by Bharath Mohan

Created on: October 22, 2010

How to know if your computer has been hacked? Well, the question itself brings quite a few problems into the subject, not the least being the misunderstanding of terms themselves, so lets clear up a misunderstanding.

Back in the early days of computers, hackers were respected members of the technological community, who basically wanted to know how computers worked. Programmers, hardware designers, and troubleshooters were all considered hackers. Even the average home user could have been a hacker if he just took enough time to try to understand the computer, even if it wasn't his day job. 

However, as the Internet grew in size, people found out that it could be used for malicious purposes. (Incidentally, even the people who made the Internet are hackers.) These people are what computer industry workers, especially software engineers, call crackers (CRiminal hACKER). Crackers made the Internet a living Hades by creating viruses and breaking into innocent people's computers to delete files and laugh as they watched in disbelief (dramatization). Hackers immediately set themselves to the task of combating their darker counter parts, and thus rages the war today: hackers build things, crackers break them, hackers fix it, crackers find their way in; and where there isn't one, a cracker will make his own. In the middle of this chaotic land, crackers began to loudly proclaim themselves as hackers, and when the media got hold of that, the name stuck. 

So, the question should be, "How to know if your computer has been cracked?" The answer to the question is not simple or even easily explained. A short answer may be, "There is none." But that isn't correct. If your house was broken into, even if the burglar didn't make his method of entry obvious or even discernible, you would still see some ruffled items and misplaced furniture. Taking a careful look around the house, you would eventually find out what has been stolen. In many ways, your computer is that building, and the cracker is that burglar. Crackers are very similar to burglars; they will often take copious amounts of time researching their target before striking, and will make their move at night if they are smart, while no one is paying attention. If they are stupid, they will break into your house at a mere whim at around 9 AM on Saturday. If you are currently using your computer when you are being attacked, you will most definitely notice. That would make it significantly easier to notice: programs

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