Top Tricks Cybercriminals Use to Hack Your Computer Network

by Roy Richardson

published Aug 13, 2018 12:00 AM

There’s no denying that cybercrime is on the rise. All it takes is a glance at a few big news stories from the past couple of years:

  • Yahoo coughed exposed information on 3 billion users due to a data breach
  • Equifax gave up the information of over 148 million people due to a surgical hacker attack
  • Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal app exposed 150 million records of its user base
  • Last May, over 57,000 infections spread from a single ransomware source across 99 separate countries, with damage reaching everything from hospitals and businesses to vital public utilities like the German railway network.
  • Many high-profile celebrities have had their phone’s picture feeds hacked and had to deal with the scandal of some maliciously leaked photographs, some of which they’d deleted years before?

According to a 247WallSt.com Marketwatch Report, there were a total of 686 global data breaches that resulted in 1.46 billion records being exposed during the first three months of 2018!

However, it’s also important to stay informed.

Here are a few of the sneakiest and most common tricks thieves use to snatch your vital data:

Social Engineering Hacking
Though it can cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars and do just as much damage as its digital counterparts, Social Engineering doesn’t require a single line of code. Instead, they find weaknesses in the “human network” of a business. For example, skilled scammers can call your business’s cell phone provider, posing as the CEO’s spouse and convince the customer service rep to hand over passwords, Social Security numbers, and sensitive personal information. Many IT departments are susceptible to this same scam.

E-mail Phishing
E-mail Phishing, which hijacks (or fabricates) an e-mail account with trusted authority and sends users an e-mail requesting they click a particular link. Maybe the e-mail looks like it’s from the service department of your company’s time-tracking software, seeking to remedy an error. But when the link is clicked, ransomware or other malware spreads like wildfire through the system.

Brute-Force Password Attacks or Password Guessing
Brute-Force Password Attacks or Password Guessing are just what they sound like. Either a hacker uses a software that runs through potential keys ad infinitum.

Fault Injection
Fault Injection is a different story, usually only used by the most dedicated, sophisticated hackers around the world. Cyber thieves will use a complicated software to scan the source code of their internal software or network, noting every potential weak point in the system.

How to Protect Yourself Against These Threats
As the progress of technology marches on, so do the techniques and software used by hackers.

The only way to be truly secure is by utilizing bleeding-edge security solutions to ensure you stay ahead of the breakneck developments in hacker technology.

Need Help Securing Your Business IT?
Aurora InfoTech is a premier managed services provider specializing in both network security and information technology. Give us a call today at (407) 995-6766 to discuss your network security needs and how best we can secure your business IT network.

Roy Richardson

Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Roy Richardson is a co-founder, Managing Partner, and CTO of Aurora InfoTech LLC, a leading Cybersecurity & IT consulting firm in Orlando, Florida.

Tags:
Cybercrime Awareness, Digital Safety, Cyber Threats

Post by Roy Richardson
Aug 13, 2018 12:00 AM