REAL hackers: What are your methods?

[PissedOffToday]

I don't want any crap from anyone pulling the law on me, even though you probably will anyways.
But, lately I've been wanting to get into hacking but all I ever find is bull crap websites that promise you they work but it's always a prank, or you have to do a survey, which usually never ends it's just a waste of time. Some of them is a "free download" but when you do download it, it's not the real one it's a thing that you didn't even want and attacks you with viruses and stupid ads like I have now. They also make you do a survey sometimes and when you complete it, you don't even get it period. Like a couple days ago I downloaded something from this website and it said to complete an offer. And one of them was to download this art software which looked good and Im into art. So, I download it. Problem was, that I had the art software, but then a bunch of things came with it. So now, every website I go to and whatnot, has ads everywhere, even the ones you see on television. Plus now, I can't go anywhere without a lot of lagging. Except for Skye and Imvu. I still have internet, but it never stops lagging especially youtube.

So, please don't give me any bullsh*t downloads or websites. Just tell me what you do... And please don't be a fake hacker looking to steal my money. This is for educational purposes ONLY not to start trouble.

And regular people, even though you probably wont listen, do NOT comment on this question. Thank you.

For the hackers: Like I said, no fake websites like hack-facebook-password.com. Because I know its fake. So is gaming intensity, and learntohack.com. And whatnot..

[smgray99]

Sorry I won't contribute to illegal hacking but can suggest downloading both malwarebytes and superantispyware to clean up your system and get rid of those ads which would also stop the lag problem you have.

[Hao]

I use w3af to test out the security of my website. Using it will require some background knowledge about cracking and how the web application works.

[Adam]

You want to get into the really hacking buissnes not the script kiddy crap i mean reall hacking meaning not using any scripts nor phishing nor anything lame then learn programing if you learn how to program then you will automaticlly learn how hack all programmers can be hackers the most famous hackers in the world learned hacking from their programming experience (Kevin Mitnick for example)

[potatocouch]

i am not one but like you am always curious about this field. they must be excellent in all areas--mathematics for decryption, networking, programming, various oses. wireshark, hexdumps, tcpdumps, snort, vmware.

honeynet.org has good articles/challenges to test your knowledge