Love At First Click
Or How A Hacker Chooses YOU
With an increase of 38% in web-based attacks during 2015, it’s only natural for you to ask yourself: Am I a potential target? Answer: Do you have a connection to the online world? If yes, then you’re definitely vulnerable.
One in a million
Let’s just make something clear: hackers don’t really care about the small fish, if that’s what you are. They won’t waste their precious ‘hacker time’ if the stake is not worth it. Don’t think about movie version of a hacker. They don’t sit around in front of their computer with their black hoodies on, stalking you.
On the other hand, if you’re an administrator for a top Fortune company, then you should most definitely take into account the possibility of a hack attempt happening any time soon. Why? Your information is valuable.
If the hacker considers that you are worth the effort, he will start his campaign by researching you. He will patiently take the necessary time to find out if there are any weaknesses he can take advantage of. If there are, he’ll find them, don’t worry!
If he can research you, you can research yourself too! It may take some time to learn how to do it, but it’s free and you have nothing to lose. Consider it as being a competitive research into your own business. You’ll be able to draw similar conclusions to those of a hacker, so you will protect those areas in particular at risk.
Perfect match
What are the preferences of a hacker, you ask? You’d think that financial companies and banks are the ones that get all the hackers’ attention, but they also have a soft spot for other types of people and institutions. Let’s see what they also like:
Sports teams
After private conversations between executives at Sony were hacked, many sports teams became really interested in investing in cyber-security
Banks
Banks are the wholly grail for financial customer data, filled with goodies about emails, addresses, credit card info, loans and available money. The most recent event was the attack that took place on HSBC at the end of January.
Healthcare providers
Medical information is increasingly valuable to hackers, since the healthcare industry is not prepared to protect itself from cyber-threats. The switch to electronic records, technological know-how deficiency and poor or lack of investment in cyber-security creates the perfect conditions for hackers to get precious data from the healthcare providers. The 10 biggest cyber-attacks in healthcare in 2015 affected 10,671,626 persons.
Why is medical data so precious, you ask? Because it not only includes names, but also social security numbers, medical history and addresses. This makes identity theft really handy, with a preference to infants because it offers them a clean slate from which hackers can start building false identities. The prediction is that the hacks will increase to such an extent that this year 1 in 3 records will be compromised.
Celebrities
There’s a special charm to hacking a celebrity’s iCloud through your own free tool that takes advantage of an obvious flaw in Apple’s product: guessing user passwords. Apple managed to close the loopholes that permitted this in the first place, but that doesn't mean hackers stopped trying.
Corporation spying
As the FBI director James Comey said in an interview, “There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who've been hacked by the Chinese and those who don’t know they've been hacked by the Chinese.”
Cloud computing services
The Cloud infrastructure is increasingly attractive for hackers, as more companies and organisations are using it to store and transfer their data. About 87% of organisations are using the cloud infrastructure, and the prediction is for a spending increasing $200 billion in 2016. There’s been a 45% increase in attacks against cloud deployments.
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) released at the RSA Conference a report that focuses on the 12 main cloud computing threats for 2016, related to the shared, on-demand nature of cloud computing.
Companies such as Uber and Alibaba have made it to the headlines after having theirusers’ data breached.
Nuclear power plants
If the hacker is up to some serious damage, a power plant is the perfect place to start. Even though power plants are almost always air-gapped, there’s always the option of getting an infected USB into the plant.
Old companies
Outdated security systems that have been ‘passed on’ for years make old companies more vulnerable to cyber-attacks than fresh companies with no budget or experience in cyber-security. This is because of the long usage of computers or IT staff leaving, and letting the new employees unaware of some vulnerabilities.
Cars
While cars are becoming more complex and sophisticated, this also increases the ways in which hackers can access them. This is partially caused by the software updates the car constantly receives. On the other hand, this can also make them more secure if the manufacturers are able to quickly fix the security issues.
Knight in shiny armour
Have no fear! You can get out of this horror date by choosing the right weapon to protect yourself. A safe way in which you can protect your online properties is forgetting all about passwords.
How is this possible? Simple. You switch to multi-factor authentication. This is the perfect solution for you because you don’t have to remember all those annoying passwords any-more, while increasing your cyber-protection.
What’s this knight’s name? UNLOQ. Check it out and see if you’re a match made in heaven!
