Hackercool Magazine December 2025

Edition 8 Issue 12 Welcome to the final issue of 2025 where we continue our mission to simplify ethical hacking and red teaming without dumbing it down. Cybersecurity can feel overwhelming when you’re starting out. Buzzwords pile up, tools change overnight and headlines often focus on fear rather than understanding. This issue is designed to cut through that noise and give beginners something far more valuable: clarity, context and confidence. We begin with a safe and legal introduction to password crac king, focusing not on tools alone but on why weak passwords still fail in real environments. From there, we step into reality with a breakdown of the Top 8 real-world breaches of 2025, explained step by step so you can see how attacks actually unfold not just how they’re…

Passwords are still the front door to almost every digital system we use. Yet by even the end of 2025, they remain one of the weakest security controls. The only change is that attackers now don’t “guess” passwords manually, they use mathematics, automation and powerful tools to crack them at high s peed. For ethical hackers and cybersecurity learners, understanding how password cracking works is not about causing harm but about learning how to identify weak credentials, secure systems and build better defense strategies. In this beginner-friendly guide in our latest Issue, we break down all the fundamentals of password cracking, what it is, how it works, the tools involved and most importantly how to use this knowledge responsibly and legally. “Password cracking doesn’t defeat cryptography — it defeats human…

This year’s biggest breaches weren’t caused by movie-style hackers or exotic zero-days. Instead, they were triggered by simple mistakes, overlooked configurations and of course weak security hygiene. For beginners in ethical hacking, these breaches offer a goldmine of lessons: how attacks start, how they escalate and how defenders can stop them early. As year 2025 comes to an end, in this article we break down the Top 8 real-world breach patterns of 2025, step-by-step, using simple language and explaining attacker logic. These breaches offer so many lessons for cybersecurity learners. By understanding each step, you can sharpen your skills and learn exactly how attackers exploit the smallest cracks in modern systems. So, let’s begin. 1. Coupang Customer Data Exposure A Mega-Scale Reminder: Misconfigurations Still Rule What actually happened: Customer records…

Year 2026 is almost here. Every year brings new changes in every cybersecurity domain. Similarly, Red teaming is no longer just about breaking into servers. In 2026, beginners must learn a mix of cloud, identity, browser and traditional network skills. In this article, we bring you ten skills that form the perfect starter foundation for anyone entering offensive security this year. 1. OSINT Automation Even in 2026, Open-source intelligence is your first weapon. Beginners should start learning how to automate: • Username discovery • Email harvesting • Social media footprinting • Subdomain enumeration Tools for this purpose: SpiderFoot, Amass, theHarvester, Holehe Why it matters in 2026: AI-generated phishing and deepfake-based scams depend on OSINT. Red teamers need the same intel advantage. 2. Cloud Reconnaissance (AWS & Azure) Most companies have…

Cloud adoption has outpaced cloud security. Year 2025 saw nearly every organization running some combination of AWS, Azure and SaaS platforms. But only a fraction of these have improved their cloud security posture. This gap has made cloud red teaming one of the most valuable (and also misunderstood) disciplines in offensive security. Unlike traditional network pentesting, cloud attacks rarely rely on exploits. Instead, they exploit what every cloud environment has plenty of, like: • Misconfigured identity settings • Over-permissioned roles • Exposed storage buckets • Weak IAM policies • Unchanged Default configurations • eveloper mistakes in CI/CD pipelines • Poor visibility and logging In this beginner-friendly article, we break down how cloud red teamers actually attack AWS and Azure, the misconfigurations they look for and why identity and not infrastructure…

Cybersecurity is shifting faster than ever. With AI-driven attacks, cloudfirst architectures and identity-based infiltration dominating the threat landscape, 2026 is going to mark a turning point. For beginners trying to understand the modern cybersecurity battlefield, in this article we break down ten of the most important emerging threats of 2026, explained simply, visually and in plain language for you. 1. AI Generated Phishing & Voice Cloning Phishing has been an evergreen threat in cybersecurity since a long time. The same will continue the coming year too. However, in 2026, phishing emails will no longer look suspicious. In fact, they will look perfect thanks to AI. Yes, AI tools can now: • Clone someone’s writing style • Reproduce voice messages • Generate identical video messages • Personalize attacks using your online…