HACKTHIS, SECURITY AND HACKING
HackThis.org is a site that was formed in the year 2003. The site was established in order to provide a ground for hackers to test, evaluate and improve their hacking skills. The site provides a legal platform for hackers to take their skills to a new level.
The site offers free membership to its users. Users practice their skills and the activities on the site help them to learn about the most exploited security vulnerabilities. The knowledge of these online exploited vulnerabilities enables the users to understand how the hackers in World Wide Web are able to hack into sites so that they may improve the security mechanisms for their existing or new sites. The knowledge gained by the users of the site helps them to better protect their networks. The site provides the following services and facilities for its users. Below is a screenshot of the site.
HackThis Screenshot
IRC and Forums on HackThis.org
The HackThis site has an IRC network. The IRC network helps the users of the site to connect with each other and congregate. The user use the IRC network to chat and exchange a lot of information about politics, current trends and issues in the field of information technology, programming concepts and ideas and even Information on UNIX based systems. The forums are very useful since they provide the users with a platform to ask questions on the areas that they need clarification on. The other members in these forums that have the knowledge about the asked questions help out by giving free answers. These two utilities have helped the users of the site share knowledge.
Articles
The site has very rich and unique collection of articles about information on the sector of IT (Information Technology). It allows members to add articles to the article base of the site provided that the articles being added are original. The article base has a lot of articles all on different categories. The categories range from simple walkthroughs to very complex topics in the world of computer programming.
Mission challenges
The site usually provides mission challenges for its users. The mission challenges simulate real world hacking situations. After the completion of missions users are awarded points for their achievements. This helps keep the site’s users motivated and happy when learning about hacking. It also helps the users analyze their abilities in a real world situation.
Criticism and Controversy
Many people do not like the idea of people hacking into other sites and the fact that HackThis site teaches people how to do the actual hacking; the site has been receiving a lot of criticism from many people. However, HackThis has said that although it shows its users how to hack, it does not support or participate in any unlawful hacking of sites on the internet and does not encourage its members to do so.
There has also been a lot of controversy surrounding the site. The biggest was in 2005 where the founder of HackThis.org, Jeremy Hammond, was arrested during a FBI investigation into the hacking of the political conservative group Protest Warriors.
Conclusion
If you are a person interested in hacking and related knowledge, then HackThis provides the best platform for you to advance your knowledge in this area. Despite many controversies and criticisms, HackThis remains one of the best web sites providing information on hacking and security.
