how to stay safe from hacking and cyber crime
HACKING AND CYBER SECURITY/HOW TO STAY SAFE ONLINE.
hacker
We have over the years seen many cases of identity theft by hackers, people have visited or contacted their data providers and local banks complaining of losing their credit so fast and sometimes having there data encrypted by a malicious malware.
In some cases hackers use this type of encryption to ask for money in order for their victims to get the data back. There are many types of dangerous malware that when exposed to outdated systems data is lost easily.
But everything has a solution and we will always see such attacks happen as time goes on and as technology becomes even much more part of everything we do like keeping up with business, play, and track our health.
As these new innovations come along even the bad behaved people follow, forming and programming their own sophisticated software’s that can duplicate our good tech. The greatest fear today and tomorrow might not be conventional weapons but the keyboard with ransom ware on the rise and cybercrime you will ask me ‘how will we stay safe’ the fight against ransom attacks and cybercrime is expected to hit $80 billion a year.
WHAT IS HACKING?
Hacking is the identifying of weakness in your computer systems or networks to exploit its weaknesses and gain full control or access. For example many hackers use password cracking algorithm to gain access to the system.
As computers are now becoming even more efficient in business conducting and tracking. It’s not enough to have computers isolated. The computers need to be networked to facilitate communication with external businesses and this well exposes the system to the outside world of cybercrime and hacking making it vulnerable and easy to gain access to.
Hacking is the use of computers to commit fraudulent acts such as;
Fraud.
Privacy invasion.
Corporate/personal data theft.etc
Cybercrimes have and will continue to cost organizations millions of dollars year in and year out. Businesses both organizations and personal need to protect their systems from such attacks.
The most common terminologies in the hacker world or cybercrime.
identity theft
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE/BEINGS (HACKERS)?
A hacker is a person that will go around all means of finding and exploiting the weakness of a computer system and networks to gain full access. These guys usually have skilled computer knowledge of security by pass.
A hacker will be classified according to the intent of their action. I will give you some list classifies of hackers according to their means of hacking.
ETHICAL HACKER (WHITE HACK).
This is a hacker who gains access to systems with a view to fix the identified weaknesses or vulnerabilities in the system. They can also perform penetration while testing-software-testing html and vulnerability assessments.
CRACKER (BLACK HAT).
This guy can gain unauthorized access to computer systems for personal gain and his intent is usually to steal corporate data, they violate privacy rights and transfer funds from bank accounts leaving them with zero credit, this guy can get you out of business and even become homeless, we have seen many such cases around the world especially in the celebrity world or rich people.
GREY HACK.
This is a hacker who is in the middle of ethical hacking and black hat. They can break into computer systems without authority with an intent or view to identify weaknesses and reveal them to the system owner. Most of these guys do their actions to gain credibility, get job opportunities or recruited to big brands like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook etc.
SCRIPT KIDDLES.
This is a non-skilled individual who gains access to computer systems using the already made and available tools. They are not so scary and you should not be worried about them because the type of hack tools they use are protected against by the updates rolled out by brands to their customers.
HACKTIVIST.
This hacker uses hacking to send social, religious, political and other whistle blowing views that governments and organizations don’t want the public to gain access to. This type of hacking is done by hijacking websites and leaving these views or messages on the hijacked sites.
PHREAKER.
A hacker who will identify and exploit weaknesses in the telephones instead of computer systems. You might want to protect your mobile data safe from this type of hacker because many of the online shoppers use their phones to purchase products from online retailers like amazon, eBay, Alibaba and more which leaves there cards vulnerable to identity theft.
What do these hackers do, what their intent is to systems that are gaining more credibility and sophistication?
This is what brings us to the term cybercrime;
WHAT IS CYBER CRIME?
This is the use of computers and networks to perform illegal activities such as;
Spreading computer viruses.
Online bullying.
Performing unauthorized electronic fund transfers etc.
Many Cybercrimes are done through the internet. Others can be carried out by simply using mobile phones, testing-mobile html via sms and online chatting apps.
The common types of cybercrime. (Serious threats to computer owners)
COMPUTER FRAUD: There has for years been international deception of personal gain via the use of computer systems.
PRIVACY VIOLATION: Hackers expose personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, account details and many more. These being carried out on social media and websites.
IDENTITY THEFT: Stealing of people’s personal information like credit card numbers and passwords.
SHARING COPYRIGHTED FILES: This involves distributing copyright protected files such as eBooks and computer programs.
ELECRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER: This involves gaining an un-authorized access to bank computer networks and making illegal fund transfers.
ELECTRONIC MONEY LAUNDERING: This involves the use of a computer to launder money. Hackers have carried out such acts worldwide.
ATM FRAUD: This involves interception of ATM card details such as account number and pin numbers and later use these details to withdraw funds from the intercepted accounts. Banks have been forced to halt there transfers and change customer pins to keep them safe and this has had major losses for years.
DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS: This is the use computers in many/multiple locations around the globe to attack servers with a view of shutting them down; we have seen this happen to PlayStation networks many times.
SPAM CONTENT: The hackers send unauthorized emails to the victims. These emails usually contain ads and phishing links that when clicked can take over the control of the computer system.
ETHICAL HACKING (what is ethical hacking)?
This is said to be the identification of weaknesses in the computer systems and networks coming with counter measures that protect the vulnerabilities. Ethical hackers are told to respect and abide by the following rules.
GET WRITTEN PERMISSIONS: this permission must be got from the owners of the system or network before carving out a hack.
You should protect the privacy of the organization being hacked.
Giving transparent report on all the vulnerabilities identified in the system of this organization.
You are required to inform hardware and software vendors of the findings.
WHY ONE WOULD GO ETHICAL.
The information being held by organizations is of the most valuable assets of its system. Keeping information secure can protect an organization’s credibility and also save a lot of bucks. Hacking can also lead to the loss of business for this particular organization, let’s say a finance business provider like PayPal, payza, skrill etc. are hacked many personal information is exposed.
Ethical hacking puts the organizations ahead of cyber criminals.
Ethical hacking is legal if the hacker abides by the rules given above.
Hacking is the identifying and exploiting weaknesses in computers
Cybercrime is the committing of a crime with the help of computers and information technology.
Ethical hacking is about improvement of security on the computer networks.
Ethical hackers have been dubbed legal workers and employees of an organization so if you have skills you can look for a hacking job it’s not only for criminals.
WHAT IS CYBER SECURITY?
This term consists of terminologies, processes and measures that are designed to protect systems, networks and data from criminals.
Cyber security reduces risk of these attacks and protects entities, organizations and individuals from the exploitation of their systems.
A cyber-attack is usually intended to inflict damage of information of organizations, individuals and public entities for the intent of theft.
Payment card data
Customer details
Company secrets and intellectual property
Unauthorized access to networks
Compromise of official records or financial and reputational damage
This is all imminent in a cyber-attack and as you can see, it can lead to bad business.
WHY ARE CYBER CRIMES ON THE RISE EVEN WITH LATEST INNOVATION TECH.?
The people who carryout these attacks are indiscriminate, when they see a weakness in the system, they will try to exploit it due to the financial gains made. Well guess what cybercrime has become a multibillion pound industry.
The types of cyber-attacks are constantly evolving and these crimes are becoming more complex and organizations are struggling to keep their systems up.
These cyber-attacks come in various forms and are designed to go not only from technological weaknesses alone, outdated software is exploited (clicking on malicious links) and a lack of organizational effective processes and procedures.
MALWARE USED TO ATTACK TARGETS.
MALWARE; these are simple types of software’s designed to allow criminals achieve their objectives; here are the types of malwares.
RANSONWARE; this type of malicious program demands payment after an attack has been successful on a certain computer system. This malware has become popular and has costed many companies millions of dollars worldwide.
VIRUSES; this is a small piece of code that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another by attaching itself to another file.
WORMS; these are self-replicating and do not require a program to attach themselves to computer files. These are so sophisticated that they continue looking for vulnerabilities and report back to the author when weaknesses are discovered.
SPYWARE/ADWARE; this type can be installed on your computer when you open attachments, click on links or download infected software.
TROJANS; a Trojan virus is a program that appears to perform one function e.g. virus removal, but can actually perform malicious activity when executed.
There are other eminent attacks like vectors available to cyber criminals which allow them to infect computers with malware or harvest stolen data;
Social engineering- this can lead to exploitation of an individual’s weakness, and this is achieved by getting these dummies to click on malicious links, or by physically gaining access to a computer through deception, phishing and pharming great examples of social engineering.
Phishing- this is an attempt to acquire user’s info by masquerading as a legitimate entity.
Pharming- this is an attack to redirect websites traffic to a different, fake site where individual info can be stolen or compromised.
Driveby-opportunistic attacks against specific weaknesses within a system.
Man in the middle (MITM) – this is an attack where a middleman impersonates each endpoint and is able to manipulate both victims.
HOW TO IMPROVE CYBER SECURITY.
The three fundamental domains of effective cyber security are people, processes, and tech.
Identify the threat, vulnerabilities and risks you’re facing.
Forecast the impact and likelihood of such risks materializing.
Once the risks are identified, the organization or individual should implement appropriate measures to mitigate those risks.
Well good enough there are a number of frameworks already existing to help organizations reduce cyber risks.
