What's a Hacker?
"Hacker" is one particular terms that has a different meaning based on who uses it. Thanks to Hollywood, many people think a hacker is a person who gains illicit access to a pc and steals stuff or breaks into military networks and launches missiles for fun.
These days, a hacker doesn't need to be a geek from a premier university who breaks into banks and government systems. A hacker can be anyone, even the kid next door.
By having an ordinary laptop, everyone can download simple software off the Internet to see anything that switches into and out of a pc for a passing fancy network. And individuals who do this don't always have the most effective of intentions. Hire a hacker to catch cheating spouse
A Brief History of Hackers
Nowadays, the phrase "hacker" is now synonymous with those who sit in dark rooms, anonymously terrorizing the Internet. Nonetheless it was not always that way. The original hackers were benign creatures. Actually, these were students.
To anyone attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology throughout the 1950s and 60s, the definition of "hack" simply meant an elegant or inspired means to fix any given problem. Most of the early MIT hacks tended to be practical jokes. One of the very extravagant saw a replica of a campus police car wear the surface of the Institute's Great Dome.
As time passes, the phrase became connected with the burgeoning computer programming scene at MIT and beyond. For these early pioneers, a hack was a job of programming prowess. Such activities were greatly admired as they combined expert knowledge with an innovative instinct.
Why Does a Hacker Hack?
Hackers' motivations vary. For many, it's economic. They earn a full time income through cybercrime. Some have a political or social agenda - their aim would be to vandalize high-profile computers to make a statement. This type of hacker is known as a cracker as their main purpose would be to crack the security of high profile systems.
Others do it for the sheer thrill. When asked by the internet site 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 are up against a fresh form of hacker - your next door neighbor. Everyday, a large number of people download simple software tools that enable them to "sniff" wifi connections. Some do this simply to eavesdrop about what others are doing online. Others do this to steal personal data in an endeavor steal an identity.
The Most Common Attacks
1. SideJacking / Sniffing
Sidejacking is a website attack method the place where a hacker uses packet sniffing to steal a session cookie from an internet site you only visited. These cookies are often sent back again to browsers unencrypted, even if the first website log-in was protected via HTTPS. Anyone listening can steal these cookies and then use them access your authenticated web session. This recently made news because a programmer released a Firefox plug-in called Firesheep that allows you for an intruder sitting in your area on an open network (like a public wifi hotspot) to sidejack many popular website sessions. For instance, a sidejacker using Firesheep could take control your Facebook session, thereby gaining access to 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 did not originate from authoritative DNS sources. It's an accidental 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, so when he or she types in a legitimate 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 a form 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 to one another over a private connection, when actually the entire conversation has been controlled by the attacker. The attacker must manage to intercept all messages going between the two victims and inject new ones. For instance, an attacker within reception selection of an unencrypted wifi access point can insert himself as a man-in-the-middle. Or an attacker can pose as an online bank or merchant, letting victims sign in over a SSL connection, and then your attacker can log onto the real server utilising the victim's information and steal charge card numbers.
4. Smishing
Packet sniffers allow eavesdroppers to passively intercept data sent between your laptop or smartphone and other systems, such as for example web servers on the Internet. Here is the easiest and most elementary kind of wireless attack. Any email, web search or file you transfer between computers or open from network locations on an unsecured wireless network can be captured with a nearby hacker utilizing a sniffer. Sniffing tools are readily available for free online and there are at the very least 184 videos on YouTube to exhibit budding hackers how to use them. The only way to guard yourself against wifi sniffing generally in most public wifi hotspots is to use a VPN to encrypt everything sent over the air.
5. Mass Meshing
Also referred to as mass SQL injection, this can be 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 can attack a user's computer.
The Most Common Targets
Hackers are interested in various types of computers on the Internet. The following list describes various kinds of targets and their appeal to hackers. [2]
1. Corporate Networks
Corporate computers tend to be heavily fortified so hacking into one has 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 which contain websites. Though 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 usage of wifi, laptops are becoming one of the very hacked devices. Everything an individual visits online can be exposed to an individual using software to "sniff" that connection. The internet site URL, passwords used to log into an on line banking account, Facebook pictures, tweets, and an entire instant message conversation can be exposed. It's the easiest form of hacking since it requires little skill.
4. Tablets and Palm Top devices
Tablets, cellular phones, and other mobile-ready devices are only as popular as laptops have been in wifi hotspots. A hacker in a public hotspot could see a mobile device, along with all data entering and from the jawhorse, in the same way easily as he is able to a laptop.
How You Can Protect Yourself
The easy the fact is that anyone connecting to the Internet is vulnerable to being hacked. Thus, there's a need to be proactive in regards to protecting yourself from such attacks.
