One of the most known method used by hackers is breaking into someone’s computer using an exploit, a program designed to benefit from a vulnerability in remote software. In one of the Matrix sequences (The Matrix Reloaded), Trinity uses an exploit to get access to the server.

Having access to another computer can be really useful to apply some of the other techniques explained, like installing a keylogger or sniffing the network data. To hack into a computer, you need some information about it, like the operating system used, the services it is running,… and if some of these services is vulnerable you’ll need to find an exploit for it. Not an easy task.

There is not a single way to protect from these kind of attacks but a firewall is a first step to do it.