This is not an original work I have taken it from hacking exposed 3rd edition. I do not claim this to be original in any way. However the information is very useful I fell, how can you securer yourself without knowing the way a hack works so I have include this little bit of information form the book.

Foot printing

Objective
Target address range, namespace acquisition, and gathering information are essential to a surgical attack. The key is not to miss any detail

Techniques
Open source search
Whois
Wed interface whois
DNS zone Tran sphere

Scanning

Objective
Bulk target assessment and identification of listening services focus the attacker attention on the most promising avenues for entry.

Techniques

Ping sweep
TCP/UDP port scan
OS detection

Enumeration

Objective
More intrusive probing now begins as attackers begin to identified valid user accounts or poorly protected recourse shares.

Techniques

List of user accounts
List of share files
Identify applications

Gaining access

Objective
Enough data has been collected to allow an informed attempt to access the target.

Techniques

Password eve dropping
File share brute forcing
Password file grab
Buffer overflows

note this can go straight to DOS attacks after this step or they may continue on down the chain

Escalating privileged

Objectives

If only user level access has been obtained in the last step the attacker will now seek to gain compete control over the system

Techniques

Password cracking
Known exploits

Pilfering
Objectives

The information gathering process to begin to identify access to trusted systems.

Techniques

Evaluate trusts
Search for clear text passwords

Covering track

Objectives
Once total ownership of the target is secured, hiding this fact from the systems administrator becomes paramount.

Techniques

Clear logs
Hide tools

Create back doors

Objectives

To insure that the intruder has privileged access whenever they choose.

Techniques
Create rogue user accounts
Schedule batch jobs
Infect start up files
Plant RAT's
Install monitoring systems
Replace app with trojens

Denial of service

Objective
If the attacker is unsuccessful in gaining access they may use a readily available exploit code to disable the target as a last resort

Techniques

SYN flood
ICMP techniques
Identical src/dst SYN requests
Overlapping fragment/offset bugs
Out of bound TCP options(OOB)
DDos
As I say this is right form the book but useful information to have at hand, knowing the antonym of the hack will allow you to protect your systems better, I have not include the listing of the tool used as I wish not to pass information of that nature on, anyone interested should go google. If you use this information in any way I take no responsibly for any action you take or any action taken against you.

Kindred69