Hacking is the study of an entity and its working mechanism. It is a process of learning about an entity for different purposes: to see if it can be adapted to meet different requirements, to build something better out of it or just for recreation. This entity can be anything that has its own system. If you successfully manage to modify the system to suit your need or take advantage of it, you have hacked the system, and therefore, the entity.

This entity and thus, hacking, is not bound only to cyberspace but also exists everywhere around us. It can be anything within the cyberspace such as a computer system and an online business to real world objects such as the electrical grid, transportation system, communication system, financial system and more. With sufficient knowledge and expertise, even the nature and life itself may be studied as entitities that can be hacked.

Hacking in the cyberspace is modifying your systems to suit your need. Some simple examples include removing system apps from your android phone and forcing an app that does not officially support dark mode run in dark mode. While these are examples that you would do for fun or without any malicious intent, there are malicious actors that can use their knowledge to harm an individual or a business. Some examples include stealing confidential data, encrypting company data with ransomware and asking for ransom, damage of physical properties caused due to failure or intentional tinkering of software systems that control them, manipulating an online business for profits and more.

In the past few decades, people have mostly associated hacking with illegal activities centered around the Internet. Hacking itself is not illegal and is not confined to only the Internet space. It is so much more and vast than that. One might even say that it is the process of studying the code in and of the world itself, and trying to use or take advantage of that knowledge to suit one’s needs or simply for the sake of recreation.

A simple example is when you take antibiotics. You trick the immune system of your body to fight against the antibodies. Another example is how airplanes can fly in the air. While it may seem like a trivial thing now, scientists and engineers in the past studied the systems of air resistance, pressure, and how different shape, size, and mass are affected by this system. They used this knowledge to create an object of definitive shape, size, and mass that can take advantage of the difference in various forces acting on the object and therefore, invented the airplanes. How many more examples can you think of?

The mankind has hacked the natural system since the beginning of time. Our ancestors studied the nature and as they began to understand it better, they started creating tools for their survival. The first hack was creating a fire by simply striking rocks together. Then came more survival tools and techniques including better housing, crops, hunting tools, medicines for treatments, guns, spears and more. This was followed by means of transportation that evolved from horses to cars, trains and airplanes to handle long distance travel. There are now systems to know what’s happening at the other end of the globe in real time. Cooking has evolved from simply roasting food in fire to intricate process of combining different elements to bring out a delicious harmony on the plate. What more have we accomplished today with the knowledge of our surrounding?

When you understand a system and how it works, you gain the power over it. And that power can be used to inflict harm on others. How many such modern tools and techniques can you come up with? Did those tools always start with that intention? Are you thinking guns, bombs, and missiles? What about more advanced artillery? No matter what the system, a tool is always only a tool, either in cyber space or the physical world around us. It’s how those tools are used that change the system for better or for worse. Always remember that with great power comes great responsibility.

But of course, we have come a long way since the fire hack. We now have rockets, automated cars, drones and industrial robots. We can now go to outer space, treat sophisticated diseases, perform extremely complex surgical procedures and so much more. We have studied the brain and now understand it better. Everything you see around you is a real hack that is a result of a long and deep study of the nature and its code. Therefore, in its truest essence, hacking is the study of the code that exists in the nature itself, and for that matter, the entirety of this place we call the universe.