How do you actually become a hacker?
Can hacking be fun?
And why are there so few women in the industry?
The internet has many questions - this time on the subject of hacking: users post them on platforms like Gutefrage.net or Reddit - and we then ask experts.
In the first episode of the fourth "Power Supply" podcast, the two IT security experts Sandra Steinitz and Klara Weiand answer.
Talking to them is about those who are professionally involved in hacking.
Be it as forensic scientists, IT security researchers or as criminal hackers who have made computer attacks their job and sometimes also work during normal office hours.
Klara Weiand, who works as an IT forensic scientist for an international consulting company, reports that the assumption that hacking attacks are always technically spectacular is wrong.
Although one can sometimes achieve spectacular things with cold spray, the greatest weak point is still the human being.
Sandra Steinitz also knows how to find gaps in IT systems, as she works as a penetration tester at a German bank.
As a pen tester, she is paid to discover vulnerabilities in order to make the systems more secure.
In the podcast, she and Weiand report why it can be annoying to tell clients about IT weaknesses and what ethical boundaries there are between good and criminal hackers.
This is what the "power supply unit" is all about
Icon: enlarge Photo: Magdalena Lepka
In the fourth season of the "Power Supply" podcasts, too, the editors of the Netzwelt department are dedicated to various tech topics.
Together with experts, we are once again answering questions from internet users on topics such as quantum computers, Wikipedia or platforms for the exchange of nude images.
Icon: The mirror