What's a Hacker?
"Hacker" is one particular terms that has an alternative meaning depending on who uses it. Thanks to Hollywood, a lot of people think a hacker is a person who gains illicit usage of a pc and steals stuff or breaks into military networks and launches missiles for fun.
These days, a hacker doesn't have to be a geek from a high university who breaks into banks and government systems. A hacker may be anyone, even the kid next door.
By having an ordinary laptop, anyone can download simple software off the Internet to see anything that goes into and out of a pc on a single network. And the folks who try this don't always have the most effective of intentions. Hire a hacker to catch cheating spouse
A Brief History of Hackers
Nowadays, the term "hacker" is now synonymous with people who sit in dark rooms, anonymously terrorizing the Internet. But it wasn't always that way. The initial hackers were benign creatures. In reality, they certainly were students.
To anyone attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology throughout the 1950s and 60s, the word "hack" simply meant a stylish or inspired treatment for any given problem. Lots of the early MIT hacks tended to be practical jokes. One of the very most extravagant saw a replica of a campus police car placed on the surface of the Institute's Great Dome.
With time, the term became associated with the burgeoning computer programming scene at MIT and beyond. For these early pioneers, a hack was an accomplishment of programming prowess. Such activities were greatly admired because they combined expert knowledge with a creative instinct.
Why Does a Hacker Hack?
Hackers' motivations vary. For a few, it's economic. They earn an income through cybercrime. Some have a political or social agenda - their aim is always to vandalize high-profile computers to produce a statement. This sort of hacker is known as a cracker as their main purpose is always to crack the security of high profile systems.
Others do it for the sheer thrill. When asked by the website SafeMode.org why he defaces web servers, a cracker replied, "A high-profile deface gives me an adrenalin shot and then after a few years I need another shot, that's why I can't stop." [1]
These days, we're confronted with a new type of hacker - your nearby neighbor. Everyday, tens of thousands of people download simple software tools that enable them to "sniff" wifi connections. Some try this merely to eavesdrop on what others are doing online. Others try this to steal personal information in an attempt steal an identity.
The Most Common Attacks
1. SideJacking / Sniffing
Sidejacking is a net attack method where a hacker uses packet sniffing to steal a program cookie from a web site you only visited. These cookies are generally sent back to browsers unencrypted, even though the initial website log-in was protected via HTTPS. Anyone listening can steal these cookies and then utilize them access your authenticated web session. This recently made news because a programmer released a Firefox plug-in called Firesheep that makes it simple for an intruder sitting in your area on an open network (like a public wifi hotspot) to sidejack many popular website sessions. Like, a sidejacker using Firesheep could take over your Facebook session, thereby gaining usage of your entire sensitive data, and even send viral messages and wall posts to your entire friends.
2. DNS Cache Poisoning
In DNS cache poisoning, data is introduced into a Domain Name System (DNS) name server's cache database that didn't result from authoritative DNS sources. It's an unintended results of a misconfiguration of a DNS cache or of a maliciously crafted attack on the name server. A DNS cache poisoning attack effectively changes entries in the victim's copy of the DNS name server, when he or she types in the best site name, he or she is sent instead to a fraudulent page.
3. Man-In-the-Middle Attacks
A man-in-the-middle attack, bucket brigade attack, or Janus attack, is an application of active eavesdropping in that your attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them, making them believe they are talking directly together over a private connection, when in reality the entire conversation will be controlled by the attacker. The attacker must be able to intercept all messages going between the 2 victims and inject new ones. Like, an attacker within reception array of an unencrypted wifi access point can insert himself as a man-in-the-middle. Or an attacker can pose being an online bank or merchant, letting victims register over a SSL connection, and then the attacker can log onto the real server using the victim's information and steal credit card numbers.
4. Smishing
Packet sniffers allow eavesdroppers to passively intercept data sent between your laptop or smartphone and other systems, such as web servers on the Internet. This is the easiest and most basic sort of wireless attack. Any email, web search or file you transfer between computers or open from network locations on an unsecured wireless network may be captured by a nearby hacker using a sniffer. Sniffing tools are plentiful for free on line and you can find at least 184 videos on YouTube showing budding hackers how to use them. The only way to guard yourself against wifi sniffing in many public wifi hotspots is to utilize a VPN to encrypt everything sent within the air.
5. Mass Meshing
Also referred to as mass SQL injection, this is a method whereby hackers poison websites by illegally imbedding a redirection javascript from legitimate websites previously infected and controlled by the hackers. These javascripts redirect the visitor's computer to servers which contain additional malicious programs that will attack a user's computer.
The Most Common Targets
Hackers are enthusiastic about various kinds of computers on the Internet. The following list describes various kinds of targets and their interest hackers. [2]
1. Corporate Networks
Corporate computers tend to be heavily fortified so hacking into you've got high cachet. Behind corporate firewalls are repositories of customer information, product information, and sometimes, in case of a computer software publisher, the product itself.
2. Web Servers
Web servers are computers that contain websites. While some contain customer financial information, web servers are often targets for vandals because they can be defaced to display information the hacker chooses to the public.
3. Personal Computers
With the ever growing use of wifi, laptops are becoming one of the very most hacked devices. Everything an individual visits online can come in contact with an individual using software to "sniff" that connection. The website URL, passwords used to log into an online banking account, Facebook pictures, tweets, and an entire instant message conversation may be exposed. It's the simplest type of hacking as it requires little skill.
4. Tablets and Palm Top devices
Tablets, cellular phones, and other mobile-ready devices are simply as popular as laptops come in wifi hotspots. A hacker in a public hotspot could see a portable device, along with all data going into and out of it, just like easily as they can a laptop.
How You Can Protect Yourself
The easy truth is that anyone connecting to the Internet is at risk of being hacked. Thus, there is a must be proactive in regards to protecting yourself from such attacks.
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