Question

What are the various stages of hacking?

Answer 1

There are mainly five stages in hacking:

1. Reconnaissance: This is the primary phase of hacking, also known as footprinting or information gathering phase, where hacker collects as much information as possible about the target. It involves host, network, DNS records, and more.
2. Scanning: It takes the data discovered during reconnaissance and uses to examine the network. 
3. Gaining access: The phase where attackers enter into a system/network using various tools and techniques.
4. Maintaining access: Once hackers gain access, they want to maintain access for future exploitation and attacks. This can be done using trojans, rootkits, and other malicious files.
5. Covering tracks: Once the hackers are able to gain and maintain access, they cover tracks to avoid detection. It involves the modifying/deleting/corrupting value of logs, removing all traces of work, uninstalling applications, deleting folders, and more.