Since many decades ago, hackers have displayed great skills on very functional areas like programming languages, hardware, and software manipulation. Particularly in the ever-growing industry of telecommunications, and the Internet.

These individuals have built their fame exploiting vulnerabilities in our systems. They are very skilled in the art of crafting viruses, spyware, and malware. In an era where we are continuously exposed to their attacks, it is always a good thing to be well informed about trends in cybersecurity. In this article, we present you the Top 4 Operating Systems Used By Hackers.

#4 DEFT Linux

Digital Evidence & Forensic Toolkit is a GNU/Linux and Dart-based open source distribution that contains programs designed for forensics specialists, police corps, and system administrators. It is meant to be run on devices without tampering with their existing data on the hard drive. As a result, the toolkit could be mounted in order to investigate data on a particular drive, even some previously erased data is possible to recover. It was designed from the bottom up to offer open source computer analysis and assistance against crucial incidents in the computer security field. The first version was presented in 2005, and nowadays is one of the main tools used by law enforcers from multiple agencies across the world.

#3 OS Security Parrot

Just like the previous Linux distributions, Security Parrot was designed for security audits, specifically on evaluation and computer forensics. It was also designed for scanning for potential web vulnerabilities and mitigating against them.

Created by the Frozenbox team it is very similar to Kali Linux, OS Security Parrot is based on the Jessie branch of Debian, certified to work on machines with a minimum of 256 MB of RAM memory and 32/64 bits processors; the system also is available for ARMEL and AR HF architectures.

#2 BackBox

BackBox is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed for security audits. It is an operating system that offers a desktop environment that is light, fast and accessible. Installation is very friendly for non-experts and it also can be run just like any other linux operating system. Moreover, it packs a set of updated tools to carry out risk tests in a network or computer system. BackBox supports both 32 and 64 bit processors, and requires 512 MB of RAM memory and 6 GB of hard disk space to operate. If you want to try out an operating system that was built for the hacker-type give BackBox a try.

#1 Kali Linux

Maintained by the company Offensive Security Ltd, Kali is a Linux distribution designed for computer forensics tests. It was previously known as BackTrack, and now the project includes over 600 preinstalled programs like Wireshark, Nmap, Jonh the Ripper, and Aircrack-ng. It is a secure environment and is compatible with all Android devices, nowadays is distributed as ISO images for different architectures (32/64 bits and ARM). Kali Linux is a must try if you are looking for an operating system with penetration testing capabilities.