now I know your thinking oh its another person who wants to hack there friends acc or whoever. But thats not the case I usually ask questions like this for information. I give info and ask for it. No ill intentions but when the time does come when I need to hack something it won't be for bad purposes.

so anyone got anything?

Hacking is not about being the best in IT, it's about being smart, and understand how things work, without being trapped in the same logic everyone has.

You need to either know your technical stuff pretty well.
Or some psychology. So that you can identify and exploit weaknesses.

But you almost always look at the same stuff.
For example, the top vulnerabilities on web apps :
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10-2017_Top_10
Or for physical intrusion, you play a role, tailgate employees, or gather intel about security and employees on a site (ex: by impersonating someone by mail or phone - since emails and phones can be spoofed, by searching for pictures of a company on twitter,...)

However, most companies now have a sufficient security level, so that "hacktivists" and individuals can't break in.
Even if you can still find companies that don't care, like Jack'd.
So hacking is now done by mafias, or states, or organised and professional groups.
They are able to either make so-called Advanced persistent threat.
Which mean they won't just hack into a network in minutes, like hackers do on TV. They will hack into an easy network, and progressively escalate toward their real target.
Like with Stuxnet, or lots of recent security breaches.

Or they will be able to write proper malware, like NotPetya.

Watch Mr Robot, it will show you the folklore.

But it's not a friendly underworld.
Most professionals and companies are full of themselves, even if they don't do anything interesting.

They despise users, because they're often too narrow minded to do their engineering job, and use fail-proof technologies. They just keep blaming users, eg for weak passwords and phishing, even if these two problems could be solved with credit-card like cryptography.

And they're dumb. They think they do advanced stuff, but it's way more easier than virtually everything else, like mechanic engineering.
Thus, it's a "do or die" world, and teams are managed like that. Don't expect any Crew Resource Management culture, or a environment that allow a team to work properly.
If YOU were good, you wouldn't have any issue.

If you're interested in computers, learn to code, IMO.

It's fulfilling, it requires a lot of knowledge, and the development teams are chill.

>>4 bruv that didn't even answer my question.....
but thanks for the info.

Ah sorry
The easiest way to get a password is still to pick on the keyboard
(shoulder surfing). No skill is required.

You can also search for a hash on sites like haveibeenpwned.com (but unless you're really lucky or have huge collections, you won't find the dump).

Then, you can physically access the victim's computer, and recover the password's hash, or install a keylogger, or use Mimikatz, or install your own certificate and break the https security for some websites.

You can also spoof a wifi hotspot, and downgrade the security of some sites, from https to http. It usually works on schools websites, since they're not always properly set up.

Or you can learn about the victim, and guess their password.

There are courses about ethical hacking in the net, just try to google it.

Cybrary is a good website to learn ethical hacking. That's actually the career I am pursuing myself. im 17 and I've taken a cyber security course this year as well as a java course. Python is a good language to learn. Downloading Kali Linux is a good way to start getting used to the tools you use in penetration testing. There's also videos on youtube that can help you set things up. I use Codecademy for learning python, and I downloaded pycharm for actually making things with python. I'm probably the dumbest person I know, im struggling a lot in math class, I feel like a complete idiot, I have no idea what's going on in school sometimes. but we have a lot of time to learn and gain experience. you don't have to be a genius to be a hacker. im really determined and passionate about this career, and that's more important than having natural talent. just have an open mind, study a lot, practice a lot, take computer related classes, and all that. good luck!