was job hunting seemed to be around 27K-33K. I'll leave it to your imagination as to if I'm in that average, above or below it. Some other fun numbers:

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My boss did a bit of bug hunting in his spare time over a weekend, and found a bug worth something like $15K. Not bad for 10-20 hours work.

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I'm not even remotely qualified for them yet, but have been seeing a lot of jobs paying 6 figures recently.

Generally, Cyber is a fairly lucrative industry

Reply 9

lord shimada

what degree needed to work as one?

Reply 10

username5173262

Can you hack NASA?
if not, Can you hack TSR?

Reply 11

username5770391

Original post by Joinedup

Which unis do you recommend for people interested in working in cyber security... Any good apprenticeships?

I don't think I'm qualified to answer this. I've never done an apprenticeship, and can only comment on the university I attended which I'm not going to share for a few reasons. I don't have the first hand experience to say X, Y and Z uni are great but avoid A, B and C unis.

There's a lot of good info out there already on choosing unis. You can look at NCSC certified degrees. You can look at the course content and see if it's a good fit for you. And all the usual uni advice, like seeing if it's a uni you'd like to study at.

There's an absolute ton of factors to consider, and many different approaches.

Reply 12

Ram Ranch

Original post by V℮rsions

Can you hack NASA?
if not, Can you hack TSR?

Is there anyone who can't hack TSR more like?

Reply 13

Ram Ranch

What sort of things do you do on a typical day?

Reply 14

username5770391

Original post by RichPiana

Inb4 "Can you hack NASA?" or "Can you hack TSR?"

Original post by V℮rsions

Can you hack NASA?
if not, Can you hack TSR?

For what it's worth, I've done a few of these before and I've only had "can you hack Facebook or Instagram" once

Reply 15

username5770391

Original post by Other_Owl

Are you self-employed or employed?

Currently employed

Reply 16

SammysBunnies

What's your favourite part about being a hacker?

Reply 17

ANM775

15k for 20 hours work, yes very lucrative indeed..

but what about all the other times where he spent 10-20 hours looking for bugs and found nothing?

bug hunting seems like a bit of a gamble to me, unless he's one of those people who are good enough to consistently find big zero day bugs before anyone else..