Can someone teach me how to be a hacker?

Only if you use someone else's property or data without their permission

@Invisible: Fair enough, but how often do people hack into their own property or get permission to hack into someone else's ? Comparatively speaking ?

Penetration testing is important, especially for banks and governments.

Also, it can be very interesting to study malware

@Invisible: Ah, perhaps she works for a bank---or for the government. Got it.

@Invisible: Again, on one's own property ?

She probably doesn't, but you don't need a sound reason to learn a thing or two 😉

@Invisible: Do you think a course in burglary or safe-cracking would be equally educational, then ? Just curious.

Yes! That would be very interesting, in my opinion. I get the feeling you think it might be a bad idea?

@Invisible: I don't see burglary or safe-cracking as productive skills, (although I know people who are adept at both, believe it or not). Most law enforcement doesn't either, as far as civilians go, anyway. What would be the point in teaching someone a skill set he or she can't legally use ?

No one has the right to say that someone can't know how to do certain things 😅

Some might consider them academic skills, or maybe even arts

@Invisible: Well, our government believes it can. If I started actively purchasing components for building bombs and holding public classes teaching others how to build one, don't think Homeland Security wouldn't eventually come a-knocking. And that's not paranoia, btw, it's fact.

Bombs and safe cracking are very different topics. You can't just group things together like that

@Invisible: I was addressing the statement (that I see you have since amended) that "no one has the right to say that someone can't know how to do certain things".
Bombs can cause immediate physical damage. Safe cracking, burglaries or computer hacking can potentially cause financial damage to individuals or businesses, right ?

I haven't amended it. I have the right to know how to make a hydrogen bomb. There's nothing wrong with that.

I think that when you look at things solely for their explicit purpose, you miss out on a lot of great implicit purposes that are beneficial. I like to encourage people that ask questions like this because sometimes you can actually get someone to sit down and learn a few practical things

@Invisible: By amend I meant added to it. When I replied it did not say "Some might consider them academic skills, or maybe even arts".

When people ask about being able to learn how to do things that could potentially cause harm, I something ask about their motives, because I'm curious. Sometimes people do have positive reasons. The OP hasn't had a chance to reply, so I still don't know. I understand now why you see it as a positive, which is fine. But you're not really the person I was initially addressing. Interesting conversation, though. 😉

I understand that this seems malicious by nature, but I just want to know how to do it. I have no interest in actually hacking into someone's stuff. Honestly, I just watch a lot of nerd shows and there always seems to be a character who is adept at this sort of thing. Generally, they are my favorite character