Every aspiring hacker should delve into the world of hacking simulation games, these games aren’t just a way to kill time and avoid study, but often an excellent way to sharpen your hacking skills. There are a wide variety of hacking games out there, but all good ones use the principles of hacking and often a lot of hacking skill and technique, meaning you can put your skills to practice.

The main complaint about hacking simulation games in the industry is that many of them have little to do with hacking, instead using the word “hacking” to inspire sentiments of mystery and intrigue rather than providing legitimate practice and principles. In this list we’ll look at the top hacking simulator games currently available so you can pick those that best suit your experience or goals.

1. Hack the Box

In number one spot we have Hack the Box. The online platform (not really a game) is focused around testing your penetration testing skills and also gives you a platform to share advice and ideas with other hackers. Hack the Box contains several realistic challenges, some of them based on real world scenarios, that are frequently updated.

When you start , several machines are available to hack, you hack machines to gain points to improve your rank. The hackable machines range from easy to hard so there’s something for hackers of all levels, and always new challenges to keep you busy.

If you’re interested in starting the game, you need to solve an entry-level challenge where you hack the invite code. The idea behind this is that if you can’t hack the invite code, you won’t be able to progress much in the game.

Very professional platform, a lot of fun to work on the machines, labs, challenges and endgame, definitely recommended 10/10.

2. NITE Team 4

The game’s Training Boot Camp incorporates real life cybersecurity techniques such as information gathering, port scanning, fingerprinting, exploit research attack strategy, digital forensics and even more. There are 25 certificates to earn in the final game. The academy is designed to be fun but also accessible even if you have never used a terminal in your life.

In the game you take the role of a hacker hired by a particular government and join war theaters where you complete tasks to help the government. There is a mission hub where you can pick the missions that interest you and check your progress. You can even join teams with other players in order to solve the game’s complex puzzles.

The game is offers something for everyone, people who prefer single player, multiplayer and hackers of different skill levels. There is a strong community aspect of the game, for example you collect files through your missions that have difficult puzzles to solve hidden within them. These puzzles are intricate and may require internet searches or help from the community, giving the sense that you’re all working together.

As well as probing and jacking computers remotely, hackers will get to send out a military unit for field work, which is an intriguing combination.

3. Hackmud 

Hackmud is a text-based multiplayer hacking simulator for intel-compatible PCs. In the game you journey through puzzles to solve and protected systems to crack as you explore the abandoned internet of the future. One key aspect of the game is protecting your winnings from other players through code, since your winnings can be stolen by other players.

You aren’t thrown straight into the deep-end, the game involves a single player tutorial so you can get to grips with the decaying internet and the cracking and coding required. After you complete the tutorial, you are thrown into the multiplayer sandbox. Explore scripts created by other players and create your own. Build tools and forge alliances, or lay traps and break bonds.

If you likes games like Uplink and Hacknet then you should definitely try this game.

It begins with a 3-4 hour single player tutorial which is really well done and teaches you the ropes in a clear way – while still being entertaining – before throwing you into an imposing, and initially impenetrable, multiplayer version.

Without guidance this monster of a game would be impossible to comprehend, especially for someone like me whose only experience with hacking is watching WarGames with Mathew Broderick when I was a kid. Fortunately, ｈａｃｋｍｕｄ has an amazing community.”

4. Uplink

In this hacking strategy game, you play an agent and it’s your job to make a living by performing jobs for major corporations. This involves various professional hacker feats such as hacking into rival company systems, stealing high value research data, sabotaging other companies, erasing evidence, laundering money or framing innocent people.

As you move through the espionage and sabotage tasks you earn money, which you can then use to upgrade your computer systems and buy new software and tools to improve your abilities and move through the levels. As your level increases you will unlock more dangerous and profitable missions. The game is very versatile, giving you the option to explore many avenues, for example you can manipulate the stock market, or divert people’s bank account funds into your own, or design an extremely deadly computer virus.

It’s very straightforward and a damn good hacking sim. Easy learning curve but with more and more challenging jobs as the game progresses and you decide to take them and the risks associated or stay small and play smart.

That sums up part 1 of our top hacking simulator games, in part two we’ll look at four more excellent hacking simulator games that successfully cross genuine hacking skills and a lot of fun.

Part II is here

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The pioneer programme will commence with the support from Singapore’s very own Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) with aims to accelerate start-ups in cybersecurity sectors.

Under the programme, the cybersecurity entrepreneurs have access to a three month stint at a start-up hub, named Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block 71 (ICE71). In that hub, the hopefuls will learn pre-accelerator boot camp, accelerator training programme and landing pad for start-ups with Europe-based cybersecurity accelerator Cylon.

“Government support for cyber security is critical to grow Singapore’s regional expertise and cyber security startups like Horangi will benefit from these programs,” said Paul Hadjy, CEO at Horangi Cyber Security (Horangi).

Hadjy told Hackwarenews team that the state top-down approach is essential in supporting the embryonic state of cybersecurity development in Singapore.

In his opinion, the barrier for growth in the cybersecurity security often pointed down to the shortage of talents in the field. Thus, the accelerator programme will allow the startups to gain access to funding as well as the right mentorship to groom talents and expertise.

Besides the lack of talents, Hadjy highlighted that many Southeast-Asia based firms have downplayed the values of cyber security in their overall corporate strategy.

“Many ASEAN companies view cyber security as an IT task and not an overarching business risk,” opined Hadjy.

This oversight causes many decision-makers to set ineffective budget targets for cyber security spending, which in turn leads to myopic, ineffective spending. However, he noted that corporate companies are gradually changing their mindset on the importance of cyber-security.

“Today, organizations in Singapore and other regions are shifting towards a more holistic view of cyber security; where it has become a pressing concern that affects business processes across all enterprises.” concluded Hadjy.

Going forward, he believed that enterprises should engage a third party cyber security company in helping them to analyse their profile and identify system vulnerabilities. Then, the outcome of the analysis can be used to formulate plan to protect key data and assets from breaches.

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Before the end of 2017, Horangi has proven its worth and closed a USD3.1 million Series A Round, headed by Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm known for investing into high growth early stage tech startups in Southeast Asia.

Besides Monk’s Hill Ventures, Horangi has gotten the backing of another four venture firms namely, Right Click Capital, 500 Startups, Hub Ventures Fund and 6Degrees Ventures. These angel investors are no means funding out of philanthropy but rather on the competitiveness posed by Horangi’s presence in the cyber security sector.

“Horangi brings a level of expertise and much needed capability in its products to the market, particularly in Asia where this is lacking,” said Lim Kuo-Yi, managing partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Lim’s judgment was well-founded as since its inception in early 2016, the fledgling cybersecurity company had built up a beefy portfolio of 50 clients across various sectors.  Horangi even attracted interests of U.S. based multi-national corporation (MNCs) which prefer the Singapore-based cybersecurity firm as their security providers over others.

Despite fielding a small team, Horangi packed a punch with over 25 years of expertise in cybersecurity through its team members, which detected over 100,000 system vulnerability issues and spanned over 6 global offices across North America and Asia-Pacific.

Apparently, Horangi’s company vision has also struck a chord among the investors, seeking to provide a safer cyberspace for all.

“Our vision is to provide an affordable full-stack cybersecurity solution for our users globally, allowing them to quickly understand and deploy the right course of action.” stated Hadj.

So far, the company offers three core products namely, Scanner, Hunter, and Storyfier, which integrate seamlessly to provide customers with a full-stack cybersecurity solution previously available only to Fortune 500 companies.

In addition, Horangi provides in-house cyber security consulting to clients to identify system vulnerabilities.

Hackwarenews team sent its congratulation note to Horangi on its latest investment funding. Going forward, the team expects more cyber-security in the Asia Pacific region to receive windfall investments, following the trend seen in start-up nation, Israel where cyber-security firms became the top recipient of funding in 2017.

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The attack on accounting giant occurred on Monday, and the details remained sketchy as investigators piece the information together in crime scene investigation fashion.

A simple password does all the tricks

It was reportedly a single password was all its take to “slay” the Deloitte’s cyber-security on its email server through an administrator account. After successful login with password, the unauthorized user is able to access various areas which are otherwise restricted from outsiders and even staffs unless granted with the appropriate rights.

The focus of attack was locked on Deloitte’s asset at Rosslyn, Virginia, United States and the company immediately notified the authorities after the attack.

No privacy for staff emails

According to The Guardian, emails of around 244,000 staffs are exposed through this incident alone. Many of these emails were stored in the company’s Azure Microsoft’s Cloud service which consists of Deloitte user names, passwords, IP addresses, company architecture, and health information, based on media report from The Guardian.

So far, the hacking damage paled in comparison to recent cyber-attack seen in Equifax, where the details of around 143 million customers were leaked.

Victims claimed so far

As of now, none of the affected companies’ name were identified but six companies and some government agencies were among the victims. Perhaps the extent of the damage remained to be contested for a while as further investigation takes place. Apparently, Deloitte’s email system shows a history of being hacked, as previously in Oct-Nov 2016, which the company only acknowledged the hack four months later on March this year.

Not your average panama papers leak

The motive of the hack does not seem to be as noble as the panama papers leak which 11.5 million documents were leaked in a whistle-blowing manner to reveal offshore tax evasion and fraud. Like all corporations, Deloitte has its fair share of controversies and if a similar “panama papers driven leak” was on the mind of hackers, our guess will be on the incident of ActionAid.

Back in November 2013, Deloitte was accused by international non-governmental organization, ActionAid of using Mauritius as a tax haven to hide hundreds of millions of dollars from taxation by a list of poor African nations.

Most likely, Hackwarenews thinks that the breach in Deloitte’s email system is commercially motivated in revealing sensitive information for blackmailing purposes.

Striking Terror to the rest

Deloitte is currently in the lead among the “Big Four” or the world’s largest accounting and auditing services, booking an annual revenue over USD38 billion in fiscal year of 2017. Other in the Big Four includes PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), EY and KPMG.

By claiming Deloitte as its victim, the hacker certainly sent shockwaves to other accounting firms, telling that they may be next in line. Or perhaps, the message is clear that no one is safe in this cyber-age and often complacency and negligence prove to be the biggest culprit in security breaches.

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