Keeping your technology and devices safe is a big deal in today’s world. Yet, there are still people who want to take away your information and cause damage. People who do this is known as black hat hacker. Their initiatives are to steal information, cause damage and compromise privacy (west). They can end up taking your information and making it public or even selling it to others in person or over the dark web.
What tactics do they use?
Black hat hackers have been along for a long time and are more common than usual. According to “40 Stunning Hacking Statistics That Concern Us All in 2019,” there is a cyberattack every 39 seconds (Galov, 2019). A cyber attack is using someone’s computer vulnerabilities against them and getting into their system. To get into the system they use many tactics. One of the most popular techniques they use is bait and switch. When they use this, they buy advertising space on a website. When a user clicks on it it will take them to a website affected with malware. This can lead to infecting and giving unauthorized access to an unknown location (Shekhar, 2018). Secondly is cookie theft. As it may sound innocent, it’s not. Cookies of a browser keep our personal data such as history, usernames, and passwords for different web pages. Once the hacker gets access to your cookie, they can even authenticate themself as you on a browser (Shekhar). Lastly, they have something called ransomware. When a hacker uses this tactic they have the ability to lock up your information and data until someone pays the amount on the screen. Ransomware typically spreads through phishing emails or by unknowingly visiting an infected website (“ransomware”). But no matter what when using either of these ways they can put someone and their information into trouble.
One of the most known black hat hacker incidents
One of the most notorious hackers goes by the name Vladimir Levin. He was a programmer from St Peterburg Russia. In 1995, he found out how to wire transfer money out of the bank’s computer system. After boasting about his findings his colleagues joined him in his plans. Weeks later begin removing $400,000 in divided amounts from the Citibank accounts. He and three other associates were arrested for trying to transfer money from an additional three places he confessed to carrying this out and conspiracy to defraud and in total stole 3.7 million (Kirkham). Just by learning a small amount of information, someone is able to cause trouble for an individual and their data.
How do you prevent from getting hacked?
When talking about hackers, they are just wanting to catch flaws in the system or anything else they can find a way into. Just by doing a few things in everyday life people can reduce the chances of it happening. An excellent tip to use is to make sure a user has a really good and encrypted password or pin. For example, you may not want your Facebook password or your dog’s name. If you do someone may easily be able to guess it. Instead of using a plain password, try a combination of words, symbols, and numbers. Also, try to stay away from reusing the same passwords multiple times (Bushi, 2019). Another is to update your machines and software. Keeping everything updated does not only help eliminate bugs it also fixes flaws in the system and keeps people’s data safe. If they do get into an individual’s system because of a flaw they may end up installing ransomware and they make the owners pay a large fee to decrypt their own data (Symanovich). These are only a few of the ways to protect yourself and your information but there is no 100 percent way to keep yourself protected from cyber-attacks.
Conclusion
In summary, black hat hackers are very smart. They can steal someone’s information and identity and sell it in seconds. Going back to Vladimir Levin, it's not only computers that can be hacked into. It is also phone lines or any kind of electronics. The only thing to stop this is to protect and be warned about internet safety and the correct way to keep someone’s info private. With many people going to school for an ethical hacker, there will always be other people on the other side of the spectrum.
References
Bushi, Ruth. “33 Tips to Avoid Getting Hacked.” Save the Student, 27 Mar. 2019, https://www.savethestudent.org/extra-guides/32-ways-avoid-cyber-hacked.html.
Galov, Nick. “40 Stunning Hacking Statistics That Concern Us All in 2019.” Hosting Tribunal, Hosting Tribunal, 26 Nov. 2019, https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/hacking-statistics/#gref.
Kirkham, Kelly. “Historic Hacks: Vladimir Levin.” VPS.NET Cloud Server Blog | VPS.NET
Historic Hacks: Vladimir Levin - VPS.NET Cloud Server Blog | VPS.NET, https://www.vps.net/blog/historic-hacks-vladimir-levin/.
“Ransomware.” CISA, https://www.us-cert.gov/Ransomware
Shekhar, Amar. “Top 10 Common Hacking Techniques You Should Know About.” Fossbytes, 10 Jan. 2018, https://fossbytes.com/hacking-techniques/.
Symanovich, Steve. “5 Reasons Why General Software Updates and Patches Are Important.” Official Site, https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-how-to-the-importance-of-general-software-updates-and-patches.html.
West, Jill, et al. Network Guide to Networks 8th Bundle. Cengage, https://ebooks.cengage.com/#!/reader/4259c37d-2adb-48ad-be88-9af44e6c65d2/page/page-d262a092-34f6-4a7b-a018-d61a6a5601a7.